Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Quoting

MLA Works Cited Page -- Step by Step

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 7 (Oct. 9)

Greetings!

We had a good, productive class today.  We started the class with a Quick Write.  Instead of doing ACT/SAT essay prompts, I gave them some prompts for brainstorming college application essays.  We took some time to discuss the value of these essays and how they play a role in the application process.  Because these are older students, I often take time in this class to talk about some of the writing aspects of the college search process.

Following our Quick Write, we discussed the syllabus, which I altered in order to give them more time for the next rough draft.  Below is the an updated plan:  

Class	Discuss	Hand In
Week 7	Rough Draft #1 MLA citations	Rough Draft #1
Week 8	Peer Edits	Rough Draft #1 (extra copy)
Week 9	Works Cited page	Peer Edit
Week 10	Revising & Editing	Works Cited Draft
Week 11	Giving Presentations	Rough Draft #2
Week 12	MLA formatting	Presentation Plan
Week 13	Presentations	Rough Draft #3 (opt)
Week 14	Presentations	Final Draft
Week 15	Presentations	Final Draft

In class, we watched a video about MLA citations, MLA Tutorial #6,  This is part of a series, which might be helpful to watch if any students have questions or are unclear about to do in-text citations or Works Cited pages:

MLA Tutorial #1 -- Basic Paper Formatting

MLA Tutorial #2 -- Basic Citation Format

MLA Tutorial #3 -- Works Cited Page Formatting

MLA Tutorial #4 -- Web Citation

MLA Tutorial #5 -- Citing Research

MLA Tutorial #6 -- In-Text Citation

I also  showed them one of the online resources for putting together the entry that would be on a Works Cited page.  EasyBib is one of several useful sites.

I have some writing handbooks available for the students that I will bring to class next week.  Most students prefer to use online sources for the specifics of formatting.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Continue to work on your papers, researching and writing

-- Bring an extra rough draft to class for the peer edits

This Week's Blogs:

Class Notes

MLA Style Guide

Helpful Citation Sites

MLA & Microsoft Word

How to Avoid Plagiarism

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 6 (Oct. 2)

Greetings!

We had a good class yesterday.  We're progressing nicely through the research writing process.  I divided the class into 3 groups to discuss 3 different ACT/SAT essay prompts:

1.  In this country, most people see and hear advertising for many different products every day.  Some people think advertising is useful because it provides important information about many different products. Other people think advertising is not useful because it tries to persuade people to buy products they do not really need. In your opinion, does advertising serve a useful purpose in our society?

In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either one of the two points of view given, or you may present a different point of view on the question. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

2.  In some high schools, students are required to complete a certain number of community service hours prior to graduation. Some people think community service is a good requirement because they think students will benefit from this experience. Other people think schools should not require community service because students will resent the requirement and, as a result, will not benefit from the experience. In your opinion, should high schools require students to complete a certain number of hours of community service?

In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either one of the two points of view given, or you may present a different point of view on the question. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

7.  Educators debate extending high school to five years because of increasing demands on students from employers and colleges to participate in extracurricular activities and community service in addition to having high grades. Some educators support extending high school to five years because they think students need more time to achieve all that is expected of them. Other educators do not support extending high school to five years; they think that students would lose interest in school and that attendance would drop in the fifth year. In your opinion, should high school be extended to five years?

The small groups then presented their ideas about important points and a potential outline for the essay.

Following the test prep work, we discussed the informal and detailed outlines, choosing sources, principles about quoting and citing sources.  The detailed outlines were due this week.  Those who didn't have them ready for class time should get them in sometime this weekend.

The first rough draft is due next week.  With this rough draft, I will be looking for content and organization.  If they don't feel they have enough information, they should write using what they have.  It's easy to feel overwhelmed at this point, but I encourage the students to just start writing, even if they don't feel they are ready to put together their research papers.

I mentioned to them that I have some resources for citing sources.  Below are some links from previous Writing 3 classes.  I've also attached some other documents that will be helpful.  An important reminder:  since we only meet once a week, most of the work that students need to do is between classes.  

I will be sending another e-mail with more attachments regarding citing your resources.

Next week we will discuss  citations and the peer edit.

Assignments for Next Week:  

-- Rough Draft #1

Helpful Links for this Week:

Class Notes

MLA Guide from Purdue OWL

Helpful MLA Citation sites

Another Helpful Web Resource

Have a great weekend.  Stay warm and dry!

Mrs. Prichard

Week 3 Class Notes -- Week 9 (October 24)

Greetings!

We had a productive class this week.  We were glad to have Ben and Christi back with us after their ministry trip.  

We're at a point where the instruction of the first part of the semester is to be put into practice.  Last week the students handed in Rough Drafts #1.  They had also given a copy of their papers to a classmate for a Peer Edit.  As I reviewed this round of rough drafts, I was looking primarily at content and organization.  (Though I couldn't help at times making a few grammar-related marks.)  The value of doing peer evaluations is two-fold:  another pair of eyes gives another perspective; and looking carefully at another's paper actually helps writers get clarity on their own papers.  For next week, I would like each student to do a Reverse Outline.  This is an outline that they write after they've written a paper.  It helps them to see if they actually wrote what they intended to write.  Sometimes, those detailed outlines that we compose before writing don't seem to work as we're writing, and we make adjustments.  This exercise will help them get another look at their organization.

We looked at bit at the MLA formatting guidelines.  I'm attaching another copy of this handout.  It is imperative that they read this and know what is required for their paper.  It has information about the in-text citations and the Works Cited page.  I took most of this information from the Purdue OWL page which is a wealth of information.  

Assignments for Next Week:

--- Reverse Outline of Rough Draft #1

--- Works Cited Rough Draft #1

--- Read the blog entries  or handouts about Revising the Rough Draft and Rough Draft #2

(Note:  Rough Draft #2 is due on Week 12 -- November 14)

This Week's Blogs:

-- Class Notes

-- MLA Guide

-- Peer Edit Information

-- Revising the Rough Draft

-- Rough Draft #2

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

MLA Guide (from Purdue OWL)

MLA STYLE GUIDE

The Purdue OWL. Purdue U Writing Lab, 2010. Web. September 4, 2013.

General Guidelines

• Type your paper on a computer and print it out on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper.
• Double-space the text of your paper, and use a legible font (e.g. Times New Roman). Whatever font you choose, MLA recommends that the regular and italics type styles contrast enough that they are recognizable one from another. The font size should be 12 pt.
• Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks (unless otherwise instructed by your instructor).
• Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on all sides.
• Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch from the left margin. MLA recommends that you use the Tab key as opposed to pushing the Space Bar five times.
• Create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor may ask that you omit the number on your first page. Always follow your instructor's guidelines.)
• Use italics throughout your essay for the titles of longer works and, only when absolutely necessary, providing emphasis.
• If you have any endnotes, include them on a separate page before your Works Cited page. Entitle the section Notes (centered, unformatted).

Formatting the First Page of Your Paper

• Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested.
• In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.
• Double space again and center the title. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks; write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters.
• Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Morality Play; Human Weariness in "After Apple Picking"
• Double space between the title and the first line of the text.
• Create a header in the upper right-hand corner that includes your last name, followed by a space with a page number; number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor or other readers may ask that you omit last name/page number header on your first page. Always follow instructor guidelines.)

CITATION GUIDELINES

Basic in-text citation rules

In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what is known as parenthetical citation. This method involves placing relevant source information in parentheses after a quote or a paraphrase.

General Guidelines

• The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1.) upon the source medium (e.g. Print, Web, DVD) and (2.) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited (bibliography) page.
• Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text, must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry in the Works Cited List.

In-text citations: Author-page style

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263). 

Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. London: Oxford U.P., 1967. Print.

In-text citations for print sources with known author

For Print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as "symbol-using animals" (3).

Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry in the Works Cited:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: U of California P, 1966. Print.

In-text citations for print sources with no known author

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number.

We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has "more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change . . ." ("Impact of Global Warming" 6).

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title of the article appears in the parenthetical citation which corresponds to the full name of the article which appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:

"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs. 1999. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.

We'll learn how to make a Works Cited page in a bit, but right now it's important to know that parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

Author-page citation for classic and literary works with multiple editions

Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work like Marx and Engels's The Communist Manifesto. In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:

Marx and Engels described human history as marked by class struggles (79; ch. 1).

Citing authors with same last names

Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:

Although some medical ethicists claim that cloning will lead to designer children (R. Miller 12), others note that the advantages for medical research outweigh this consideration (A. Miller 46).

Citing a work by multiple authors

For a source with three or fewer authors, list the authors' last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:

Smith, Yang, and Moore argue that tougher gun control is not needed in the United States (76).

The authors state "Tighter gun control in the United States erodes Second Amendment rights" (Smith, Yang, and Moore 76).

For a source with more than three authors, use the work's bibliographic information as a guide for your citation. Provide the first author's last name followed by et al. or list all the last names.

Jones et al. counter Smith, Yang, and Moore's argument by noting that the current spike in gun violence in America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (4).

Or

Legal experts counter Smith, Yang, and Moore's argument by noting that the current spike in gun violence in America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (Jones et al. 4).

Or

Jones, Driscoll, Ackerson, and Bell counter Smith, Yang, and Moore's argument by noting that the current spike in gun violence in America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (4).

Citing multiple works by the same author

If you cite more than one work by a particular author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author:

Lightenor has argued that computers are not useful tools for small children ("Too Soon" 38), though he has acknowledged elsewhere that early exposure to computer games does lead to better small motor skill development in a child's second and third year ("Hand-Eye Development" 17).

Citing two books by the same author:

Murray states that writing is "a process" that "varies with our thinking style" (Write to Learn 6). Additionally, Murray argues that the purpose of writing is to "carry ideas and information from the mind of one person into the mind of another" (A Writer Teaches Writing 3).

Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, you would format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, followed, when appropriate, by page numbers:

Visual studies, because it is such a new discipline, may be "too easy" (Elkins, "Visual Studies" 63).

Citing multivolume works

If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)

. . . as Quintilian wrote in Institutio Oratoria (1: 14-17).

Citing the Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter and verse. For example:

Ezekiel saw "what seemed to be four living creatures," each with faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle (New Jerusalem Bible, Ezek. 1.5-10).

If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation.

Citing indirect sources

Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited in another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:

Ravitch argues that high schools are pressured to act as "social service centers, and they don't do that well" (qtd. in Weisman 259).

Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source.

Citing non-print or sources from the Internet

With more and more scholarly work being posted on the Internet, you may have to cite research you have completed in virtual environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's Evaluating Sources of Information resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source in your Works Cited.

Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers, but often, these sorts of entries do not require any sort of parenthetical citation at all. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:

• Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
• You do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
• Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, likeCNN.com or Forbes.com as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Miscellaneous non-print sources

Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo stars Herzog's long-time film partner, Klaus Kinski. During the shooting of Fitzcarraldo, Herzog and Kinski were often at odds, but their explosive relationship fostered a memorable and influential film.

During the presentation, Jane Yates stated that invention and pre-writing are areas of rhetoric that need more attention.

In the two examples above “Herzog” from the first entry and “Yates” from the second lead the reader to the first item each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:

Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo. Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982. Film.

Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Presentation.

Electronic sources

One online film critic stated that Fitzcarraldo is "...a beautiful and terrifying critique of obsession and colonialism" (Garcia, “Herzog: a Life”).

The Purdue OWL is accessed by millions of users every year. Its "MLA Formatting and Style Guide" is one of the most popular resources (Stolley et al.).

In the first example, the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below). In the second example, “Stolley et al.” in the parenthetical citation gives the reader an author name followed by the abbreviation “et al.,” meaning, “and others,” for the article “MLA Formatting and Style Guide.” Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:

Garcia, Elizabeth. "Herzog: a Life." Online Film Critics Corner. The Film School of New Hampshire, 2 May 2002. Web. 8 Jan. 2009.

Stolley, Karl, et al. "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The OWL at Purdue. 10 May 2006. Purdue University Writing Lab. 12 May 2006.

Multiple citations

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:

. . . as has been discussed elsewhere (Burke 3; Dewey 21).

When a citation is not needed

Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations or common knowledge. Remember, this is a rhetorical choice, based on audience. If you're writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, they'll have different expectations of what constitutes common knowledge.

MLA Formatting Quotations

When you directly quote the works of others in your paper, you will format quotations differently depending on their length. Below are some basic guidelines for incorporating quotations into your paper. Please note that all pages in MLA should be double-spaced.

Short quotations

To indicate short quotations (fewer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author and specific page citation (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the text, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.

For example, when quoting short passages of prose, use the following examples:

According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree.

According to Foulkes's study, dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (184).

Is it possible that dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184)?

When short (fewer than three lines of verse) quotations from poetry, mark breaks in short quotations of verse with a slash, ( / ), at the end of each line of verse (a space should precede and follow the slash).

Cullen concludes, "Of all the things that happened there / That's all I remember" (11-12).

Long quotations

For quotations that are more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse, place quotations in a free-standing block of text and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented one inch from the left margin; maintain double-spacing. Only indent the first line of the quotation by an additional quarter inch if you are citing multiple paragraphs. Your parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark. When quoting verse, maintain original line breaks. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your essay.)

For example, when citing more than four lines of prose, use the following examples:

Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her narration:

They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

When citing long sections (more than three lines) of poetry, keep formatting as close to the original as possible.

In his poem "My Papa's Waltz," Theodore Roethke explores his childhood with his father:

The whiskey on your breath 
Could make a small boy dizzy; 
But I hung on like death: 
Such waltzing was not easy. 
We Romped until the pans 
Slid from the kitchen shelf; 
My mother's countenance 
Could not unfrown itself. (quoted in Shrodes, Finestone, Shugrue 202)

When citing two or more paragraphs, use block quotation format, even if the passage from the paragraphs is less than four lines. Indent the first line of each quoted paragraph an extra quarter inch.

In "American Origins of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Movement," David Russell argues:

   Writing has been an issue in American secondary and higher education since papers and examinations came into wide use in the 1870s, eventually driving out formal recitation and oral examination. . . .
   From its birth in the late nineteenth century, progressive education has wrestled with the conflict within industrial society between pressure to increase specialization of knowledge and of professional work (upholding disciplinary standards) and pressure to integrate more fully an ever-widerning number of citizes into intellectually meaningful activity within mass society (promoting social equity). . . . (3)

Adding or omitting words in quotations

If you add a word or words in a quotation, you should put brackets around the words to indicate that they are not part of the original text.

Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states, "some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning every rumor or tale" (78).

If you omit a word or words from a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word or words by using ellipsis marks, which are three periods ( . . . ) preceded and followed by a space. For example:

In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that "some individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale . . . and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs" (78).

Please note that brackets are not needed around ellipses unless adding brackets would clarify your use of ellipses.

When omitting words from poetry quotations, use a standard three-period ellipses; however, when omitting one or more full lines of poetry, space several periods to about the length of a complete line in the poem:

                      These beauteous forms, 
Through a long absence, have not been to me 
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart; 
And passing even into my purer mind, 
With tranquil restoration . . . (22-24, 28-30)

MLA Works Cited Page: Basic Format

According to MLA style, you must have a Works Cited page at the end of your research paper. All entries in the Works Cited page must correspond to the works cited in your main text.

Basic rules

• Begin your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your research paper. It should have the same one-inch margins and last name, page number header as the rest of your paper.
• Label the page Works Cited (do not italicize the words Works Cited or put them in quotation marks) and center the words Works Cited at the top of the page.
• Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries.
• Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations by 0.5 inches to create a hanging indent.
• List page numbers of sources efficiently, when needed. If you refer to a journal article that appeared on pages 225 through 250, list the page numbers on your Works Cited page as 225-50. Note that MLA style uses a hyphen in a span of pages.

Additional basic rules new to MLA 2009

     New to MLA 2009:

• For every entry, you must determine the Medium of Publication. Most entries will likely be listed as Print or Web sources, but other possibilities may include Film, CD-ROM, or DVD.
• Writers are no longer required to provide URLs for Web entries. However, if your instructor or publisher insists on them, include them in angle brackets after the entry and end with a period. For long URLs, break lines only at slashes.
• If you're citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print form but that you retrieved from an online database, you should type the online database name in italics. You do not need to provide subscription information in addition to the database name.

Capitalization and punctuation

• Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc, but do not capitalize articles (the, an), prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle: Gone with the Wind, The Art of War, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
• New to MLA 2009: Use italics (instead of underlining) for titles of larger works (books, magazines) and quotation marks for titles of shorter works (poems, articles)

Listing author names

Entries are listed alphabetically by the author's last name (or, for entire edited collections, editor names). Author names are written last name first; middle names or middle initials follow the first name:

Burke, Kenneth

Levy, David M.

Wallace, David Foster

Do not list titles (Dr., Sir, Saint, etc.) or degrees (PhD, MA, DDS, etc.) with names. A book listing an author named "John Bigbrain, PhD" appears simply as "Bigbrain, John"; do, however, include suffixes like "Jr." or "II." Putting it all together, a work by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be cited as "King, Martin Luther, Jr.," with the suffix following the first or middle name and a comma.

More than one work by an author

If you have cited more than one work by a particular author, order the entries alphabetically by title, and use three hyphens in place of the author's name for every entry after the first:

Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. [...]

---. A Rhetoric of Motives. [...]

When an author or collection editor appears both as the sole author of a text and as the first author of a group, list solo-author entries first:

Heller, Steven, ed. The Education of an E-Designer. 

Heller, Steven and Karen Pomeroy. Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design.

Work with no known author

Alphabetize works with no known author by their title; use a shortened version of the title in the parenthetical citations in your paper. In this case, Boring Postcards USA has no known author:

Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulations. [...]

Boring Postcards USA. [...]

Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. [...]

Writing 3 Class Notes -- October 24

Greetings!

We had a good and productive class this week.  This is a hard-working group of students!

We've been working hard on ACT/SAT writing test questions, so we took a break for something more light-hearted.  For our Quick Write this week, we used cards from a game entitled "Man Bites Dog."  Each student got 6 cards; a noun, adjective, adverb, or verb was on each card.  They object of the game is to develop a headline using those words.  For our writing exercise, they not only created headlines, but wrote a news story to go with it. Once again, we had some creative endeavors.  I love those first minutes of class when their heads are bent down towards their papers, and their pens or pencils are working quickly.

We discussed how the students are progressing on their research papers.  I think it's helpful to do this as a group.  Many times one student asks a question that others are wondering about, too.  Most of them are needing to do more research and increase the quantity of material which they are presenting in their papers.  As I read through the rough drafts last week, I gave some ideas for expansion of their topic.

Re-organizing is also a common task at this point.  Thanks to computers and word processing software, editing and reformatting does not mean having to re-type the entire paper.  Many parents remember the days of typewriters, carbon paper, and "white out."  Do you think we can convince our children that they have it so much easier?

As a class we brainstormed a bit about what the presentation portion of their work could look like.  Some topics may lend themselves more easily to this than others.  Their presentation needs to have two components:  an oral presentation and a visual aspect.  For the oral presentation, we discussed that they can either give the primary points of their paper or choose one section that is representative of the whole.  For the visual part, they can bring in charts, maps, poster, pictures, etc.  They can also put together a PowerPoint presentation.

We also looked at some examples of MLA formating.  On the newest version of Microsoft Word, the reference dropdown menu gives you boxes to fill in and then formats it according to the MLA styling for you. (Again, kids these days have it so much easier than we had it.)  If you're working with another word processing software, a handbook will give the exact formatting.  Another help is the Son of Citation website.  Web pages can be confusing to cite; this site is especially helpful for that.  Some college professors like this website and encourage their students to use it.  Others consider it "cheating."  Since my goal is to have students learn this format, they can use it .... but there may be a test to see if they really know it!

Next week we'll discuss some specifics regarding writing styles and editing paragraphs and sentences.

Assignments for next week:

-- Presentation plan --- something to hand in!

-- Continue working on the rough draft

Keep up the good work!

Mrs. Prichard

Helpful Blog Entries:

This week's blog

Citing Sources

Plagiarism 

Helpful MLA Websites

Helpful MLA Citation Sites

Research papers are challenging.  Not only are you required to come up with an original, thought-provoking thesis, but you have to research primary and secondary sources for enough information to back up your position.  And on top of that, you need to use your sources with integrity and give credit to those who are experts on your topic.  And if that's not enough, you need to follow specific guidelines for letting your reader know where you found this information.  Whew!!

Below is a list of helpful websites that will help with the MLA format.

Son of Citation Machine:  This website does the formating for you.  Type in the essential information, click on "Make Citation" and it gives you the entry that you can copy and paste into your paper.  Some college professors encourage their students to use this so that they have the correct format.  Others consider it cheating and the lazy student's way out.  I don't mind if students use it because I feel it's part of the learning process.

Easy Bib:  This site is similar to Son of Citation.  Like the above site, I think these are especially helpful with non-traditional sources.  Citing books with one author is not difficult.  Other print and non-print forms are challenging.

Purdue OWL:  One of my favorite writing resources is the Purdue Online Writing Lab.  If you go to the homepage, you will find just about any topic related to writing essays.

MLA formating videocast:  This Youtube video helps students format their papers.  It refers to Microsoft Word 2007. Some students already know a lot about using Word; others have parents who can help.  This is a helpful video if this information is needed.

MLA Works Cited videocast:  Another Purdue OWL video specific to the Works Cited page.

Durham College MLA style:  This is a longer video, but it's very complete!  In fact, I'd really like everyone to take the 30 minutes and give this video a careful "listen."

These are only a few websites.  If you need more help, google "MLA citation," and you will find a plethora of options.