RESEARCH AND MLA FORMATTING

MLA Formatting

Purpose: to help you cite sources What to do: EVERYTIME you go to a

website or look in a book, write down the following Title, Author, Publishing place and Date,

Company, Web Address You will need this information to properly

CITE your SOURCES

Common Questions

What if I forget… You are plagiarizing. Even accidentally, it is still

plagiarizing. Avoid this and failure by citing your sources.

What if I can’t find…. You may not be able to find ALL of the information.

Get as much as you can so I can find your sources. What if I copy something, but still cite the source

… Still plagiarizing, unless it is in quotes. Remember,

even if you paraphrase, you still have to cite the source.

How to cite a source

Book Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place

of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.

Example: Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New

York: Putnam Publishing Group, 1954. Print.

How to Cite a Source

An Entire Website Editor, author, or compiler name (if

available). Name of Site. Version number. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available). Medium of publication. Date of access.

The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2008.

How to Cite a Source

An Image Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV.

1800. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Museo National del Prado. Web. 22 May 2006.

An Article Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the

Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites. A List Apart Mag., 16 Aug. 2002. Web. 4 May 2009.

How to Cite A source

In Class Notes Quintanar, Jocelyn. “Research and MLA

Formatting." Skyview High School. SkyView High School, Rm 3, Tucson, AZ. 25 October 2011.Inclass Lecture.

Review

Author Lastname, First Name FIRST Then The Title Then the Company (If Applicable) Place and Date Published Medium (Print, Web or Lecture Usually) ALSO

DATE IS ALWAYS Day, MONTH SPELLED OUT, YEAR 24 October 2011

Practice.

1 Person per group, get any book off of the bookshelf and for your group to cite (NOT LOTF).

An article called “Clinton Warns Pakistan” from msnbc.com that was published on October 20th

Still Confused?

Citationmachine.net

Type in all of the information, and it will do it for you…

Now you have no excuses

In text Citations

After you use information from a source, you must cite it in text.

At the end of a sentence, you END QUOTE, the (Lastname, Page #).

Example: “I got the conch” (Golding, 42).

In Text Citations

For a Website:

Put the information you can find. Either Author or title.

“ (Clinton Warns Pakistan).

**Citation Machine will tell you what to put for this as well**

Things to remember

Your in-text citations should match the works cited page. Always put the first item in your citation as the in text citation.

• Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Putnam Publishing Group, 1954. Print. (Golding, 42).

The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2008. (The Purdue OWL Family of Sites).

Period is ALWAYS After the CITATION!!!!!

Works Cited Page

In Alphabetical Order Indent the bottom lines of text

The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2008.

Do not NUMBER!

General MLA Formatting Tips “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 Times New

Roman) The font size should be 12 pt. Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks. 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. Use the TAB key top get the proper indent. 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.

Use italics throughout your essay for the titles of longer works and, only when absolutely necessary, providing emphasis” (The Purdue OWL Family of Sites).

First Page of Paper

“In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date.

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” (The Purdue OWL Family of Sites).

General Research strategies

Start with Google. Stay away from Wikipedia!!! Try to get Unbiased sources (Stay away

from News Outlets**) Ask for help!! Use the writing process to help get you

started, brainstorm and prewrite

PIE

POINT Make a point (for this paper, you will take a side

on the controversy) ILLUSTRATE

Show me what you are talking about by finding an article and a “quote” that proves your point

EXPLANATION Give a through explanation of the illustration and

how it applies to the point. This should be how ALL of your paragraphs

are formatted.

Works Cited

The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 20 October 2011