Research paper
Sample MLA Research Papers
Formatting is extremely important for your research paper. In this class, we will use the MLA format of writing.
Two example papers can be found at https://style.mla.org/files/2016/11/DeSouza_paper_final.pdf
Please note the following things (these have been major point deductions in past classes):
· All spacing between lines is the same distance from the beginning of the paper to the end of the paper. There are no large chucks of white space to separate the title, the paragraphs, the quoted material, etc.
· Pay special attention to the citations. Correct citing is vitally important to your paper. First, it keeps you safe from claims of plagiarism. Accidental or intentional plagiarism is treated as the same. The paper gets a zero, and in almost all cases, this zero will cause you to fail the overall class. Second, it makes it easy to verify your research. Third, it is short enough to not hinder the overall flow of your essay. I will be uploading more information about citing to Blackboard during the first week of class.
· The Works Cited begins on its own new page, even if you did not fill up all of the page before it. You should also know that the Works Cited page does not count as a page toward the page length requirements of the paper. In other words, your essays must be 10 pages plus a Works Cited.
· Works Cited vary in length, but should only include the sources you actually quoted, paraphrased or summarized in your paper.
· Pay very close attention to your Works Cited page. Notice the first line is typed as normal, but the second, and all following lines of a citation, are indented. In other words, the lines are formatted exactly as I have this bullet point.
· There are only four pieces of information in your heading. Your name, my name, the course name and the date the essay is due. You may use traditional dating instead of the military dating that is used in one of the papers.
· Your essay must contain a title. Don’t waste time coming up with something clever. Just give it a title and go.
· Do not use special fonts, bold, underline, italics, all caps, or any other creative forms of typesetting in your paper unless MLA rules call for it. Often times, students put something in all caps or underline it to stress its importance. This is not an acceptable way to show emphasis according to MLA.
· When in doubt, ask. Feel free to email me any questions you have about formatting. These kinds of questions are best asked via email because I will need to open up your Word, Google Doc, or PDF to see exactly what you have done versus what should be done.
· There is a tutoring center in the library that is free and is more than happy to help you with your paper.