MLA Format work

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MLA_format-work/MLA Documentation Part One1.docx

Three general things to keep in mind about MLA documentation:

1. It is not optional! You don’t have to document your outside sources perfectly, but you do have to document them. If you do not use MLA documentation in your Sourced Argument Paper, I have to fail that paper.

2. Question: What exactly needs to be documented?

Answer: Anything that did not originate in your own mind. Any ideas, facts, stories, arguments, evidence, jokes, etc. You must document outside information whether you have quoted it or SUMMARIZED it.

3. Do not memorize MLA. We will study the process. We will not be memorizing the little details.

Before you continue, please open the pdf file entitled “Borchers”. This is a sample research paper we will use to study MLA documentation and, later, to study how to organize your Sourced Argument Paper.

Notice that there are two parts of MLA documentation. In the first paragraph, about two thirds of the way down, you will see the following citation:

(Donaldson 210)

This is called the In Text Citation. We will study the In Text Citation in this lecture. We will study the second part of MLA documentation – the Works Cited page – in the next lecture.

Whenever you use outside information in your paper, you will need to provide an In Text Citation.

In Text Citations have the following functions:

1. To clearly demonstrate WHERE in your paper you have used outside information. There are two options:

A. Source identified in parenthesis = outside information precedes the parenthesis. Look at the sentence containing the Donaldson citation again:

“In a Newsweek study of fifty prominent political writers, each one predicted Truman’s defeat, and Time correspondents declared that Dewey would carry 39 of 48 states (Donaldson 210).”

Because the source, the author Donaldson, is identified in parenthesis, that means the outside information comes before the citation.

B. Source identified in Signal Phrase = outside information follows the signal phrase. A Signal Phrase is when you identify the source in the sentence itself rather than in parenthesis. Look at the last sentence in the first paragraph:

“As historian Robert H. Ferrell observes, even Truman’s wife, Bess, thought he would be beaten (270).”

Because the source, the author Ferrell, is identified in a Signal Phrase, that means the outside information follows the Signal Phrase.

2. To efficiently identify the source of the outside information.

We will practice how to do this in the “Exercise due April 8th.”

3. To include page numbers, when page numbers are available.

Again, we will practice how to do this in the “Exercise due April 8th.”

At this point, you should NOT feel like an expert at In Text Citation, but you should have a general idea about how In Text Citations work and what they are for. If not, please go back over this page again while looking closely at the Borchers paper. Take your time. Work your way through this page step by step until you have a better understanding of In Text Citations.

Now, you are ready to read the MLA lecture, Part Two.

MLA_format-work/MLA documentation Part Two.docx

MLA documentation Part Two

In the last lecture we looked at the first part of MLA documentation – The In Text Citation.

This time we will briefly look at the Second part of MLA documentation – The Works Cited page.

Before you continue, please open the pdf file entitled “Borchers.”

Scroll down to pages eight and nine to find an example of the Works Cited page.

There are two things to note about the Works Cited page:

1. The entries provide complete bibliographical information for each outside source used in the paper.

For example, the very first entry corresponds to the In Text Citation we looked at last time. Whereas the In Text Citation listed the author’s last name and the page number – (Donaldson 210) – the Works Cited entry provides all the additional information your reader would need to find and use that source in their own research.

There are several tools you can use to determine what should be included in the Works Cited entry. You can use the link provided under “Content” entitled “Purdue Owl Site for MLA documentation.”

You can use EZ Bib.

The best approach, however, is to simply copy and paste from the Citation Tool in the database you are using to do your research. We did this already in the “Assignment due April 1st.”

2. There are several formatting requirements for the Works Cited page:

a. The words “Works Cited” should be centered at the top of the page.

b. The entries need to be in alphabetical order.

c. The page is evenly double spaced throughout. Do not create single spaced entries with double space between them.

d. Entries should be hanging indented – the first line of each entry starts at the margin, each subsequent line of the entry should come in 5 spaces. Both Microsoft Word and Google Docs will do this for you. A quick Google search will produce directions.

You are now ready to complete the “Exercise due April 8th.”

MLA_format-work/MLA Exercise.docx

MLA Exercise

· Do not attempt this exercise until you have carefully read the Lectures on MLA documentation, Parts One and Two

In Text Citations

Original passage: “Ninety percent of all attacks on people can be attributed to the Boston Terrier.”

This passage appears in a book entitled The Dangers of Small Dogs, written by Clark Kent, published in 2018. There are 378 total pages. The passage appears on page 19.

1. Citing this passage, as a quote, with a Signal Phrase would look as follows:

Kent claims “Ninety percent of all attacks on people can be attributed to the Boston Terrier” (19).

Rewrite the quote below and provide a correct In Text Citation using parenthesis rather than a Signal Phrase:

2. If we summarize the same passage, we must also cite (You must always cite any summarized information). Citing the summary using parenthesis would look as follows:

Boston Terriers are responsible for the vast majority of dog bites (Kent 19).

Rewrite the summary below and provide a correct In Text Citation using a Signal Phrase rather than parenthesis:

Original passage: “Yet rather than put hundreds of thousands of people out of work, the widespread adoption of the automobile made both delivery and passenger services cheaper and more commonplace…”

This passage appears in an article entitled “Automation Liberates Both Business Owners and Workers”, written by David Freddoso, published in 2019. Because the article appears in the database Opposing Viewpoints in Context, there are no page numbers provided.

If no page numbers are provided, we simply do not provide page numbers, paragraph numbers, dates, or anything else. So, citing this passage, as a quote, using a Signal Phrase would look as follows.

Freddoso claims “Yet rather than put hundreds of thousands of people out of work, the widespread adoption of the automobile made both delivery and passenger services cheaper and more commonplace…”

Rewrite the quote below and provide a correct In Text Citation using parenthesis rather than a Signal Phrase:

Original Passage: “One study estimated that a person’s risk of suicide in California in the first week after a gun purchase is fifty-seven times the rate in the general population.”

This passage appears in an article entitled “Libertarian Gun Control”, written by Ian Ayres and Frederick E. Vars, published in 2019. The article, accessed through the database Academic Search Complete, appears as a pdf file that captures pages 921- 974 of the journal entitled University of Pennsylvania Law Review. The passage appears on page 925.

4. As mentioned previously, we must cite the passage whether we summarize or quote it. Citing this passage, as a summary, using a Signal Phrase with two authors and page number provided would look as follows:

Ayres and Vars claim data from California suggests a fifty seven percent increase in the chances of suicide for those who have recently purchased a firearm (925).

Note: Ayres comes first, NOT BECAUSE OF ALPHABETICAL ORDER, BUT BECAUSE OF THE ORDER IN WHICH THE AUTHORS’ NAMES APPEAR IN THE ORIGINAL. DON’T CHANGE AUTHOR ORDER WITHIN THE CITATION.

Rewrite the summary below and provide a correct In Text Citation using parenthesis rather than a Signal Phrase:

Additional Note: For three or more authors, just list the first author’s last name, followed by et al. in both the In Text Citation and the Works Cited page. Example:

Clark, et al. claim ….

Original passage: “You can achieve super health results by combining certain superfoods together.”

This passage occurs in an article entitled “Superfoods Have Significant Health Benefits”, published 2016. The article was accessed in Opposing Viewpoints in Context, has no page numbers and has an editor listed, but no author.

If an outside source provides no author, the citation should be the title. Abbreviate the title if it is very long.

5. Citing the passage, as a quote, with the title in the citation because there is no author, would look as follows:

According to the article “Superfoods Have Significant Health Benefits”, “You can achieve

super health results by combining certain superfoods together.”

Rewrite the quote below and provide a correct In Text Citation using parenthesis rather

than a Signal Phrase.

Works Cited Page

Using the Citation Tool in the databases Opposing Viewpoints in Context and / or Academic Search Complete, copy and paste Works Cited entries from at least two different articles of your own choosing below. Format the entries correctly. Double space the entries, alphabetize them and put them in hanging indents:

MLA_format-work/question.txt

Read the files entitled "MLA Documentation Part One" and "MLA Documentation Part Two". Download the file entitled "MLA exercise". Complete the exercise and submit the file here.