Painlessly!

Creating Your Research Paper Creating Your Research Paper

Radcliffe

English 2013 Version!

Our goals today are to learn how to:

Correctly format your paper

Create in-text citations for sources and avoid plagiarism

Develop the Works Cited page

What spacing does MLA require for a research paper? Double space throughout the

entire paper

What margins are required for an MLA research paper?

One inch margins all the way around each page

How are pages numbered in MLA style?

In the top right WITHIN the HEADER on each page - first page included

with the author’s (YOUR) last name followed by a space

Then choose the # symbol to have it automatically generate the page numbers throughout your paper!

Right Margin Aligned !

Example of how pages are numbered in MLA style…

Miceli 1

Click in the Header and a toolbar with auto tools will name and number each page for you!!!!

How is the heading set up for a paper in MLA style?

Student’s Name Instructor(s) Name Course Title Date

All Left Aligned, only appears on the FIRST page

Example of the header set up for a paper in MLA style…

Michael Miceli

Mrs. Radcliffe

English II

30 August 2013

Sample First Page in MLA Style

Miceli 1 Michael Miceli

Mrs. Radcliffe

English II

31 August 2013

Building a Dream: Emily and Homer

What would it be like to be with a beloved one through eternity? How would it feel to

have the person there, no matter how long one lived? In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the

protagonist, Emily Grierson could probably share several ways to explore the answers to those

intriguing questions. . . .

See also sample papers on Purdue’s OWL

What do you

notice about the

title?

1. Center the title2. Not bold, not italic3. No change in size or font

Plagiarism: What’s the big deal? Using others’ ideas and/or words without

clearly acknowledging the source of that information

Why do we care? It’s ethical It’s the law Intellectual theft/artistic & intellectual ownership People need to be able to trace your research and

if they cannot, you are guilty of plagiarizing, regardless of how innocently it may have happened!

NOTES

How do I know when to give credit to other sources? To avoid plagiarism when you write your paper,

you must give credit whenever you use … Another person’s ideas, opinion, or theory Any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings, photographs Any pieces of information that are not common

knowledge Quotations of another person’s actual spoken or

written words Paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written

words

How do I know what is common knowledge?

Common knowledge includes Familiar proverbs: “You can’t judge a book

by its cover.” Very well known quotations “To be or not to

be?” Commonly understood information such as

“George Washington was the first president of the United States.”

What qualifies as plagiarism?

Using another person’s phrases or sentences without putting quotation marks around them or providing a parenthetical citation is considered plagiarism even if you cite the source on your Works Cited page!

Copying something over and changing every couple of words is not paraphrasing. It is plagiarism.

Examples: Original Material

from Martin, Wendy. “Emily

Dickinson.” Columbia Literary History of the United States. Emory Elliott, gen. Ed. New York: Columbia UP, 1988. Print.

“Some of Dickinson’s most powerful poems express her firmly held conviction that life cannot be fully comprehended without an understanding of death.”

If you write the following sentence without any documentation, you have committed plagiarism: Emily Dickinson strongly

believed that we cannot understand life totally unless we also comprehend death.

Correct: As Wendy Martin has

suggested in her article from the Columbia Literary History of the United States, Emily Dickinson strongly believed that we cannot understand life totally unless we also comprehend death (625).

Parenthetically Citing Your Research MLA Style: “Uhhmmm…”

“Excuse me?!”“You’re swearing at me in Yiddish, aren’t you?”

“I think I was vaccinated for that…”

“If it’s contagious…”“I want my mommy!”

What is a parenthetical citation?

An acknowledgement of the original source within YOUR writing!

See Purdue OWL and other recommended websites for help!

Where can I find up-to-date help with parenthetical citation?

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com

/resdoc5e/ http://www.calvin.edu/library/kni

ghtcite/index.php http://citationmachine.net/

How do you introduce and integrate a

cited material into your writing? Introduce sources of quotations, summaries,

paraphrases by referring to an author, a book title, a website, expertise, credentials, etc. before getting into the specifics…

OR you can mention these items toward the end of cited info…

BUT they should NEVER pop up without warning!

THEN END with the page number in parentheses, followed by a period.

How do you introduce and integrate a

cited material into your writing? IF you already mentioned an author’s or

interviewee’s full name once, you need to use only the last name subsequently.

DO VARY your wording… Signal Phrases should be interesting (see handouts given you)

AND use a varied mix of quotes, paraphrases, and summaries…

Using your research to strengthen your own arguments rather than overpowering your own writing.

THINK SPICES! Just give it flavor and depth!

MORE…

How do you introduce and integrate a

cited material into your writing? IF you do not know the author… IF the page number is unknown… IF you have multiple authors… IF you have a multivolume work… IF you use a quote from a personal

interview… IF you use a quote from an email

interview…

Look up these situations…

What does a parenthetical citation sound like?

According to Bob Buschur of A.G. Edwards Investments, the market for CPA trained individuals looks to be ripe for a new…

In fact, educational researcher Margaret Mead, a pioneer in early childhood education, makes the following observation:…

James Stalker, a medical research specialist, also claims that jobs in the field of gerontology…

With thirty years of runway experience behind her, Carley Barnes sees the next decade in fashion producing more diverse than…

The FINAL step to your paper!

The FINAL step to your paper!

Creating the Works Cited

Page

What’s a “Works Cited” Page?

Although the list of works cited appears on a separate page at the end of your paper, you need to rough draft the paper first, so that you will know what sources to actually cite based on the parenthetical references in your paragraphs!

Works Cited example sheet is available in the handouts distributed today. Be sure to listen carefully to the formatting hints your teacher will give you.

NOTES

From In-text Documentation to Works Cited…

In MLA style, you acknowledge your sources by brief parenthetical citations in your text which makes an alphabetical list of works that appears at the end of the paper.

IF YOUR PAPER HAS SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

Ancient writers attributed the invention of the monochord to Pythagoras, who lived in the sixth century BC (Marcuse 197).

THEN YOU WILL PUT THIS ON YOUR WORKS CITED PAGE:

Marcuse, Sibyl. A Survey of Musical Instruments. New York: Harper, 1975. Print.

NOTES

Where should the MLA Works Cited page be

placed? At the end of the research paper on a new,

separate page Continue the page numbering from the

body of the paper See the Beth Catlin example MLA

formatted sample paper from Purdue OWL.

How should the MLA Works Cited page be

organized? Alphabetically, by AUTHOR’S LAST NAME

Axle, T. Brown, M. Smith, J.

“Various Careers in…" Or BY TITLE if no author is known ALWAYS with a HANGING INDENT! With correct source cards, this is a

no-brainer!

How should the MLA Works Cited page be TYPED?

You can do it AUTOMATICALLY! Microsoft Word will do this easily with

the hanging indent option. Go to Format, paragraph, then open

the more options arrow under “Special”.

Choose HANGING.

Friendly Reminders! Do NOT number a works cited list. DO alphabetize your works cited list. DO Double-space; DO hanging indent Peers and teachers will proofread if

you ask in a polite, timely fashion! Do NOT be afraid to ask for help or

guidance from your teacher! Give credit where credit is due!

Source: Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers: Fifth Ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1999. Print.

On the Works Cited page, what do three hyphens indicate? A work by the same author as the one

listed in the entry above

Example:

King, Stephen. Black House. New York: Random, 2001. Print.

---. Buick 8: A Novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. Print.

sample Works Cited page Stottlemeyer 6

Works Cited

"Blueprint Lays Out Clear Path for Climate Action." Environmental Defense Fund. Environmental Defense Fund, 8 May 2007. Web. 24

May 2009.

Clinton, Bill. Interview by Andrew C. Revkin. “Clinton on Climate Change.” New York Times. New York Times, May 2007. Web. 25

May 2009.

Dean, Cornelia. "Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet." New York Times. New York Times, 22 May 2007. Web. 25 May 2009.

Ebert, Roger. "An Inconvenient Truth." Rev. of An Inconvenient Truth, dir. Davis Guggenheim. Rogerebert.com. Sun-Times News

Group, 2 June 2006. Web. 24 May 2009.

Gowdy, John. "Avoiding Self-organized Extinction: Toward a Co-evolutionary Economics of Sustainability." International Journal of

Sustainable Development and World Ecology 14.1 (2007): 27-36. Print.

Leroux, Marcel. Global Warming: Myth Or Reality?: The Erring Ways of Climatology. New York: Springer, 2005. Print.

Milken, Michael, Gary Becker, Myron Scholes, and Daniel Kahneman. "On Global Warming and Financial Imbalances." New

Perspectives Quarterly 23.4 (2006): 63. Print.

Nordhaus, William D. "After Kyoto: Alternative Mechanisms to Control Global Warming." American Economic Review 96.2 (2006):

31-34. Print.

What did you learn today?

Correctly format your essays Create in-text citations for

sources while avoiding plagiarism

Develop the Works Cited page

The End!The End!PAIN FREE!

Notes for Slide 9Derived from the Latin word plagiarius (“kidnapper”)

“Nearly all research builds on previous research. Researchers commonly begin a project by studying past work in the area and deriving relevant information and ideas from their predecessors. This process is largely responsible for the continual expansion of human knowledge. In presenting their work, researchers generously acknowledge their debts to predecessors by carefully documenting each source, so that earlier contributions receive appropriate credit. As you prepare your paper, you should similarly seek to build on the work of previous writers and researchers. And whenever you draw on another’s work, you must also document your source by indicating what you borrowed—whether facts, opinions, or quotations—and where you borrowed it from.” MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers: Fifth Edition, p. 114

Notes for Slide 16A parenthetical citation in MLA style contains only enough information to enable readers to find the source in the works cited list. If the author’s name is mentioned in the text, only the page number appears in the citation. If more than one work by the author is in the list of works cited, a shortened version of the titles is given as in this example.

• References in the text must clearly point to specific sources in the list of works cited. • Identify the location of the borrowed information as specifically as possible. Give the relevant page number(s) in the parenthetical

reference. • Keep parenthetical references as brief and as few as clarity and accuracy permit. • Place the parenthetical reference where a pause would naturally occur (preferably at the end of a sentence), as near as possible to the

material documented. • When your bibliography lists only work by the author cited, you need give only the author's last name and page number(s): (Patterson

193-85). • If the work is listed by title in the bibliography, use the title and page number(s) in your parenthetical documentation.

Although the list of works cited appears at the end of your paper, you need to draft the section in advance so that you will know what information to give in parenthetical references as you write.--- Key brief parenthetical citations in your text to your alphabetical list of works cited.--- References in the text must clearly point to specific sources in the list of works cited.--- Identify the location of the borrowed information as specifically as possible. Give the relevant page number(s) in the parenthetical reference.--- Keep parenthetical references as brief and as few as clarity and accuracy permit.--- Place the parenthetical reference where a pause would naturally occur (preferably at the end of a sentence), as near as possible to the material documented.--- When your works cited lists only one work by an author, you give only the author's last name and page number(s) in the parenthetical citation: (Patterson 193-85). --- If more than one work by an author is in the list of works cited, a shortened version of the title is also included in the parenthetical documentation.--- If the work is listed by title in the works cited list, use the title and page number(s) in your parenthetical documentation.--- If the author's name is mentioned in the text of your work, only the page number appears in the citation.

Notes for Slides 20 & 21--- Double-space between successive lines of an entry and between entries.--- Begin the first line of an entry flush left and indent successive lines ½". (Microsoft Word will do this easily with the hanging indent option. (Go to format paragraph, indents and spacing, indentation, then open the more options arrow under “special”.)--- List entries in alphabetical order according to the first word in the citation. --- Ignore any initial article (e.g. "A", "The", "An").--- If no author is given, start the citation with the title.--- Separate author, title, and publication information with a period followed by one space.--- Do not number a Works Cited list.--- Paginate the bibliography as a continuation of your text.