Assassination Research Paper
Creating a Works Cited Page
What Are We Doing and
Why?
Content Standard: Writing Strategies 1.7 – Use
appropriate conventions for documentation in the text,
notes, and bibliographies by adhering to those in style
manuals (e.g., Modern Language Association
Handbook).
ESLR: Reflective Communicator – Think, read, write,
listen, speak well
Objective: After taking notes on proper MLA formatting,
you will complete a worksheet that will help you create
your Works Cited page for your research paper, showing
that you can use these conventions in your own writing.
Remember Your Task
Task: Write a research paper in which you explain
the political situation leading up to the (attempted)
assassination, the motivation behind the
(attempted) assassination, the nature of the
conspiracy involved with the (attempted)
assassination, a description of the (attempted)
assassination itself, and the political aftermath of
the (attempted) assassination of the political figure.
Your Outline
This is a longer essay than you are used to:
 Seven (7) Paragraphs
 Introduction
 Five (5) Body Paragraphs
 Conclusion Paragraph
Then there is one more part: a Works Cited page.
This will go at the end of your essay.
Review of MLA Formatting
for the Entire Essay
 All text (letters, words, sentences, etc.) should be in 12pt.
Times New Roman font.
 All text should be double-spaced.
 There should be one-inch margins around the entire page.
 There should be no extra bolding, underlining, italicizing or
changing of fonts. Italicizing titles of books is an
exception to this rule because it would not be considered
extra.
 We showed you how to do ALL of these things in the first
week of the school year (and you should have been doing
them all year!). If you have forgotten, be sure to have
someone show you.
Review of MLA Formatting
for the Entire Essay
 Your paper should have a header with your name
and the page number (this should be on each
page of the essay).
 There should also be a heading on the first page
that is left-justifed (def: lined up on the left),
double-spaced, and includes:
 Your name
 Course Name (English 10 CP)
 Your teacher’s name
 The date in Day Month Year format (22 March 2011)
Reminder: What Your
Heading Should Look Like
How to Do the Header
For Word 2003:
 On the “View” menu, click
“Header or Footer” to open
the header area.
 Make sure your header is
right-justified (def: lined up
on the right).
 Using the “Header and
Footer” toolbar, click the
“Insert Page Number”
button.
 Make sure the cursor (def:
blinking line that shows
where to type) is in front of
the number. Type your last
name and one space.
 Click “Close” on the “Header
and Footer” toolbar to
return to your essay.
How to Do the
Header
For Word 2007:
 Click “Insert” at the
top of the page.
 Hover the mouse over
“Page Number,” and
then “Top of Page.”
Select “Plain Number
3.”
 Make sure the cursor is
in front of the number,
and then type your last
name and one space.
 Close the header using
the big red “X” in the
top bar.
MLA for In-Text Citations
Participation Point Alert! Do you remember your mantra?
Transition—Quotation—Citation
Participation Point Alert! Do you remember what this refers to in your
research paper?
Whether you are using exact quotations or paraphrasing from the
sources (Hint: These are your evidence sentences in your Body
Paragraphs), you must use proper MLA style.
 Transition: Lead your reader into the quotation by transitioning from
your topic sentence.
 Quotation: Choose the quotation that supports your topic sentence
and your thesis. Place this in “quotation marks,” but hold off on the
period for now.
 Citation: Place the author of the source’s last name in parentheses
(Author). If there is no author listed, list the title of the article.
That’s a lot of work! And there’s
more? Why do I have to do all
this?
 If you listed an author’s name or the title of an
article anywhere in your paper, then your reader
is going to wonder where you found this
information. The MLA Works Cited page tells
your reader where to find the information that
you quote (or paraphrase) in the research paper.
 Adding a Works Cited page makes your research
paper more credible.
 When you are in college, a Works Cited page will
be required in order to substantiate (def: prove)
that you are not plagiarizing someone else’s
work.
MLA Format for Your
Works Cited Page
To Create A Works Cited Page:
 After the end of the text of your essay, create a page break
(def: hit “Enter” until you get to a new page).
 Keeping with MLA format (described earlier in this PPT), type
the words Works Cited at the top of the page and center them.
(Remember – no extra bolding or underlining!)
 List each required piece of information for each source in the
correct order (the next slide will show you how to do this).
Each one of these is referred to as an “entry.”
 Alphabetize your sources by the author’s last name. If no
author is listed, use the first word in the title of the article
that is not “A” or “The.”
 Use a hanging indent for the second and subsequent (def: each
additional) lines in each entry.
 Make sure to follow the punctuation in the example EXACTLY.
How to Do a Hanging
Indent
 Highlight the text that you want to
have a hanging indent. (In this case,
your Works Cited entries.)
 For Word 2003, select “Format,” and
then “Paragraph.” For Word 2007, click
on the small arrow in the bottom of the
“Paragraph” box.
 In the Paragraph window that appears,
look for the “Indentation” section. Use
the drop-down menu under “Special” to
select “Hanging,” make sure the dropdown menu under “By” says 0.5”, and
click “OK.”
Order of Information for
Each Source Entry
For Citing Web Publications: A Non-periodical
Publication
 Name of Author
 Title of Article
 Title of Overall Website
 Version or Edition
 Publisher or Sponsor (if not available, write N.p.)
 Date of Publication (Day Month Year; if not available
use n.d.)
 Publication of Medium (Web)
 Date of Access (Day Month Year)
What does an “entry”
look like?
Here is an example for the Kennedy Article that we
practiced annotating:
“John F. Kennedy Assassination.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., 7 March 2011. Web. 7 March 2011.
Notice:
 No author is listed, so it was just left out.
 There is a period that shows the end of a piece of
information.
Okay . . . where do I find
this information?
 You can find this information in your annotated
articles.
 The title and author (if there is one) are near the
beginning.
 The rest of the source information is listed at the
end of each article that you were to annotate.
Your teachers were kind enough to compile this;
usually you would have to do this on your own.