Transcript of Creating a Formal Outline
https://prezi.com/glgygrk8cdz4/creating-a-formal-outline/
Creating a Formal Outline
Introduction
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Working/Preparation Outlines are for working through the messy process of identifying and
organizing your ideas.
Formal/Full Sentence Outlines are both visual and written documents that serve to
communicate the fully developed ideas and evidence for your topic to someone else.
Speaking/Presentation Outlines are key words/phrases that prompt a speaker to remember what they
wanted to talk about and in what order.
Rules of Formal Outlining
Formal Outlines are designed to communicate your ideas to others and must follow specific rules.
Standard Symbols
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Each level in a Formal Outline is represented by a specific symbol.
Main points are always indicated with Roman Numerals (I, II, III).
Subpoints are always indicated with uppercase letters (A, B, C).
Supporting Material/Evidence is always indicated with Arabic Numerals (1, 2, 3).
Details about evidence is always indicated with lowercase letters (a, b, c).
Standard Format
Since Formal Outlines are visual documents, the spacing and alignment of each level is important.
I. Main points should always be aligned furthest to the left.
A. Subpoints should be indented slightly from the main points.
B. But still clearly aligned with other subpoints in the outline.
1. Supporting Material should be indented slightly from the subpoints.
2. But still clearly aligned with other subpoints in the outline.
Adequacy
Each point in an outline must have adequate support. If a main point only has 1 subpoint, then it isn't a
worthwhile main point.
If there is a I, there must be a II.
If there is an A, there must be a B.
If there is a 1, there must be a 2.
If there is an a, there must be a b.
Singularity
Each level in a formal outline must be expressed by ONE and ONLY ONE complete sentence.
Formal Outlines communicate a speaker's IDEAS, not what the speaker actually says.
Formal Outlines should NOT contain questions, fragments or key words.
Main Points
Subpoints
Supporting Material
I. Juliette Gordon Low's vision has been an example of progression since the inception of Girl Scouts.
A. She enrolled girls who were then on the fringes of society.
1. In addition to white girls, she included black girls, Jewish girls and orphans (Levy).
Uniformity
Everything about the outline must be consistently uniform.
All main points should be formatted the same.
All subpoints should be formatted the same.
All supporting material should be formatted the same.
The reader should be able to quickly glance at a formal outline and identify the main points, as well as
subpoints and supporting material for each main point.
Wednesday October 14-15, 2015
https://prezi.com/ggjo5x3w2bal/mla-works-cited-page/
Transcript of MLA Works Cited Page
Most of you, at some point in your educational careers, will have to - or already have had to - use MLA
format for an essay or other written project.
For any in-text citation, all you need is
the author's name
and the page number.
You can introduce the author as part of your sentence, like this:
According to Wormsley, "Culture shock is one of the staples of anthropology" (5).
Or, you can put everything together in parentheses at the end of the sentence:
"Culture shock is one of the staples of anthropology" (Wormsley 5).
Note that the punctuation comes AFTER the parentheses!
If there's no author listed, that's okay! Just use the title of the work instead.
North America has "more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs" ("Impact
of Global Warming" 6).
If there's no page number - for instance, if you're quoting from an online source - you can just skip that
part.
Nominees in the last category "are still being decided based on pilot episodes of upcoming shows"
(Block).
That's about it for in-text citations! Now let's talk about the Works Cited page.
First we'll see what it should look like, and then we'll go over how to actually list your sources.
But what does "MLA" actually mean?
MLA is a documentation style developed by the Modern Language Association.
"Documentation style" just means it's a way for students to show where they found the information
presented in their work.
Today we'll be focusing on how to cite your sources using MLA format, but first, let's look at the basic
paper layout.
Remember that ALL outside information should be documented. This includes:
someone else's written words
someone else's spoken words
someone else's ideas, facts, statistics, graphics
Basically,
if it didn't come from you, you should cite it.
Why do you think it's so important for students to document their sources?
MLA
According to MLA guidelines, your paper should have:
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One-inch margins on all sides
Times New Roman or Arial font, sized 10-12
Double-spacing throughout
Half-inch indentations at the beginning of each paragraph
Your last name and the page number in the upper right corner of every page, half an inch from
the edge of the page
As well as guidelines on how to cite your sources, MLA has guidelines for how your paper should look.
First let's go over the rules, and then we'll take a look at an example. Now let's see what all of that
actually looks like. Additionally, your very first page should include
your name,
your teacher's name,
the course name and number,
and the due date,
as well as the title of your paper.
your full name
your teacher's name
the course
the due date
Notice that the date is written as
day month year
(15 November)
and NOT
month day year
(November 15)
which is what we're used to.
The title of the essay should be centered on the page.
Notice that it's only one line below the heading and only one line above the first paragraph - no more
than that!
The title should be capitalized but NOT underlined, italicized, bolded, or in quotes.
That's all you need to know about the layout.
Now let's learn how to cite your sources!
Remember that even if you write outside information in your own words, you're still using someone
else's idea.
This is called paraphrasing, and you should still cite it.
This is called a signal phrase.
This is called a parenthetical citation.
EXAMPLE
If the source has two or three authors, list all of them.
The authors state, "Tighter gun control in the United States erodes Second Amendment rights" (Smith,
Yang, and Moore 76).
Don't forget the "and" before the last author!
If the source has more than three authors, you can either
list every author
or name only the first author followed by "et al."
Jones et al. counter the argument by noting that the current spike in gun violence in America compels
law makers to adjust gun laws (4).
Jones, Driscoll, Ackerson, and Bell counter the argument by noting that the current spike in gun violence
in America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (4).
Sometimes, you'll find that you need to edit a quote.
Or, if a quote is very long, but you really only need the first and last parts, you might want to get rid
everything in between.
For instance, if you're trying to fit a quote into your sentence, you might need to change a word or two
so that everything makes sense.
You can do this as long as you put brackets around the word you've changed.
example
There are two places where you'll need to cite your sources.
First, you'll name your sources in your essay. Every piece of outside information will appear next to a
source; this is called an in-text citation.
Then, at the very end of your essay, you'll compile a list of ALL the sources you used. This is called a
Works Cited page.
Wormsley suggests, "Unlike a Western court, with its litigants, lawyers, jurors and judges, Yombi
operates with only the disputants and himself" (85).
Wormsley suggests, "Unlike a Western court, [...] Yombi operates with only the disputants and himself"
(85).
In this case, replace the deleted section with an ellipses inside brackets, like this:
OR you can write this:
So you can write this:
Block quotes have the following characeristics:
They're usually introduced with a colon.
They don't use quotation marks.
They're indented one full inch to the left.
The parenthetical citation at the end comes AFTER the punctuation.
Now let's take a look at an example.
The entire quote is pushed one full inch to the left of the rest of the text.
There are no quotation marks.
The sentence before it introduces the quote with a colon, rather than a period or comma.
There parenthetical citation is AFTER the period.
1"
The Works Cited page, as mentioned earlier, is a page at the very end of your paper where you list the
sources you used in the paper itself. It should...
begin on a new page with its own page number,
have the words "Works Cited" centered at the top,
be double-spaced,
and include ALL sources in alphabetical order.
It's on its own page, with its own page number.
Note that this page usually doesn't count as part of your total, so if your teacher asks for a four-to-sixpage paper, that's four to six pages PLUS your Works Cited!
The words "Works Cited" are centered at the top of the page.
The text is all double-spaced, just like the rest of the paper.
The entries are all in alphabetical order by the author's last name.
Notice that that first line of each entry is close to the edge of the page, and every line after that is
indented half an inch - the reverse of a normal paragraph.
This is called "hanging," and it's required of all entries on your Works Cited page.
You can do this in Microsoft Word by right clicking and selecting the Paragraph, and then under
Indentation, select Hanging.
Now let's talk about how to set up your Works Cited entries.
Most entries will consist of the following information, in this order:
Author's name
Title
Place of publication
Publisher
Date published
Type of text
But, of course, there are lots of tiny rules to follow. Let's figure them out by looking at some examples.
Here's an example of an entry for a book with one author. Pay close attention to all the punctuation!
Notice that the names are reversed: last name, then first name.
Because it's a book, the title is in italics.
The word "Print" shows that it was a physically printed source.
Here's an example for a book with multiple authors. Everything is the same except for the names.
Notice that the first name is in reverse order, but the name(s) after that are written regularly.
Here's an example of an entry for a magazine.
This is the title of the specific article you're referencing. It should be in quotation marks.
This is the title of the magazine the article came from. This should be italicized.
These are the pages the article appeared on.
There's no punctuation between the magazine title and the date. Also noticed that "March" is
abbreviated.
There's a colon between the date and the pages.
Here's an example of an entry for an academic journal.
Here's the title of the article in quotes.
Here's the italicizeed title of the journal.
The date of publication appears after the volume and issue numbers and should be in parentheses.
The numbers here represent the volume and issue of the journal you're referencing.
Making
Sense of
Here's an example of an entry for a personal interview.
It's pretty straightforward! Just include the name of the person you interviewed, the words "Personal
Interview," and the date the interview was given.
Here's an example of an entry for an online source.
This is the title of the individual page you're referencing.
This is the title of the actual website that page came from.
Instead of "Print," put "Web."
This is the date of publication - the day the information actually went online.
This is the date of access - the day you found the ifnormation.
For instance...
The title of this entire website is "San Joaquin Delta College."
But the title of this individual page is "About Delta."
If there IS other information missing...
If there's no other listed, just skip to the title.
If there's no date of publication, put "n.d."
Unless there are page numbers, put "n.pag."
MLA also requires that you document the total number of pages referenced for an online entry, but
most websites won't list that information. You can just skip this part unless there's other information
missing.
If you run into a problem we haven't discussed here, or if you have to cite a type of source we haven't
gone over, you can visit Purdue University's Online Writing Lab for an extensive guide on MLA
documetation.
Today we've gone over basic MLA guidelines for
paper layout,
in-text citations,
and common Works Cited formats.
MLA can seem daunting, but as long as you understand the basics and know where to find the rest,
you'll do just fine.
Double-spaced:
There's an extra line of blank space between each line of text.
The author's last name and the page number appear in the top right corner.
Notice that this is only
HALF an inch from the
upper edge of the page!
½"
Half-inch indentation:
The first line of each paragraph is indented half an inch from the rest of the text.
One-inch margins: there's one whole inch of blank space between the text and the edge of the page.
If you have a very long quote - more than four lines - and you can't make it shorter, you'll need to turn it
into what we call a block quote.
Cite anything that doesn't come from
your
...
When to Cite
Summarize
Paraphrase
"Quote"
Hanging Out