Essay Reminders/Help
MLA Conventions:
1. Book titles are italicized
2. Essay titles are in quotation marks
3. In text citations
a. Author last name and page #
i. Ex (Patton 54).
b. Go at the end of a sentence not at the end of a quote
4. Works cited is always in alphabetical order
a. If you need help see previous things I have given you or go to Purdue OWL
5. DQ= Dropped Quotes
a. Quotes can’t stand alone as their own sentence. They need to be attached to an original
thought either before or after (Narrating In or Narrating out)
6. If asked to complete an annotated bibliography, you must summarize and QUALIFY (meaning
explain why you have used it or how it helped you)
7. The actual title of the essay YOU are writing is merely centered
a. Do not bold, italicize or underline it
EVIDENCE
1. Not all evidence has to be a direct quote
a. You can paraphrase or even embed part of a quote
2. Evidence must SUPPORT your heuristic which SUPOORTS your thesis
a. It’s like building a house
i. The roof (thesis) can’t be supported without walls (heuristics) and a foundation
(evidence)
3. Not all annotated material is a literary criticism
a. Lit crits are essays that specifically criticize one or more pieces of literature
b. Critical essays criticize or comment on literature, themes, society, the world, the author
etc.
4. If you are narrating into a quote or making reference to something you have read be specific
about the type of evidence: lit crit, critical essay, book, movie, poem et