Kitsilano Secondary School
Research Guide
In this booklet, you will learn:

When and how to give credit to an author
o Using direct quotation
o Using a paraphrase

How to create a bibliography or “Works Cited” page in MLA format
 Online Resources:
There are online tools that you may use to create a works cited page. One such service is
Easybib (www.easybib.com). Please make certain to verify that the information
presented by Easybib matches the actual book or website.
 Other bibliographic formats:
Follow your teacher’s instructions if you are required to use a different format.
Chicago:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org
APA:
http://www.apastyle.org/
Research project about the World during World War II
1. Find a book that will help you to prepare your assignment.
For this guide, we will use the book Fashion from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day by Mila Contini.
At first glance, this book may seem of little use to someone studying the war, but there is a section
on pages 306 and 307 about how fashion changed during the 1940s.
2. Follow your teacher’s instructions and do your assignment.
Of course, you are supposed to do original work, and present your ideas in your own words.
However, if you take an idea that you find in a book or a website, even if you change the words
or the structure of sentences, you MUST cite your source. (n.b. there are exceptions – please
see #3 below)
3. You MUST cite your source if:
 You present word for word the ideas of another person
 You paraphrase a text (~ about the same length as the original work)
 You summarize a text (shorter than the original work)
 You present a fact that is not common knowledge
o
“Great Britain was completely cut off from French haute couture” after the
Battle of France.” (Contini, 306)
o
“After clothes rationing was introduced in June of 1941, many women in
Great Britain went about with bare legs, and some even drew lines down
the back of their legs to make it look as if they were wearing stockings.”
(Contini, 307)
You DON’T NEED TO cite your source if:
 You are presenting a fact that is common knowledge (most people would know it;
the fact can be found easily through a variety of different sources. It is not
considered “debatable”.)
o
Clothes rationing in Great Britain began in June, 1941.
o
The Second World War began in 1939.
4. How to cite sources.
The following passage about life in Europe at the beginning of World War II appears on page 306
of the Contini book.
At first the war seemed to make little difference, and in March 1940,
when all the great Paris houses launched their collections, they found
plenty of buyers, both American and French. Social life went on, and
one reporter recorded that in the Ritz ‘they are all dining gracefully
again, in skirts that touch their toes’.
It seems that in 1940, life in France was pretty normal… How do you communicate to the reader
(to your teacher) the source of this « fact »?

Indirect citation –Paraphrase the author’s words
Write your own version in your own words, and introduce the passage with the author’s
name (according to ______, in the words of _____). Add the page number in brackets
after the passage.
According to Contini, life in France was quite normal at the
beginning of the war. (306)
Alternatively, write your own version, and then include the author’s name and the page
number in brackets at the end of the passage.
Life in France was quite normal at the beginning of the war.
(Contini, 306)

Direct Citation - the exact words of the author in quotes
If you include in your essay the exact words of an author, those words must be “in
quotes”, and you must indicate the author’s name and the page number.
o If you don’t mention the author’s name in your text, include it in brackets after
the quotation.
“Women were compelled to wear what clothes they had, and
housewives as well as factory workers took to wearing slacks,
thereby making stockings unnecessary.” (Contini, 305 - 306)
o Include the page number only if you have already mentioned the author’s name.
Contini states that because of clothes rationing, many women
“took to wearing slacks, thereby making stockings
unnecessary.” (305-306)
5. Prepare a “Works Cited” Page
Attached to your work, you will need a page entitled “Works Cited”. This is a list of all of the
print and online resources that you used in your research. In MLA style, this list needs to be

properly and consistently formatted
(use a hanging indent: indent from the second line of each entry)

in alphabetical order by author

Works Cited Page – Examples in MLA style
BOOKS
One author
Author. Title. Place of Publication: Company, Date of
Publication. Print.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.
New York, NY: MLA, 2003. Print.
Two or three
authors
Last name, First name, Middle name, and First name and
Last name of second. Title. Place: Publisher, Date. Print.
Crook, Connie Brummel, and Scott Cameron. Maple Moon. Toronto, ON:
Stoddart Kids, 1997. Print.
Four or more
authors
Reeves, John, et al. Using Microsoft Works. New York, NY: Collins, 1997.
Work in an
anthology (Poem)
Poet. “Title of Poem.” Title of Anthology. Place of Publication:
Print.
Publisher, Date of Publication. Page Number(s). Print.
Roberts, Charles G. D. “The Skater.” The New Oxford Book of Canadian
Verse In English. Toronto, ON: Oxford UP, 1982. 31-32. Print.
Work in an
anthology (Short
Story or Essay)
Author. “Title of Short Story or Essay.” Title of Anthology.
Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication.
Page Numbers(s). Print.
Nix, Garth. “Hope Chest.” Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy
and Science Fiction. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. 228-268.
Print.
Reference
(Encyclopaedia
or Dictionary)
Author. “Article Title.” Encyclopedia. Date. Print.
Black, Naomi. “Macphail, Agnes Campbell.” The Canadian Encyclopedia.
(Well-known
source)
1988 ed. Print.
“Literacy.” Gage Canadian Dictionary. 2000 ed. Print.
Reference
(Encyclopaedia
or Dictionary)
(Lesser-known
source)
Author. “Article Title.” Encyclopedia. Number of Volumes.
Place of Publication: Company, Date. Print.
Zaki, Mamoon Amin. “Iraq.” Legal Systems of the World: A Political, Social
and Cultural Encyclopedia. Ed. Herbert M. Kritzer. 4 vols. Santa
Barbara, CA: ABC Clio, 2002. Print.
PERIODICALS (Journals, Magazines & Newspapers)
Magazine
(paper copy)
Author. “Article Title.” Magazine Title. Volume. Issue
(Date of Issue): Page. Print.
Psihoyos, Louie. “Hunting Dinosaurs.” Discover. 21.5
(May 1996): 8-11. Print.
Newspapers
(paper copy)
Author. “Article Title.” Newspaper Title.
(Date): Pages. Print.
Jones, George. “My Life in Music.” Los Angeles Times.
(8 September 1996): A3. Print.
WEB SITES (Web Pages, Database Articles, Online Videos)
Web Pages
Author. “Title of Web Page.” Title of site or Online
publication. Name of sponsoring institution,
Examples:





YouTube
news sites
government sites
pictures
online encyclopaedia
articles
Date of Publication and/or version number.
Web. Date of access.
“US economic growth still sluggish - economy.” YouTube.com.
YouTube, LLC, 16 Jan 2009. Web. 10 Dec 2009.
“Obama picks up Nobel Prize.” CBC News. CBC, 10 Dec 2009.
Web. 10 Dec 2009.
“Minister Kenney recognizes black Canadians’ contributions to
Canadian identity.” News Release. Citizenship and
Immigration Canada, 4 Feb 2009. Web. 10 Dec 2009.
“Surrey, British Columbia.” Map. Google Maps. Google, 10 Dec
2009. Web. 10 Dec 2009.
Hansen, William F. "Atlas." World Book Advanced. World Book,
2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2009.
Publication found in an
online Database
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article."
Book/Periodical/publication Title. Volume
Examples:



EBSCO
eLibrary
number.Issue number (Date of publication):
Page number range. Database Name. Web.
Date of Access.
Biography Resource
Centre
“Greener alternatives to oil." Future of Earth. (2004): 31.
MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 25 Nov. 2009.
Horton, James Oliver and Lois E. Horton. “A Hard-Won Freedom:
From Civil War Contraband to Emancipation.” Slavery
and the Making of America. Oxford University Press.
(2005). eLibrary ProQuest LLC. Web. 25 Nov 2009.
“Anthony (Stephen) King.” Gale - Contemporary Authors Online.
(2009). Biography Resource Center. Web. 10 Dec 2009
Images found online
Artist or creator. “Description or title of image.” Date
the image was created. Online Image. Database
Name or Title of the Site. Date of Download.
<URL>
Whistler, James McNeill. “Arrangement in Grey and Black: The
Artist's Mother (Whistler’s Mother).” 1871. Online Image.
Ibiblio.org. 11 Dec 2009.
<http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/whistler/i/mother.jpg>
(In this example, the URL is optional.)
Works Cited
Contini, Mila. Fashion, from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day. London: Hamlyn, 1965. Print.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: Modern Language
Association of America, 2009. Print.
Niseteo, Ivana. "Citation Guide: MLA (7th Ed. 2009)." SFU Library. Simon Fraser University
Library, 5 June 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2013.
Rose, Crystal. "How to Write Citations and Bibliographies in MLA Style (7th Edition) | PDF." How
to Write Citations and Bibliographies in MLA Style: Memorial University Libraries.
Memorial University of Newfoundland, 5 Mar. 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2013.