Feedback for the MLA Summer Reading Reflection
General
 Excellent job learning from the mistakes of the past (or not making them in the first place).
 Exclamations are rarely appropriate for a literary paper. Avoid them until you’re publishing your own
academic criticism in peer-reviewed scholarly journals.
 Neither of these works are novels. Othello is a play; Caged Bird is an autobiography (or book would be
fine, too). You could also refer to each as a “text.”
Formatting
 Proofread! A lot of the mistakes were silly ones.
 Titles of full-length works should be italicized within your paper. The title of your paper should not
be italicized.
 Make sure your paragraph spacing “after” is set to 0 pt. If it is set to anything else, it will affect your
double spacing every time you press enter.
 For the purposes of formal, academic work, I am Ms. Purvis (not Purvis or Heather Purvis).
 Also, you should spell my name, as well as the names of authors and characters, correctly.
Quotations
 There is no need for quotation marks around material you are not quoting directly from the
source. It confuses your reader.
 Only use quotations when you will lose something if you don’t use the exact wording of the original.
GOOD EXAMPLES OF ORGANICALLY INCORPORATED QUOTATIONS
 [Mother and Bailey’s] feelings for each other are incredibly strong despite the fact that “society,
morality and ethos dictated a separation” (257).
 It is “the powerless against the powerful, the poor against the rich, the worker against the worked for
and the ragged against the well dressed” (Angelou 25) in the segregated Stamps.
 For example young Angelou had “built such elaborate fantasies” (54) about her father that
reconnecting with him destroyed all of them.
In-Text Citations – use of the same author
 If each quotation is from the same author, there is no need to indicate that beyond the first
parenthetical citation. Note the switch of authors in the following example, and then note that all
citations after the second one refer to the Shakespeare text.
o In Othello, Shakespeare presents his audience with “the stereotypical lustful Moor”
(Honigmann 61). Othello is a “devil” (Shakespeare 122), a “Barbarian” (158), and an “old black
ram” (121) who has “abused, stolen…and corrupted” (139) Senator Branabtio’s “white ewe”
(129) through the “filthy bargain” (317) of their marriage.
Works Cited
 Citing the introduction of your critical edition: for the example above, the student used the
introduction of the Arden edition of Othello. This would be cited separately from the original text in
the works cited because it can’t be listed under the same author as the original text (because
Shakespeare didn’t write the introduction). Entries would be formatted as follows:
Honigman, E.A.J. Introduction. Othello. By William Shakespeare. London: Arden
Shakespeare, 1997. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. E.A.J. Honigmann. London: Arden Shakespeare,
1997. Print.

Editors are not co-authors and should not be treated as such in your works cited (see above example).
Title Specificity – If possible, and it usually is, mention the title of the work in the title of your paper. If you
are writing about a character, mention that character’s name in the title.
GOOD EXAMPLES FROM CRITICISM ON CAGED BIRD
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“Death as Metaphor of Self in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (Liliane Aarensberg)
“Singin’ de Blues, Writing Black Female Survival in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (Cherron
Barnwell)
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: ‘Childhood Revisited’” (Lyman Hagan)
GOOD EXAMPLES FROM STUDENT PAPERS
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Speaks to its Readers
Maya Angelou’s Use of Reactions to Develop Bailey in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Iago: The Master of Manipulation
Cassio, Outside the Shell
Identifying [with] the Singing Caged Bird
Iago’s Development as the Cunning Antihero
Why Shakespeare’s Othello is More Reader Friendly then [sic] Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged
Bird Sings
From Rejection to Acceptance: The Transformation of Maya Through Childhood Experiences
MOST HILARIOUS TITLE: For the Love of Old White Men
Societal argument: American English is one of the few languages in the world (of which I am familiar) that
doesn’t specifically classify women by their marital status (instead having the option of a general title, Ms., to
apply to ALL women). Interestingly, in speech we seldom refer to women as Ms. or Mrs., instead using the
one-syllable Miss to encompass all.