Name: ________________________________________________
Writing an essay (or research paper)
1. If you have any questions about MLA formatting, go to
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
2. This source is OUTSTANDING for formatting info, citations, Works Cited Lists,
and online writing help for paragraphs.
3. Introduction: ONE paragraph, which includes a hook and the thesis statement.
4. Thesis statement: The purpose of your paper. You are basically answering the
assignment question. For example, for the research paper, your question was “Has
your fairy tale changed through time, and why?” So, your thesis statement should
be something like, “The fairy tale, “The Ugly Duckling” has not changed, because
bullying is still a common issue among teens today.” Now, you do not have to list
the reasons in your thesis statement, but you should make an observation, and find
support to prove the observation.
5. Body paragraphs- should focus on what is necessary to support the thesis. You do
not have to recap the entire story. Find what is necessary to point out to
demonstrate the lack of change or the actual change in the story. This will lead to
the reason (the why) the story has changed.
6. Keep asking yourself, “WHY is this important?” (Young). IF you keep asking
yourself why something is important, you will begin to focus your paper on only
what you need. (This means working on the paper for several days, as opposed to
the day before it is due).
7. When you get to the reasons WHY the fairy tale has changed, use your own
opinions and then support your opinions with factual information (your research).
This section should very much be cited. For example, if we are using the example
of “The Ugly Duckling” as stated above, then you could say something like this…
”Children are still bullied today. If they are different races, or have different
abilities or handicaps, children continue to feel the pains of bullying. As seen in a
local report, “Over 65% of students at Collingswood High School state that they
have been bullied at some point between sixth and eighth grades” (Holmes 1).
This is an excellent example of how children today continue to feel like an ugly
duckling of sorts in their own communities.”
8. The conclusion for this essay or paper should restate the thesis (not repeat it), and
contain a call for action. For example:
Even though “The Ugly Duckling” was written as a mirror to what author, Hans
Christian Anderson, experienced in his childhood, the themes and morals still
resonate today. Bullying, no matter how addressed, still exists in schools,
playgrounds, parks, and the like. Children naturally bully each other to make
themselves feel better about who they are. Unfortunately, some children will
never get to experience the full beauty of the mature “Ugly Duckling” if they get
bullied so much they take their own lives. Something must be done to get this
point across to the children involved.
9. Works Cited page: as highlighted with bold, there are two sources I cited in this
paper. Therefore, I should see those sources on the Works Cited page.
Holmes, Mary. “Bullying poll in Collingswood will shock many.”
Collingswood Sunbeam (Collingswood, NJ) 24 May 2011; All. Print
Young, Allison and Ben. Personal Interview. 21 Jan 2013.
10. Again, all of these things have been stated in class, and you have been referred to
the Purdue Owl website many times. All of this information can be found on this
site.
11. When you are writing about literature, you always write in the present tense. For
example, do NOT do this. “In the story of “Little Red Riding Hood,” she went to
her grandmom’s house and gave her food.” DO THIS INSTEAD, “Little Red
Riding Hood goes to her grandmom’s house and gives her food.” Literature is a
LIVING document, and is always written about in the present tense.
12. All papers must conform to the following:
a. Times New Roman 12 pt. font
b. Double spaced
c. 1 inch margins on all sides
d. Header (if possible)
e. Your name, teacher name, assignment, and date on left hand side
f. Title for paper (no cover page)
g. Works Cited listed on a separate page – after the paper
h. Do not use “I, you, we, our, ours, ourselves, me, my, mine, myself, your,
yours, yourself…etc.” YOU MAY USE: he, she, it, they.
i. Know the difference between opinion and fact
Reading and note-taking

In your notes, always mark someone else's words with a big Q, for quote, or use
big quotation marks

Indicate in your notes which ideas are taken from sources with a big S, and which
are your own insights (ME)

When information comes from sources, record relevant documentation in your
notes (book and article titles; URLs on the Web)
Interviewing and conversing

Take lots of thorough notes; if you have any of your own thoughts as you're
interviewing, mark them clearly

If your subject will allow you to record the conversation or interview (and you
have proper clearance to do so through an Institutional Review Board, or IRB),
place your recording device in an optimal location between you and the speaker
so you can hear clearly when you review the recordings. Test your equipment,
and bring plenty of backup batteries and media.

If you're interviewing via email, retain copies of the interview subject's emails as
well as the ones you send in reply

Make any additional, clarifying notes immediately after the interview has
concluded
Writing paraphrases or summaries

Use a statement that credits the source somewhere in the paraphrase or summary,
e.g., According to Jonathan Kozol, ...).

If you're having trouble summarizing, try writing your paraphrase or summary of
a text without looking at the original, relying only on your memory and notes

Check your paraphrase or summary against the original text; correct any errors in
content accuracy, and be sure to use quotation marks to set off any exact phrases
from the original text

Check your paraphrase or summary against sentence and paragraph structure, as
copying those is also considered plagiarism.

Put quotation marks around any unique words or phrases that you cannot or do
not want to change: e.g., "savage inequalities" exist throughout our educational
system (Kozol).
Writing direct quotations

Keep the source author's name in the same sentence as the quote

Mark the quote with quotation marks, or set it off from your text in its own block,
per the style guide your paper follows

Quote no more material than is necessary; if a short phrase from a source will
suffice, don't quote an entire paragraph

To shorten quotes by removing extra information, use ellipsis points (...) to
indicate omitted text, keeping in mind that:
o
In longer quotes where you have omitted a sentence in between other
complete sentences, maintain terminal puncutation in between the
ellipses.
o
Example: "None of the national reports I saw made even passing
references to inequality or segregation. . . . Booker T. Washington was
cited with increasing frequency, Du Bois never, and Martin Luther King
only with cautious selectivity." (Kozol 3).

To give context to a quote or otherwise add wording to it, place added words in
brackets, ( [] ); be careful not to editorialize or make any additions that skew the
original meaning of the quote—do that in your main text, e.g.,
o
OK: Kozol claims there are "savage inequalities" in our educational
system, which is obvious.
o
WRONG: Kozol claims there are "[obvious] savage inequalities" in our
educational system.

Use quotes that will have the most rhetorical, argumentative impact in your paper;
too many direct quotes from sources may weaken your credibility, as though you
have nothing to say yourself, and will certainly interfere with your style
Writing about another's ideas

Note the name of the idea's originator in the sentence or throughout a paragraph
about the idea

Use parenthetical citations, footnotes, or endnotes to refer readers to additional
sources about the idea, as necessary

Be sure to use quotation marks around key phrases or words that the idea's
originator used to describe the idea
Revising, proofreading, and finalizing your paper

Proofread and cross-check with your notes and sources to make sure that anything
coming from an outside source is acknowledged in some combination of the
following ways:
o
In-text citation, otherwise known as parenthetical citation
o
Footnotes or endnotes
o
Bibliography, References, or Works Cited pages
o
Quotation marks around short quotes; longer quotes set off by themselves,
as prescribed by a research and citation style guide
o
Indirect quotations: citing a source that cites another source
o
If you have any questions about citation, ask your instructor well in
advance of your paper's due date, so if you have to make any adjustments
to your citations, you have the time to do them well
Works Cited
Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools.New York:
Crown
Publishers, Inc., 1992. Print.
Paraphrase: Write it in Your Own Words
A paraphrase is...

your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by someone else,
presented in a new form.

one legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate documentation) to borrow
from a source.

a more detailed restatement than a summary, which focuses concisely on a single
main idea.
Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because...

it is better than quoting information from an undistinguished passage.

it helps you control the temptation to quote too much.

the mental process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to grasp the full
meaning of the original.
6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing
1. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
2. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.
3. Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you
envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or
phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
4. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately
expresses all the essential information in a new form.
5. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have
borrowed exactly from the source.
6. Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it
easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper.
Some examples to compare
The original passage:
Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse
quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final
manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit
the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James
D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
A legitimate paraphrase:
In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down
to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential
to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).
An acceptable summary:
Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize
the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).
A plagiarized version:
Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many
of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy
should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source
material copied while taking notes.
Paraphrasing Exercise
Directions: On a separate piece of paper, write a paraphrase of each of the following
passages. Try not to look back at the original passage.
1. "The Antarctic is the vast source of cold on our planet, just as the sun is the source of
our heat, and it exerts tremendous control on our climate," [Jacques] Cousteau told the
camera. "The cold ocean water around Antarctica flows north to mix with warmer water
from the tropics, and its upwellings help to cool both the surface water and our
atmosphere. Yet the fragility of this regulating system is now threatened by human
activity." From "Captain Cousteau," Audubon (May 1990):17.
2. The twenties were the years when drinking was against the law, and the law was a bad
joke because everyone knew of a local bar where liquor could be had. They were the
years when organized crime ruled the cities, and the police seemed powerless to do
anything against it. Classical music was forgotten while jazz spread throughout the land,
and men like Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie became the heroes of
the young. The flapper was born in the twenties, and with her bobbed hair and short
skirts, she symbolized, perhaps more than anyone or anything else, America's break with
the past. From Kathleen Yancey, English 102 Supplemental Guide (1989): 25.
3. Of the more than 1000 bicycling deaths each year, three-fourths are caused by head
injuries. Half of those killed are school-age children. One study concluded that wearing a
bike helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent. In an accident, a bike
helmet absorbs the shock and cushions the head. From "Bike Helmets: Unused
Lifesavers," Consumer Reports (May 1990): 348.
4. Matisse is the best painter ever at putting the viewer at the scene. He's the most
realistic of all modern artists, if you admit the feel of the breeze as necessary to a
landscape and the smell of oranges as essential to a still life. "The Casbah Gate" depicts
the well-known gateway Bab el Aassa, which pierces the southern wall of the city near
the sultan's palace. With scrubby coats of ivory, aqua, blue, and rose delicately fenced by
the liveliest gray outline in art history, Matisse gets the essence of a Tangier afternoon,
including the subtle presence of the bowaab, the sentry who sits and surveys those who
pass through the gate. From Peter Plagens, "Bright Lights." Newsweek (26 March 1990):
50.
5. While the Sears Tower is arguably the greatest achievement in skyscraper engineering
so far, it's unlikely that architects and engineers have abandoned the quest for the world's
tallest building. The question is: Just how high can a building go? Structural engineer
William LeMessurier has designed a skyscraper nearly one-half mile high, twice as tall as
the Sears Tower. And architect Robert Sobel claims that existing technology could
produce a 500-story building. From Ron Bachman, "Reaching for the Sky." Dial (May
1990): 15.
MLA Style Documentation
Documenting your sources involves two components – in-text citations and a works cited
page.
The best advice I can give you is to create your works cited entry first; as soon as you
know you are going to use a source, write out the works cited entry for it. Once you have
your works cited entry written out, creating your in-text citations will be a lot easier and
you will be able to do them right the first time.
A few basic rules and reminders:
What appears in the in-text citation is what begins your works cited entry.
Every in-text citation should include both an author (or title, if there is no author) and a
page/paragraph number.
In-text citations should always have either a page number or paragraph number (par.) Be
sure to record all page/paragraph numbers when doing your research and note-taking.
For sources with no authors, you begin the works cited entry with the title. [NOTE: You
may abbreviate long titles in in-text citations by using an ellipse (…). For example, if the
title of your source is “How to Make Lots and Lots of Easy Money on Your College
Campus,” you can abbreviate the title in your in-text citation to something like, “How to
Make…” However, you must provide the full title on your works cited page.
For websites, it is important to record titles of the website and titles of the article/page
you are viewing and using as a source: “The Flying Car is Here!” Comcast. You also
need to know who publishes or sponsors the website.
Online source citations must always include two dates: the date the information was
published or last updated and the date that you accessed (viewed) it.
The format for dates is always the same: day month year -- such as 14 January 2008, 25
July 1999, 2 October 1971, etc.
For books and articles in online publications, you generally follow the rules for
periodicals (journals & magazines) and books, but also add the URL and an access date.
URLs (web addresses) are always enclosed in triangular brackets, like this: < >. The
period goes outside the closing bracket. Also, remember to take off the hyperlink
formatting (underlining and blue print).
MLA PRACTICE WORKSHEET
Use your handout on “Quoting and In-Text Citation Using MLA Guidelines” and your
handbook to complete the following by
1) filling in the in-text citation in the sentence
2) identifying the type of quote used in the sentence
Book with One Author
According to Eric Schlosser, “fast food chains are now gaining access to the last
advertising-free outposts of American life,” (
).
Taken from Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, page 51, published in New York by
Perennial in 2002.
Works Cited entry:
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Perennial. 2002.
A Chapter from a Book with Two or More Authors
The authors state, “Evidence used to support ideas in an academic essay is usually
paraphrased” (
).
Taken from Sourcework by Nancy E. Dollahite and Julie Haun, which was published in
2006 in Boston by Thomson Heinle. The quote is taken from page 77, in chapter 4 titled
“Building a Paper,” which spans pages 72-97.
Article in a Scholarly Journal (paginated by issue)
The author states that suicide is a theme in Toni Morrison’s novels ( ).
This idea was taken from the article “Revolutionary Suicide in Toni Morrison’s Fiction,”
which was published in the African American Review in 2000 in volume 29, issue 34.
The article was on pages 389-412. This idea was found on page 401. The author of the
article is Nancy Snyder.
Article from a Popular Magazine
According to the researchers, hippos like to stay in the water as much as possible on hot
days (
).
This fact was taken from National Geographic. The article was titled “Land of the
Surfing Hippos.” It was published in August 2004 on page 100. The author is Bill Pomo.
National Geographic is a monthly magazine paginated by issue.
Personal Interview
The doctor told me that cancer of the pancreas is one of the most deadly types of the
disease (
).
This information came from a personal interview with Dr. Trisha Hay, with was
conducted on October 14, 2007.
Article from a Website
Flintoff writes, “The religious board that supervises elections has disqualified thousands
of independent and reform candidates” ( ).
This article was taken from npr.org -- the website for National Public Radio. It is written
by Corey Flintoff and is titled “Iranian Elections Provide View into Power Dynamics” in
the World section of the website. This quote was taken from paragraph 2 of 10
paragraphs total. The article was published on March 12, 2008. I accessed it on March
13, 2008. The URL is http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88163375.
Article from a Newspaper
The author writes about one family that is trying to reduce its toxic footprint; in other
words, they are trying to live more “green.” “The Goode family has not purchased
deodorant for a year,” the writer says, “and they have not bought toothpaste or shampoo
either”
(
).
This quote came from the Toronto Star. The reporter who wrote the story is Catherine
Porter. Her article was titled “How a Family Reduced Its Toxic Footprint.” The article
appeared on page E4 on March 16th in 2009.
In-Text and Works Cited Citation Using MLA Guidelines
Books:
In-text citation:
For single author – include the author’s last name and the page number(s) in the
parentheses, no punctuation between them.
Loneliness is inversely related to communication competence (Reinking 55).
If the author’s name is used in the text - no need to repeat it in the parentheses
Author Brian Taves suggests some interesting conclusions regarding the
philosophy and politics of the adventure film (153-54, 171).
If there are 2 or 3 authors – use “and” not “&”
(Gilbert and Gubar 14) or (Rabkin, Greenberg, and Olander 23) or (Smith and
Jones, par. 36)
If there are more than 3 authors - You may follow the method for 3 authors if you
want to list them all or you may use the first author and add et al. (No punctuation
between author and et al.)
(Rabkin, Greenberg, Smith, Jones, and Olander 23) or (Rabkin et al. 23)
Works Cited List example:
Last name, First name. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Print.
Single author
Reinking, Brett. Boston, a Social History. New York: Hawthorn, 1976. Print.
Two or three authors
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer
and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979.
Print.
An article in a scholarly journal:
In-text citation: (Pelter and McQuade 1811-1812).
Works Cited list example:
Pelter, Michael, and Jennifer McQuade. “Brewing Science in the Chemistry
Laboratory: A ‘Mashing' Investigation of Starch and Carbohydrates.” Journal of
Chemical Education 82 (2005): 1811-1812. Print.
Article from a Popular Magazine:
In-text citation:
(Lerner 42-43).
Works Cited list example:
Lerner, Barbara. "America's Schools: Still Failing After All These Years." National
Review 15 Sep. 1997: 42-43.
Personal interview:
In-text citation: (Marchese)
Print.
Works Cited list example:
Marchese, Joe. Professor of Business, Monroe Community College. Personal interview.
13 Jan. 2006.
Web site
In-text citation: ("Early Childhood Educational Issues")
Works Cited list example:
“Early Childhood Educational Issues.” National Association for the Education of the
Young Children. 22 May 2006. Web. 26 November 2012.
Article in a newspaper
In-text citation:
(Wielaard 11A)
Works Cited list example:
Wielaard, Robert. “Europe Warns Iran on Holocaust Denial.” Democrat and Chronicle 16
Dec. 2005: 11A. Print.
WORK CITED
“Modern Language Association (MLA) Style.” Monroe Community College. 19 April
2012. Web.<http://www.monroecc.edu/depts/library/mla.htm#personal>