MLA Documentation for Research PapersPurpose - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Title: MLA Documentation for Research PapersPurpose


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MLA Documentation for Research Papers--Purpose
A reader who is interested in exploring a subject
wants to read not only your paper but also the
material you used in your paper. Why? Readers
want to examine your sources to see if you missed
anything, to see if they interpret the material
the same way you do, or to see if your sources
help them to come up with more new ideas. This
is the way knowledge gets built on. This is the
reason we need computers to store all the new
knowledge we create.
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MLA Documentation for Research PapersTwo Main
Features

• The MLA (Modern Language Association)
• format for showing where information in a
• paper came from is one of many methods. It
• uses two features a citation in the body of
• the paper linked by a signal phrase and/or a
• parenthetical in-text citation to a reference
• on the Works Cited page at the end of the
• paper.

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Citation in the Body of the Paper

• Citation in the body of the paper must be done
  whenever you are taking words from another source
  (quoting) and also whenever you are taking ideas
  from another source and putting them into your
  own words (paraphrasing).

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Signal Phrase

• A signal phrase lets readers know that you are
  about to use words or ideas that are not your own
  often by naming the author or the title of the
  source
• David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen insist that
  no writing is strictly personal (14).
• David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen believe
  beginning writers rely ineffectively on personal
  responses instead of analysis (14).

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Parenthetical in-text citation

• If the author or the title is not announced in a
  signal phrase, then more information than a page
  number needs to be put in the parentheses
  following the quote or paraphrase
• Beginning writers rely ineffectively on personal
  experience instead of analysis (Rosenwasser 14).

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Works Cited Page

• The Works Cited page contains references to all
  the sources quoted or paraphrased in the paper.
• The sources are listed in alphabetical order
  according to the authors last name or to the
  first significant word of the parenthetical
  in-text citation.

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Works Cited PageRosenwasser example

• Works Cited
• Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. Writing
  Analytically. BostonThomson, 2003.

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Works Cited Page--features

• The Works Cited entries are written differently
  depending on whether they are books, newspapers,
  magazines, scholarly journals, interviews, films,
  television programs, Internet sites, electronic
  databases, or whatever.
• Students can use the De Anza library web page,
  the WRC reference books, or their own English
  texts to check details.

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Works Cited Pagemore text examples

• Works Cited
• Cornford, Dan. A Turbulent End to a Brilliant
  Life. San Francisco Chronicle
• 19 Feb 2006 M1.
• Hodge, Roger D. Blood and Time. Harpers
  February 2006 65-72.
• Taylor, Tim N. The Research Paper as an Act of
  Citizenship. Teaching English in the Two-Year
  College 33.1(2005) 50-61.

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Works Cited PageInternet

• Internet citations provide all of the information
  needed to find the print source (if there is one)
  as well as the authors name (if there is one)
  the title of the web page, the sponsor of the web
  page, the date of publication, the date of access
  to the site,and the URL lthttp//????????gt

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Works Cited PageInternet ExamplesDe Anza
Databases.

• There has long been a strong pastoral tradition
  in American literature (Rothenburg).
• Works Cited
• Rothenburg, David. The Ecocriticism Reader
  Landmarks in Literary Ecology. The Ecologist
  28.1(1998). Infotrac. De Anza College. 1-26-2006
  lthttpwww.deanza.edu/library/gt

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Works Cited PageInternet Example

• Ibsen had an extraordinary effect upon other
  playwrights his offerings, medicinal and
  bitter, have changed the history of the stage
  (Belllinger).
• Works Cited
• Bellinger, Martha Fletcher. Henrik Ibsen.
  TheaterDatabase 2-20-06 http//www.theatredatabse.
  com/19th_century/henrik_ibsen_001.html.

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MLA Documentationwhat else?

• Dropped quotations dont do it. Always lead up
  to and follow your quote or paraphrase with your
  own ideas in your own words.
• Ellipses use three dots to show you have taken
  out some words or four dots to show you have
  taken out more than a sentence.
• Brackets use brackets to add any words of
  your own to a quote.
• (qtd in) Sometimes you will want to quote a
  writer that was quoted in another writers work
  James Wood believes Cormac McCarthys latest
  novel No Country for Old Men is rubbing our
  noses in deaths horror (qtd in Hodge 65).

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MLA DocumentationWhat Else?

• Double quotes become single quotes When a quote
  contains a quote, change the double quote mark to
  a single
• One of McCarthys ex-wives reports that despite
  extreme poverty McCarthy firmly rejected the
  seductions of the lecture and workshop circuit.
  Someone would call up and offer him 2000 to
  come speak at a university about his booksand he
  would tell them that everything he had to say was
  there on the page (Hodge 66).

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Need More Help?
Wallis Leslies Faculty website
http//faculty.deanza.edu/lesliewallis De Anza
College Library http//deanza.edu/library MLA
Citation Style http//www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/librar
y/workshop/citmla.htm Duke University
http//www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.
htm