Mechanics

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Mechanics
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Mechanics mean everything!

• Capitalization
• Underlining
• Italics
• Abbreviations
• Numbers
• Word Division

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Capitalization

• Complete proper nouns
• Titles
• First word of every sentence

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Proper nouns

• Names of people, places, things, or ideas
• World War II James Nabors
• Dixie Chicken Theory of Relativity
• Back to the Future Blinn College
• 1986 Chevy Camaro

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Titles

• The Iliad
• Mister Nabors
• Doctor Smith
• President of the United States

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First word

• the dog ate my shoe.
• The dog ate my shoe.

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Underlined things

• Books
• Plays
• Computer software
• Web sites
• Pamphlets
• Long musical works
• Television and radio programs

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Cont.

• Long poems
• Periodicals
• Published speeches
• Journals
• Movies
• Visual art

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Italics

• Italics function the same way that underlining
  does, generally. However, MLA format does not
  encourage italicizing, so we will only underline
  titles.
• If you want to emphasize a word in your writing,
  then do it rhetorically and not graphically!

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Abbreviations

• -Shortened versions of words (hint brief)
• Mr.
• Ms.
• Mrs.
• Dr.
• Jr.
• Ph.D.

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Cont.

• Cont.
• AM
• t.u.
• NASA
• p.m.
• et al.
• etc.

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When not to abbreviate

• Units of measurement
• Place names
• Days of the week
• Months
• Names of people
• Classes (no Poly. Sci.)

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Numbers

• Be consistent, and spell out the number!
• 20th Century twentieth century
• 1984 1984 (this is the title of the book!)
• 15 days fifteen days

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The exceptions

• Specific years should be left in Arabic numerals
  (40 BCE, 1918 CE)
• Dates should be left in Arabic numerals (18 June
  2005)
• Precise amounts (3,516 people voted 14.35)
• Chapters/acts/page numbers should be left in
  Arabic numerals

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Cont.

• Statistics should be in Arabic numerals

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Word Division

• Let Microsoft Word wrap the text! You should not
  have any hyphenated lines!
• Do not split URLs
• Make a split where the split should be
• Lifeli-ke or life-like
• Touch-and go or touch-and-go