Setting Your Paper Up In MLA Format
This handout provides a quick step-by-step guide to setting your paper up in MLA format.
1. Use Times New Roman, 12 point font in the header, title, and body of the essay.
2. Double space throughout paper, with no extra spaces between paragraphs. To do this- right click on any white space in on the document. Select Paragraph. Under Spacing, look for Line Spacing. Select Double from the dropdown box.
3. Put a header with your last name and page number at the top of the page. Click Insert, then select Page Number. Select Top of Page, then Plain #3. This will automatically put your page numbers in. Simply type your last name to the left of the number (Example: Luna 1). The page number will automatically change on each page and your last name will always be there.
4. Top, bottom, and side margins should be one inch. Go to the Page Layout tab. The select Margins drop down list. Make sure Normal is selected.
5. Type your name, teacher’s name, course, and date. This should be left aligned.
6. Center the title of the paper. DO NOT use larger font, underline the title, put in “quotation marks,” set in bold or ALL CAPITALS. Simply type the title and center it.
7. Indent the first word of each paragraph by hitting the Tab key.
SAMPLE FIRST PAGE:
MLA Parenthetical Citation
Why use parenthetical references?
· To indicate to your reader that you have used someone else's words or ideas. This avoids plagiarizing (using the work of others as your own);
· To let your reader know the source of your quotation or idea. Because the parenthetical reference follows the quotation or paraphrasing, it immediately indicates your source to the reader.
When do you use parenthetical references?
· For any piece of information, idea, quotation, etc. that is not your own;
When do you NOT have to use parenthetical references?
· Popular sayings;
· Facts which are common knowledge (e.g. the World Trade Center attacks happened on September 11, 2011).
What goes in a parenthetical reference?
· Information in the parenthesis is the first word(s) from your Works Cited entry - usually the author’s name - and the page number (if there is one);
· If there is no author, include as many words from the beginning of the reference to differentiate it from a similar entry
o Example: If you have 2 books with no author, one titled “Poverty and Homelessness in Canada” and one “Poverty in Canada”, your parenthetical references would be (Poverty and Homelessness 123) and (Poverty in Canada 123) respectively;
· Web sites do not have page numbers so no number would appear in the parenthesis.
Where do you put parenthetical references?
· Directly after the direct quote or fact or idea that you have used.
o "Employee morale was only one of Iacocca's many worries" (Abodaher 318).
o Iacocca had many worries, including employee morale (Abodaher 318).
· The period at the end of your sentence will always go AFTER the parenthetical citation.
NOTE: If you use a number of ideas, all from the same source, within one paragraph AND have put all the ideas into your own words, simply put the parenthetical reference at the end of the paragraph.
MLA In-Text Citation Examples
Common Knowledge
If three to five reference works all say the EXACT same thing about a topic, then that idea is common knowledge. It is not the intellectual property of any one individual, and, therefore, does not need to be cited. If you ever have questions on whether a statement is common knowledge, ask a Librarian or talk to your teacher.
For example, a statement like "George Washington is known as the 'Father of His Country'" would not need to be cited because this is a general idea in the culture that most people are aware of. These sorts of information are called "common knowledge."
Author, title, and page number known
Example: Lyndsay Murray, organic chemist at the University of Iowa, writes that students learn how important chemistry is to society in the Organic Chemistry I (18).
Example: An organic chemist at the University of Iowa writes that students learn how important chemistry is to society in the Organic Chemistry I (Murray 18).
Multiple authors (3 or less)
Example: The authors discuss effective ways to incorporate sources into a paper (Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst 3).
Same authors, multiple works
Example: The lonely aura becomes even more pronounced as he says, “the loneliness includes me unawares” (Frost, “Desert Places” 1405). Elsewhere, though, Frost embraces the loneliness (“Stopping by Woods” 1403).
Author known, publication electronic without page numbers
Example: Lyndsay Murray, organic chemist at the University of Iowa, writes that students learn how important chemistry is to society in the Organic Chemistry I.
Example: An organic chemist at the University of Iowa writes that students learn how important chemistry is to society in Organic Chemistry I (Murray).
Author unknown- Refer to the title in the absence of an author.
Example: According to an article in Newsweek entitled "Getting the Most Out of College," students learn how important chemistry is to society in the course Organic Chemistry I (18).
Another method for documenting when the author is unknown
Example: According to an article in Newsweek, students learn how important chemistry is to society in the course Organic Chemistry I ("Getting the Most" 18).
NOTE: Abbreviate the title to the first few words in your parenthetical reference. If you were providing the title of a book or larger independent work, it would be italicized.
Multiple Citations in One Sentence
Example: The stars are separated by “empty spaces”, not “lovely, dark, and deep” sky (Frost, “Desert Places” 1405; Frost, “Stopping by Woods” 1403).
A Work from an Anthology- Cite it as if from a book, using the page number from the anthology.
Example: Frost captures muffled beauty by describing how “the only other sound’s the sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake” (“Stopping by Woods” 1403).
Indirect Source- A source is considered indirect when an author refers to another author’s publication. For example, let’s say you’re reading a book on grammar written by Marianne Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freeman. The two authors then talk about an article written by another author. You would format your citation as follows:
Example: They further state, “There are two ‘zero’ articles in English. Andrew Chesterman reminds us that one occurs with nonspecific or generic noncount and plural nouns and is referred to as the zero article (qtd. In Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 280).
Quotes that run more than 4 typed lines- NOTE: The quotation begins on a separate line after the lead-in phrase, is indented, does not use quotation marks, locates the parenthetical citation after the period, and is continuously double-spaced like the rest of the paper would be.
Example:
Lyndsay Murray, organic chemist at the University of Iowa, writes:
I have had a fascination with chemistry ever since I can remember. I think my first experience with chemistry happened when I was four years old, and my mother gave me a handful of baking powder and told me to pour vinegar over it to see what would happen. Magic. I've been hooked ever since. (26)
Citing non-print or sources from the Internet
Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like CNN.com or Forbes.com as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.
Example: Dramatic scenes unfolded on the Hungarian-Serbian border, as hundreds of frustrated migrants and refugees broke through police lines and ran from a holding area (CNN.com).
Plagiarism Policy
Plagiarism is the use of another person’s original ideas or writing as one’s own without giving credit to the true author. Plagiarism will be considered cheating, and the student will be subject to academic disciplinary action that may include loss of credit for the work in question. Teachers who have reason to believe a student has engaged in cheating or other academic dishonesty will determine the academic penalty to be assessed.
How do I know if it’s Plagiarism?
There are some actions that can almost unquestionably be labeled plagiarism including buying, stealing, or borrowing a paper (including copying an entire paper or article from the Web); hiring someone to write your paper for you; and copying large sections of text from a source without quotation marks or proper citation. However, there are actions that are usually in more of a gray area including using the words of a source too closely when paraphrasing or adding on to someone's ideas without citing their spoken or written work. When in doubt, cite; if the citation turns out to be unnecessary, your teacher will tell you.
When do we give credit?
The key to avoiding plagiarism is to make sure you give credit where it is due. This may be credit for something somebody said, wrote, emailed, drew, or implied. Here, then, is a brief list of what needs to be credited or documented:
· Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium
· Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another person, face to face, over the phone, or in writing
· When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase
· When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials
· When you reuse or repost any electronically-available media, including images, audio, video, or other media
· Bottom line, document any words, ideas, or other productions that originate somewhere outside of you.
There are, of course, certain things that do not need documentation or credit, including:
· Writing your own lived experiences, your own observations and insights, your own thoughts, and your own conclusions about a subject
· When you are writing up your own results obtained through lab or field experiments
· When you use your own artwork, digital photographs, video, audio, etc.
· When you are using "common knowledge," things like folklore, common sense observations, myths, urban legends, and historical events (but not historical documents)
· When you are using generally-accepted facts, e.g., pollution is bad for the environment, including facts that are accepted within particular discourse communities, e.g., in the field of composition studies, "writing is a process" is a generally-accepted fact.
· Deciding if something is "common knowledge" Examples: The 9/11 bombings happened on September 11; The Earth is the third planet from the Sun.
Source: owl.english.purdue.edu
Plagiarism- Frequently Asked Questions
1. It’s the night before your paper is due, and you haven’t done any work. You buy a paper from an online essay-mill. Is this plagiarism?
· Yes, this is plagiarism. Obviously.
2. Your friend did the course last year, and she gives you her paper. You change the wording here and there and insert a few of your own ideas. Is this plagiarism?
· Yes, this is plagiarism. Your essay must be your work and no one else’s with proper citations.
3. You find a neat idea in an article, so you use it in your paper. You don’t cite the source of the idea because you’ve expressed it in your own words. Is this plagiarism?
· Yes, this is plagiarism. If you did not think of the idea yourself, it is not your intellectual property. Restating it in your own words still makes this plagiarism.
4. You copy a paragraph directly from an article you found. You cite the source, but you forget to put quotation marks. Is this plagiarism?
· Yes, this is plagiarism. When citing text directly from articles, you must include the quotations marks around your sources.
5. You copy a short passage from an article you found. You change a couple of words, so that it’s different from the original – this way you don’t need quotation marks. You carefully cite the source. Is this plagiarism?
· Yes, this is plagiarism.
Setting Up Your TurnItIn.com Account
• Go to www.turnitin.com and click on the "Create Account" link next to the "Log In" button
• Click on the "Student" link in the "Create a New Account" section
• The "Create a New Turnitin Student Account" form must be completed to create a new student user account
• Enter the class ID number and the case sensitive Turnitin class enrollment password
• 1st Period ID: 10633011 Password: Luna
• 2nd Period ID: 10633032 Password: Luna
• 3rd Period ID: 10633046 Password: Luna
• 4th Period ID: 10633062 Password: Luna
• 5th Period ID: 10633083 Password: Luna
• 6th Period ID: 10633094 Password: Luna
• Write down your account information on your folder. Include email address used and password.
• TurnItIn.com Email Used:_________________________________________
• TurnItIn.com Password:___________________________________________
Submitting your paper to TurnItIn.com
1. After logging in to Turnitin.com, click on the class name you would like to submit your paper to.
2. Click on the Submit button to the right of the assignment name
3. Select single file upload from the paper submission method pull down menu. DO NOT copy and paste.
4. Once the requirements for single file upload have been reviewed, choose to upload a file from their computer.
5. Click one of the submission buttons and then select the file you would like to upload
6. Fill in the submission title field with the title
7. Click upload to upload the file. A status bar will appear displaying the upload progress
8. Review the preview panel. This is a text only version of the paper being uploaded. Confirm it is the correct version of the file to send
9. Click the "submit" button
Warning: This step must be completed, or the submission is not finished. The paper will not be available to the student or the teacher
*After the submission has been completed on step 7 a digital receipt is displayed on screen. A copy is also sent via e-mail to the address for the user login. Save the receipt and the paper ID it contains, as this is proof of a completed submission.
Setting Up Your EasyBib.com Account
• Go to schools.birdvilleschools.net/hhs. Click on the “Library” tab (at the top), then “Research Tools” (right side), then click “Register for BISD special access HERE” under Easy Bib.
• Enter all required information. You do not need to enter a coupon code.
• Write down your account information on your folder. Include email address used and password.