What is a Research Paper ?

1. What is a Research Paper? • It is a research paper that you write with information you collect from five or more sources. • You write it by following MLA rules. • You are not allowed to use first person – “I” or second person – “you.”

2. What is the MLA? MLA stands for Modern Language Association. It is a group that was created in 1883, and it is made up of teachers and researchers who establish rules for writing formal papers.

3. Why should you follow MLA rules? • Following these rules lets the readers of your paper immediately see where you found each fact. • Following these rules makes it easy for people to read your paper. • Following these rules keeps you from getting into trouble for plagiarizing.

4. What is plagiarism? • It is a crime that occurs if you write someone else’s ideas without giving that person credit. • It is stealing someone else’s work. • It can result in an “F” on the paper, an “F” for the semester, or even possible suspension. Don’t do it!!!!

5. The MLA style for papers has two parts. • Parenthetical Citations • A Works Cited Page

6. What is a parenthetical citation? • It is information inside parentheses ( ) on each page of the body of your paper. • This information tells readers where to look on the last page of your paper to learn where you got your information. • The last page of your paper is called a “Works Cited” page.

7. When should you use parenthetical citations? • Use them when you quote any words that are not your own. (Quotemeans to copy information from a source, word for word, using quotation marks.)

8. When should you use parenthetical citations? (continued) • Use them when you summarizefacts and ideas from a source. • Summarize means to read one or more paragraphs and then write the main ideas, using your ownwords. • Use them when you paraphrasea source. • Paraphrase means to use the ideas from sentences or a paragraph from another source but change the words to make them sound like the way youwrite.

9. Remember to use parenthetical citations for three reasons. • To quote • To summarize • To paraphrase Even if you use none of the same words as the source, you must still cite it in order to give the author credit for the ideas you are using.

10. What does it mean to cite a source? It means to use aparenthetical citation and then put publication information in an entry on the “Works Cited” page.

11. What is on a “Works Cited” page? • The page has a complete listof every source that you got facts, ideas, or quotes from to create your paper. • It has all the information necessary for someone else to find the same sources you used. • It makes it possible for someone else to check that everything you have written came from an expert.

12. A Sample Works Cited Page

13. What does a quote look like in a research paper? Here is an example: Washington Irving made his story scary when he wrote, “The swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high; which made it dark at noonday, and a retreat for all the owls of the neighborhood” (Irving) Notice that the quote is introduced with a few words, a comma, and opening quotation marks. The period goes after the parenthetical citation, not before or immediately after the closing quotation marks.

14. What does the (Irving) mean? • (Irving) is a parenthetical citation telling the reader that someone named Irving is the author of the quote. • It tells the reader what to look for on the “Works Cited” page (the last page) of the paper if the reader wants to read more from Irving’s work.

15. Okay, I want to read more from Irving. How do I find the source of his quote? • Go to the “Works Cited” page (last page) of the paper. • Look for Irving’s name hanging out on the left side of the paper. • All of the sources used in the paper are in alphabetical order. • Look for Irving.

16. Looking for Irving on a Sample Works Cited Page Works Cited Irving, Washington. “The Devil and Tom Walker.” About.com. 4 Dec. 2006 <http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wirving/bl-wirving-devil.htm>. Warner, Charles. Washington Irving. Whitefish:Kessinger, 2004. IMPORTANT: The author’s last name hangs over the publishing information, so readers can easily find authors. The top example is a story by Washington Irving. The bottom example is a book about Washington Irving. See why following MLA rules is important to avoid confusion?

17. More about the Importance of MLA Rules • The formatting rules about punctuation, spacing, and capitalization let readers easily see whether the parenthetical citation is referring to a person or a title. • The rules let readers easily find an author or work by an unknown author because entries on the works cited page are in alphabetical order.

18. Works Cited and Parenthetical (In-text) Citations: Some Examples • Book by one author English, Carol. The Cliffs Won't Do: Read the Book.Philadelphia: McGraw Hill, 1997. (English 27). • Article in a magazine Ramsey, Pamela. "Where's My Smiley Face?" MacWorld Sept. 1997: 86-94. (Ramsey 89). • Web page Poland, Dave. “The Hot Button.” Roughcut. 26 Oct. 1998. Turner Network Television. 28 Oct. 1998 <www.roughcut.com>. (Poland).

19. Works Cited and Parenthetical Citations • A work in an anthology (a book with a collection of works written by different authors) Desai, Anita. “Scholar and Gypsy.” The Oxford Book of Travel Stories. Ed. Patricia Craig. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. 251-273. (Desai 252-273). Note: In the parentheses, use just the page numbers where each quote or paraphrase was found. • A source with no known author “Cigarette Sales Fall 30% as California Tax Rises.” New York Times 14 Sept. 1999: A17. (“Cigarette” A17). Note: In the parentheses, use short form of title.

20. Works Cited and Parenthetical Citations • A TV interview McGwire, Mark. Interview with Matt Lauer. The Today Show. NBC. WTHR, Indianapolis. 22 Oct. 1998. (McGwire). • A personal interview Mellencamp, John. Personal interview. 27 Oct. 1998. (Mellencamp).

21. Remember: Parenthetical Citations Rules • If the source has no known author, then use an abbreviated version of the title: Full Title: “California Cigarette Tax Deters Smokers” Citation: (“California” A14) • If the source is only one page in length or is a web page with no apparent pagination: Source: Dave Poland’s “Hot Button” web column Citation: (Poland)

22. What do I do with a quote that is four or more lines long? Irving creates a scary story by describing a thick and dark forest which represents greed and evil: The swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high; which made it dark at noonday, and a retreat for all the owls of the neighborhood. It was full of pits and quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses; where the green surface often betrayed the traveler into a gulf of black smothering mud; there were also dark and stagnant pools, the abodes of the tadpole, the bull-frog, and the water snake, and where trunks of pines and hemlocks lay half drowned, half rotting, looking like alligators, sleeping in the mire. (Irving)

23. Let’s look at how a long quote is introduced. Irving creates a scary setting when he describes a thick and dark forest which represents greed and evil It is introduced with a sentence ending with a colon

24. Let’s look at how the quote itself is formatted. • The entire quote is indented. • No quotation marks are used!!! • A period appears immediately after the quote. • The parenthetical citation appears last.

25. Look at the long quote again. Irving creates a scary setting by describing a thick and dark forest which represents greed and evilIntro. ends with colon. The swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high; which made it dark at noonday, and a retreat for all the owls of the neighborhood. It was full of pits and quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses; where the green surface often betrayed the traveler into a gulf of black smothering mud; there were also dark and stagnant pools, the abodes of the tadpole, the bull-frog, and the water snake, and where trunks of pines and hemlocks lay half drowned, half rotting, looking like alligators, sleeping in the mire. (Irving) Quote is indented. No quotation marks. Citation is last.

26. Where is a sample research paper I can look at? Sample research paper http://dianahacker.com/pdfs/Hacker-Daly-MLA.pdf This PowerPoint was created from materials from the above web site and the online writing lab at Purdue.