HSAS STUDENTS

1
WELCOME

• HSAS STUDENTS

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MLA Style

• The Modern Language Association has created a
  handbook for high school students.
• Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of
  Research Papers. 6th ed. New York MLA, 2003.

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Why do I have to follow a style guide?

• In high school you learn to do research and write
  in a scholarly style.
• The purpose of scholarly writing is to document
  as much about a subject as possible.
• A style guide is a set of rules that guide you in
  this documentation process.
• When you have a problem with your paper it is
  good to have a helpful guide.

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The documentation process

• You have chosen your topic.
• You have searched for books on the topic.
• You have searched for articles on the topic.
• As you search you need to document the source
  from which each item came.
• When you search in an electronic database for a
  book or article you need to record everything
  that MLA style requires.

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What is style

• Style can be understood as something distinctive.
  
• We notice different styles in cars, music,
  fashion, and architecture, to name just a few
  areas in which we can define style. What is in
  style is constantly changing.
• In academic writing, such as your Research Class
  papers, you are required to use MLA Style.

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MLA Style

• Copies of the official handbook on MLA Style
• are available in the Lehman College Library
• Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of
  Research Papers. 6th ed. New York MLA, 2003.

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Using a style guide

• Style guides contain rules for creating scholarly
  products term papers, journal articles, theses,
  and dissertations. They govern the form these
  documents take.
• A student who writes a research paper must
  document the sources s/he uses. In the process
  of writing the student has combined many facts
  from many different authors. As the materials are
  collected the student carefully records the
  citation for each source. The style guide
  explains how to make citations.
• These citations are put into a List of Works
  Cited at the end of the paper. Different types
  of documents (articles, reviews, government
  documents, etc.) have different citation
  requirements.
• Style guides set out rules for how a term paper
  looks physically margins, spacing between lines,
  where the footnote references are placed, where
  the authors name is placed, even where the page
  numbers are typed.

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The Integrity of Research

• Scholarship always relies on information that is
  available, authoritative, and accurate. Your
  Reference List at the back of your term paper
  shows that you did the work, you sorted through
  everything and chose what you felt was best to
  develop your topic.
• You cited the words of other scholars and when
  you used their ideas you also cited the pages
  from which the ideas came. As a scholar, you know
  how to find information, evaluate it, and
  consider about how different views might fit
  together to make a new whole.
• As a scholar you cross check your sources for
  accuracy. You chose the most authoritative
  source.
• You are accountable. You chose the best sources
  with the best information concerning your topic.
  You synthesized it all and write about the topic
  with both fact and imagination.
• Ideally, your paper is better than any of those
  that came before. You searched, found,
  summarized, quoted, and analyzed the materials
  you collected using critical thinking to decide
  what would develop your topic. When you are
  finished you can be proud.

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The changing outline

• You outline your topic as you gather more
  information. You keep changing your outline until
  it accurately reflects what you plan to write.
• As you do research, finding books, journal
  articles, and
• original sources (interviews, letters,
  e-mails, etc.) you will
• become more and more knowledgeable about your
  topic.
• You will probably change your outline as you
  gain expertise.

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How Is the MLA Handbook Organized?

• The MLA Handbook is organized using a decimal
  system.
• For instance, if you want to learn whether to
  underline or italicize the title of a book in
  your citation, you would turn to the index and
  look up Titles and under that You would find
  
• Italics (Underlining) 3.3, 3.3.1, 3.3.2,
  3.3.3.
• These decimals refer you to first chapter 3, then
  the part of the chapter. It works very well. The
  actual chapter numbers are in red so they stand
  out.

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How do I use MLA Handbook?

• Open the book.
• Find the Contents page.
• Read the Preface.
• Check out the chapter titles.
• Look at one or two chapters.
• Check out the appendices.
• There is a back-of-the-book index.
• Navigation from the index to the pages is by
  decimal notation, not by page number.

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Contents

• Forward by Phyllis Franklin
  xv
• Chapter 1 Research and Writing
  1
• Chapter 2 Plagiarism
  66
• Chapter 3 The Mechanics of Writing
  79
• Chapter 4 The Format of the Research Paper
  132
• Chapter 5 Documentation Preparing the List of
  Works Cited 142
• Chapter 6 Documentation Citing Sources in the
  Text 238
• Chapter 7 Abbreviations
  262
• Appendix A Selected Reference Works by Field
  284
• Appendix B Other Systems of Documentation
  298
• Sample Pages of a Research Paper in MLA style
  319
• Index
  295

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Your audience

• Who will read your paper? Your first audience
  will be your teacher and the other students in
  your class.
• When your Reference List is complete anyone
  reading your paper will have access to the
  information on which you based your conclusions.

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The List of Works Cited

• What is the List of Works Cited?
• You can also call it the Reference List?
• How do I know what goes in it?
• When do I create it?
• Why have a List of Works Cited?
• Who will use the List of Works Cited?
• What order is it in?

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Creating Citations
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MLA style for booksby personal authors

• one author
• Wilson, Frank R. The Hand How its Use Shapes the
  Brain, Language, and Human Culture. New York
• Pantheon, 1998.
• Two or more authors
• Marquart, James W. Sheldon Ekland Olson, and
  Johathan R. Sorensen. The Rope, the Chair, and
  the Needle Capital Punishment in Texas.
  1923-1990. Austin U of Texas P, 1994.

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MLA Style for books by corporate authors

• Public Agenda Foundation. The Health Care Crisis
  Containing Costs, Expanding Coverage. New York
  McGraw, 1992.
• American Psychological Association. Publication
  Manual of the American Psychological Association.
  4th edition. Washington APA, 1994.

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MLA Style when a book has no author

• A Guide to Our Federal Lands. Washington Natl.
  Geographic Soc., 1984.

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MLA Style for citing a television or radio program

• Death and Society. Narr. Joanne Silberner.
  Weekend Edition
• Sunday. Natl. Public Radio. WUWM,
  Milwaukee. 25 Jan.
• 1998.
• Yes . . . But Is It Art? Narr. Morley Safer.
  Sixty Minutes. CBS.
• WCBS. New York. 19 Sept. 1993.
• If you are citing a transcript add the word
  transcript at the end
• Death and Society. Narr. Joanne Silberner.
  Weekend Edition
• Sunday. Natl. Public Radio. WUWM,
  Milwaukee. 25 Jan.
• 1998. Transcript.

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MLA Style for citing a book review

• Updike, John. Fine Points. Rev. of The
  New Fowlers new Modern English Usage, ed. R.
  W. Burchfield. New Yorker 23-30 Dec. 1996
  142-149.

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MLA Style for citing a scholarly article

• In journal using continuous pagination
• Most, Andrea. We Know We Belong to the Land
  The Theatricality of Assimilation in Rodgers and
  Hammersteins Oklahoma!, PMLA 112 (1998) 77-89.
• In journal that pages each issue separately
• Frederick Barthelme, Architecture, Kansas
  Quarterly 13.3-4 (1981) 77-78.

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MLA Style for article in a reference book
(dictionary, encyclopedia, etc.)

• Azimuthal Equidistant Projection.
  Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary. 10th ed.
  1993.
• Ginsburg, Ruth Bader. Whos Who in America.
  52nd ed. 1998.
• Mohanty, Jitendra M. Indian Philosopohy. The
  New Encyclopaedia Britannica Macropaedia. 15th
  ed. 1987.
• Noon. The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed.
  1989
• For a specific meaning in a dictionary insert the
  definition number
• Noon. Def. 4b. The Oxford English Dictionary.
  2nd ed. 1989.

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Internet and electronic items

• Generally you cite the same elements that you use
  to cite hardcopy publications
• Name of creator (author, editor, compiler, etc.)
• Title (of poem, article, review, etc.)
• Title (of book or journal)
• Publication information for any print version
• Version number of the source or, for a journal,
  the volume number, issue number, or other
  identifying number
• internet address in angle brackets followed
  by the database name, library name (if
  applicable), and date of search.
• For full details refer to the MLA Handbook.