WORKSHOP By KRISTINA YEGORYAN WHAT IS MLA MLA

WORKSHOP By: KRISTINA YEGORYAN

WHAT IS MLA ? MLA stands for Modern Language Association MLA format offers: • guidelines for the overall look of a paper • makes the paper credible with a method of documenting sources

Basic Features of MLA Style • Use Times New Roman font, 12 point size • Double-Space the whole paper • All margins should be set to 1 inch • Single or double spacing after punctuation is acceptable • Each page should have “header” of last name and page number at the upper right-hand corner of each page Continued

Basic Features of MLA Style • Heading in the left corner of the 1 st page: Student’s Full Name Instructor’s name Class name Date ( Day Month Year ) Ex. 20 November 2012 • The title of the paper is centered Do not underline, bold, or “quote” the title • When ending a quote with punctuation, punctuation is inside the quotation marks Ex: “ O Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? ” (Romeo and Juliet 2. 2. 36).

IN-TEXT CITATIONS How to document the resources in the essay • Quoting Resources: Direct – “word by word” Indirect – paraphrasing the overall idea In both cases you should document the source • Use signal words: According to … As… claims/argues/states…

IN-TEXT CITATIONS • In-text citations are short: the author’s last name and page number (s) • In-text citation is in the ( ) followed by the period mark ( ). Ex: “It is truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austin 2). • If the authors name is mentioned in the sentence, it’s not necessary to put the last name in the citation. Ex: According to Jane Austen “It is truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (2).

WORKS CITED Is a list of the references used in the paper and serves as an acknowledgement for the sources. With the detailed information in the Works Cited list one can find the original source if needed for further research Works Cited is usually a separate page attached in the end of the essay or document The sources are listed in the alphabetical order without numbers or bullet- points

WITH THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE TECHNOLOGY Twitter is a big part of education and technology. So, MLA released its official usage for citing tweets in academic papers.

PLAGIARISM It is very important to properly cite any source used in composing an essay! Ø Plagiarism is an act of using another person’s words or ideas and attempting to pass them off as your own Ø Plagiarism is a serious offense and academic dishonesty and could result in suspension or even expulsion.

ONLINE CITATION AID There are many electronic information databases (Gale Info Trac, Lexis Nexis Academic, CQ Researcher) that offer the MLA citation with the article. There also websites that help to properly cite the sources with MLA format www. easybib. com www. citationmachine. net

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