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Persuasive Research Paper: Step-By-Step MLA Instructions English 11: Somich

The following instructions are the official MLA guidelines. The best internet resource to learn how to complete this portion of your paper is to visit The OWL website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01.

1. Set the font to 12-point Times New Roman or 11-point Calibri.

2. Set the page margins to one inch all around

1. From the menu, select "File | Page Setup..." and click the Margins tab. 2. Set the top, bottom, left, and right margins to 1 inch. 3. Click "OK" or, to reset the default, click "Default..." and then "Yes".

3. Set the line spacing to double. All text is double spaced, including quotations from other sources and the Works Cited list. (To receive full credit, your paper must be 3-5 pages in double-spaced format.)

Note: You may wish to draft your paper in single-space, so that you can see more words on the screen at one time; if so, follow these instructions just before you print.

1. From the menu, select "Edit | Select All". 2. From the menu, select "Format | Paragraph..." and click the "Indents and Spacing" tab. 3. Set "Line spacing" to "Double". 4. Click "OK"

4. Adding the Header

The following section explains how your header should appear at the top of your paper.

1. Make sure your header has a “Different First Page”. 2. On the first page header: a. In the top right of your header, you should type your last name and insert the page number. Remember to “insert” the page number within Word. (Chessar 1) b. Enter twice, so two lines below, on the far left you enter: i. Your first and last name. Be sure to write your formal name (Joseph Chessar). ii. The class (Explorations in Literature & Language I) iii. The teacher’s name (Mr. Somich) iv. The due date of the paper (3 June 2013) 3. On the second page and all subsequent pages, the header should have: a. Your last name and insert the page number on the far right. Remember to “insert” the page number within Word. (Chessar 2)

5. Adding the Title Block

1. You should begin your paper with a title. This title should have capital letters for all important words (not including prepositions, articles). 2. The title should be the question you’re debating.

Source: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic/mla_style.html a. The title should not be in bold or underlined. It should also not be in a different font or in all capital letters. 3. Your title should be: “Should the American Health Care Bill Become Law?” a. Your title should not be: “Why Health Care Reform Should Be Passed” or “Reasons to Pass Health Care Reform”.

(SAMPLE FORMAT)

Chessar 1

Joseph Chessar Explorations in Literature & Language I Mr. Somich 3 June 2013

Should the American Health Care Bill Become Law?

Too often, English professors encounter student papers with uninformative or misleading titles.

“If the title, the thesis statement, and the conclusion don't match, I know I've been handed a rush job, a load of nonsense, or both.”

6. MLA Works Cited

1. Find the MLA citation below each article in Gale. See the example below to see what it will look like.

2. You should have at least five citations total in your Works Cited.

3. List them in alphabetical order by the first letter of the entry. Look at the second word of the entry if the entry begins with “A” or “An” or “The”.

4. If you need help making your citations, visit www.citationmachine.net, and the site will make your citations for you!

2 MLA Works Cited

Carrick, Rob. "Banks can do more to restrain runaway debt." Globe & Mail [Toronto, Canada] 24

Feb. 2011: B21. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 2 Mar. 2011.

"Economic Necessity Drives the Surge in Consumer Debt." Consumer Debt. Ed. Joseph Tardiff.

Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Current Controversies. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In

Context. Web. 2 Mar. 2011.

"The Government Should Allow Citizens the Choice to Use Payday Lenders." Alternative

Lending. Ed. Amanda Hiber. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Gale

Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 2 Mar. 2011.

Loewer, Tony. Personal Interview. 28 Feb. 2011.

"The U.S. Is a Producer Nation." Should the U.S. Reduce its Consumption? David M. Haugen.

Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 2

Mar. 2011.

3 MLA in-text parenthetical citations

This is the most challenging and time-consuming portion of completing the MLA format. Excellent instructions are shown on the OWL website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02.

The Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines require that you cite the quotations, summaries, paraphrases, and other material used from sources within parentheses typically placed at the end of the sentence in which the quoted or paraphrased material appears. The parenthetical method replaces the use of citational footnotes. These in-text parenthetical citations correspond to the Works Cited entries found at the end of your paper.

Single author named in parentheses.

The tendency to come to terms with difficult experiences is referred to as a "purification process" whereby "threatening or painful dissonances are warded off to preserve intact a clear and articulated image of oneself and one’s place in the world" (Sennett 11).

Single author named in a signal phrase.

Social historian Richard Sennett names the tendency to come to terms with difficult experiences a "purification process" whereby "threatening or painful dissonances are warded off to preserve intact a clear and articulated image of oneself and one’s place in the world" (11).

Two or more authors.

Certain literacy theorists have gone so far as to declare that "the most significant elements of human culture are undoubtedly channeled through words, and reside in the particular range of meanings and attitudes which members of any society attach to their verbal symbols" (Goody and Watt 323).

Corporate author (organization, association, etc.).

The federal government has funded research concerning consumer protection and consumer transactions with online pharmacies (Food and Drug Administration 125).

Works with no author. Write the first two or three words of the title.

Several critics of the concept of the transparent society ask if a large society would be able to handle the complete loss of privacy ("Surveillance Society" 115).

4 Work found in an anthology or edited collection.

For an essay, short story, or other document included in an anthology or edited collection, use the name of the author of the work, not the editor of the anthology or collection, and use the page numbers from the anthology or collection.

Lawrence Rosenfield analyzes the way in which New York’s Central Park held a socializing function for nineteenth-century residents similar to that of traditional republican civic oratory (222).

Bible passage.

Unfortunately, the president could not recall the truism that "Wisdom is a fountain to one who has it, but folly is the punishment of fools" (New Oxford Annotated Bible, Prov. 20-22).

Web page.

Abraham Lincoln's birthplace was designated as a National Historical Site in 1959 (National Park Service).

What if my source is from the internet, so I don’t have a page number?

You should still write the name of the author, followed by a comma, and then the paragraph number. If something was found in the fourth paragraph, for example, the number would be 4.

For example:

“The eighth grade achievement tests were given on April 17, 2008 to a total of 1.5 million 8th grade students” (Miller, par. 4).

Placement of Citations

 Place a citation at the end of the sentence BEFORE the period.  When material from one source and the same page numbers is used throughout a paragraph, you don’t have to type the citation multiple times. Place the parenthetical citation ONCE and then it counts for the rest of the paragraph. Once you start a new paragraph, you would need to place the parenthetical citation again, even if you already stated it within your paper.