Class Notes: MLA s2

RESEARCH MLA A Writer’s Guide: Fifth Edition by Diane Hacker Class Notes: MLA These notes are your responsibility. Please refer to them as you prepare your research paper.

MATERIALS: Copy of A Writer’s Reference: Fifth Edition by Diana Hacker (class set in room 308)

RESOURCES: 1. http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/ a. Use this website when not in class and while writing your paper.

2. http://citationmachine.net/ and http://www.easybib.com/ a. Use these websites to format your Works Cited page. It will not put the final list in alphabetical order or the proper format (font, font size and double spacing). You will need to make those editing corrections in MS Word.

3. http://www.nclive.org/authhome.phtml a. This Web site will provide access to online databases for your research. Login in under East Albemarle Regional Library and the password is buckhear.

NOTES: Go to page 331 in Hacker’s book. The questions below come from pp. 331 – 348 and additional notes I will provide in the classroom discussion. Please write the answers to all questions on this sheet. Keep this in your notebook because you will be accountable for the information covered in class and the book. I will check these at the end of class.

Avoiding Plagiarism 1. What are the three different acts of plagiarism?

2. What is the definition of common knowledge?

3. What type of source is Wikipedia?

4. Hacker suggests a system to cite resources within your paper. This is called in-text citation. How does this system work? RESEARCH MLA A Writer’s Guide: Fifth Edition by Diane Hacker 5. Please read the excerpt from an original source (Matt Sundeen, “Cell Phones…”) and explain why the first example is an example of plagiarism.

6. From p. 333: “You are guilty of plagiarism if you half-copy the author’s sentences – either by mixing the author’s phrases with your own or by plugging your synonyms into the author’s sentence structure.” What suggestion does Hacker make to help you paraphrase your research?

Integrating Sources 7. What is a signal phrase?

8. How many direct quotations should you use in a research paper?

9. Choose four verbs used in signal phrases that you especially like and write them below. (p. 336)

10. What is the function of the ellipsis mark?

11. What do brackets indicate in your paper?

12. What does [sic] mean? RESEARCH MLA A Writer’s Guide: Fifth Edition by Diane Hacker

13. How do you set off long quotations?

14. If you are not using a signal phrase, how would you use an in-text citation? What two bits of information go within the parentheses?

Documenting Sources 15. How is the in-text citation connected to the works cited list?

16. What information is provided in the list of works cited?

17. You see an in-text citation that looks like this: (Sundeen 27-44). What is wrong with this?

18. How do you cite the page number of a source when you mention the author’s name in a signal phrase?

19. How do you cite a source if the author is unknown?

20. How do you cite a source is the page number is unknown? This is important!! Do pages exist in Web sources? RESEARCH MLA A Writer’s Guide: Fifth Edition by Diane Hacker

MLA List of Works Cited 21. How do you begin an entry with a one author?

22. How do begin an entry with two authors?

23. What does et al. mean?

24. How do begin an entry when there is no author? The formatting rules are very important so please review the following types of sources and their format. a. How do your format an article title? b. How do you format a book title? c. How do you format a Web site? d. How do you format a newspaper article? e. How do you format a song title? f. How do you format a magazine title? g. How do you format a poem title?