Assassination Research PaperCreating a Works Cited Page

What Are We Doing and Why?

Content Standard: Writing Strategies 1.7 – Use appropriate conventions for documentation in the text, notes, and bibliographies by adhering to those in style manuals (e.g., Modern Language Association Handbook).

ESLR: Reflective Communicator – Think, read, write, listen, speak well

Objective: After taking notes on proper MLA formatting, you will complete create a properly formatted Works Cited page for your research paper, showing that you can use these conventions in your own writing.

Remember Your Task

Task: Write a research paper in which you explain the political situation leading up to the assassination, the motivation for the assassination, the nature of the conspiracy involved with the assassination, a description of the assassination itself, and the political aftermath after the assassination of the political figure.

Your Outline

This is a longer essay than you are used to: Seven (7) Paragraphs

Introduction Five (5) Body Paragraphs Conclusion Paragraph

Then there is one more part: a Works Cited page. This will go at the end of your essay.

Review of MLA Formatting for the Entire Essay All text (letters, words, sentences, etc.) should be in 12pt. Times

New Roman font.

All text should be double-spaced.

There should be one-inch margins around the entire page.

There should be no extra bolding, underlining, italicizing or

changing of fonts. Italicizing titles of books is an exception to this

rule because it would not be considered extra.

I showed you how to do ALL of these things in the first week of

the school year (and you should have been doing them all year!).

If you have forgotten, be sure to have someone show you.

Review of MLA Formatting for the Entire Essay Your paper should have a header with your name and the

page number (this should be on each page of the essay).

There should also be a heading on the first page that is

left-justified (def: lined up on the left), double-spaced, and

includes: Your name

Course Name (English 10 Honors)

Your teacher’s name

The date in Day Month Year format (11 April 2012)

Reminder: What Your Heading Should Look Like

How to Do the Header

For Word 2003:

On the “View” menu, click “Header

or Footer” to open the header

area.

Make sure your header is right-

justified (def: lined up on the

right).

Using the “Header and Footer”

toolbar, click the “Insert Page

Number” button.

Make sure the cursor (def:

blinking line that shows where to

type) is in front of the number.

Type your last name and one

space.

Click “Close” on the “Header and

Footer” toolbar to return to your

essay.

How to Do the Header

For Word 2007:

Click “Insert” at the top of

the page.

Hover the mouse over

“Page Number,” and then

“Top of Page.” Select

“Plain Number 3.”

Make sure the cursor is in

front of the number, and

then type your last name

and one space.

Close the header using the

big red “X” in the top bar.

MLA for In-Text Citations

Participation Point Alert! Do you remember your mantra?

Transition—Quotation—Citation

Participation Point Alert! Do you remember what this refers to in your research paper?

Whether you are using exact quotations or paraphrasing from the sources (Hint: These

are your evidence sentences in your Body Paragraphs), you must use proper MLA style.

Transition: Lead your reader into the quotation by transitioning from your topic

sentence.

Quotation: Choose the quotation that supports your topic sentence and your thesis.

Place this in “quotation marks,” but hold off on the period for now.

Citation: Place the author of the source’s last name in parentheses (Author). If there

is no author listed, list the title of the article.

More Info on In-Text Citations

If you’ve mentioned the author’s name in the text like this:

In his article “Mahatma Gandhi: A Life,” Mark Tannen states, “ortgjgsp

rofrmgsodgdg.”

Then you don’t need a parenthetical citation at the end (unless

you’re referencing a printed text, in which case you’d include

the page number—just the number, no “p.”).

If you’ve introduced the quote without mentioning the author,

then you will need to include the author’s name (last name

only) in parentheses at the end of the sentence in which the

quote can be found.

That’s a lot of work! And there’s more? Why do I have to do all this?

If you listed an author’s name or the title of an article anywhere in your paper, then your reader is going to wonder where you found this information. The MLA Works Cited page tells your reader where to find the information that you quote (or paraphrase) in the research paper.

Adding a Works Cited page makes your research paper more credible.

When you are in college, a Works Cited page will be required in order to substantiate (def: prove) that you are not plagiarizing someone else’s work.

MLA Format for Your Works Cited Page

To Create A Works Cited Page: After the end of the text of your essay, create a page break (def: hit “Enter” until

you get to a new page). Keeping with MLA format (described earlier in this PPT), type the words Works

Cited at the top of the page and center them. (Remember – no extra bolding or underlining!)

List each required piece of information for each source in the correct order (the next slide will show you how to do this). Each one of these is referred to as an “entry.”

Alphabetize your sources by the author’s last name. If no author is listed, use the first word in the title of the article that is not an article (i.e., “A,” “An,” or “The”)

Use a hanging indent for the second and subsequent (def: each additional) lines in each entry.

Make sure to follow the punctuation in the example EXACTLY.

How to Do a Hanging Indent

Highlight the text that you want to have a hanging indent. (In this case, your Works Cited entries.)

For Word 2003, select “Format,” and then “Paragraph.” For Word 2007, click on the small arrow in the bottom of the “Paragraph” box.

In the Paragraph window that appears, look for the “Indentation” section. Use the drop-down menu under “Special” to select “Hanging,” make sure the drop-down menu under “By” says 0.5”, and click “OK.”

Order of Information for Each Source EntryA Nonperiodical (def: not released on a regular schedule) Publication (Website) Name of Author Title of Article Title of Overall Website (italicized) Version or Edition Publisher or Sponsor (if not available, write N.p.) Date of Publication (Day Month Year; if not available use n.d.) Publication of Medium (Web) Date of Access (Day Month Year)

What does an “entry” look like?

Here are two examples:

Green, Joseph. “The Kennedy Presidency.” The Atlantic.com. Atlantic Monthly

Group, Sept. 2007. Web. 13 March 2012.

“John F. Kennedy Assassination.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 7

March 2011. Web. 7 March 2011.

Notice: If no author is listed, just leave it out. Do not alphabetize by “unknown.” The period is used to show the end of a piece of information.

Creating Entries for Other SourcesIf you need to cite sources other than a nonperiodical publication (website), refer to Purdue University’s OWL (Online Writing Lab) it is the most accurate and easily understandable MLA site out there.

For electronic (online) sources like EBSCO:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/

Find a video or interview you’d like to reference? Check out the OWL’s page on other common sources:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/09/