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1.
Review
research assignment and the 3 elements
a.
Annotated
bibliography (see Research Project link on left sidebar)
b.
Abstract
(see Research Project link on left sidebar)
c.
Controversial issue essay assignment
i.
Purpose:
analyze the pro/con positions of a controversial issue; argue for 1 side
ii.
Audience:
adults, college level readers; assume readers are not knowledgeable about the
sides of your issue
iii.
Length: 6-8
double spaced typed pages not including your works cited page.
2.
Number of
sources (6-8 academic, college-level; privilege journals/professional
periodicals):
a.
Minimum of 4
print-based sources
b.
Maximum of 2
Internet-based sources (electronic)
c.
All sources
must be a minimum of 4 pages long
3.
Type of
sources:
a.
Primary
sources (ex. District policies, raw data, experiments, pools, surveys)
b.
Secondary
sources (ex. Opinions of critics, professionals, scholars, citizens; commentary
pieces; newspaper OpEd pieces)
4.
Hierarchy of
sources:
a.
Articles are
your first choice because of their currency and their specificity
b.
Single-author books are your second choice of source; these give breadth on a
particular topic. Edited books or anthologies that contain essays/articles by
other authors are very good also. These rank as equivalent to articles you will
find in journals
c.
Internet-based sources should be the last place you look, mainly because many of
them may be of questionable authority.
d.
General
encyclopedia sources are not acceptable, but specialized encyclopedias are fine.
5.
Basic rules
for Works Cited page:
a.
Remember to
alphabetize
your entries by author's last name.
Do not to
number
them. If a source has no author, then alphabetize by the title of the source.
Ignore articles (a, an, the) when determining alphabetical order.
b.
Follow all the MLA
manuscript conventions.
c.
Be sure your
margins
are set to 1 inch all the way around
d.
Either
underline or
italicize
(italics preferred), but don't mix formats. (Underlining means the same thing
as italicizing.)
e.
Follow
formatting conventions for titles of “minor works” and major works.
f.
In your annotations (the part after the bibliographic information), remember
that names of titles (like periodical, magazine, and journal titles--hint, hint)
get italicized.
g.
MLA says to
abbreviate
months to the first three letters (e.g. Dec.), except for May, June, July,
and Sept.
h.
Put 2
spaces
after end punctuation (i.e. units of information, like the author's name and the
title of an article).
i.
Even though the original source may take liberties by not
capitalizing
words in titles, or adding a lot of extra bibliographic information, you still
have to adjust the capitalization and follow all the other MLA conventions for
documenting your sources.
j.
The new version of MLA documentation requires that you identify the medium of
your source by indicating either Print, Web, DVD, and so forth at the very end
of your bibliographic entry.
6.
Basic format
for books, periodicals, electronic sources (specifically full-text articles,
like in EbscoHost)
a.
Books
Author’s
Last Name, Author’s First Name. Book Title. City: Publisher, Copyright
Year. Print.
b.
Periodicals
Author’s Last Name, Author's First Name. “Article Title.” Periodical Title. Volume.Issue (Year):
inclusive pages. Print.
c.
Electronic
sources
Author’s Last Name, Author's First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal
Journal Volume.Journal Issue (Journal Year): inclusive page numbers. Name of
Database used. Name of service. Name of library Web.
Day of access month of access year of access.
Example
EBSCOhost:
Lanken,
Dane. "When the Earth Moves." Canadian Geographic Mar.-Apr. 1996:
66-73. MasterFILE Premier on-line. EBSCOhost. Fullerton College Lib.
Web. 2
Nov. 2004.
This hyperlink to the Fullerton
College Library help files will also provide some useful examples of how
to document the bibliographic entries from various databases that the
college offers.
http://library.fullcoll.edu/PDFs/MLAguide7thed databases.pdf
7.
Keep a
research log. When I do research, first I copy/paste all the bibliographic
information for my sources into a Word file. Then I immediately unscramble all
the bibliographic elements and convert them to the correct MLA format so that I
do not have to worry about this later when I am under pressure to complete my
essay. Second, as I read each source, highlighting it, taking notes on it, and
annotating it, I type all the quotes and paraphrases I want to use into my
research log and put the parenthetical note in already so that when I write
my essay, I can just copy/paste from my research log into my essay. You will
find that this is very useful not only because it saves you time, but also
because it will help you to better comprehend what you are reading. |
