Writing and Citing Basics
WRITING STYLE GUIDE
MANUSCRIPT FORM
For research papers turned in at Duluth High School, the following are recommended; however, individual teachers will have their own instructions for all other manuscript requirements.
All papers:
A research paper does not need a title page. Instead, beginning one inch from the top of the first page and flush with the left margin, type your name, your instructor’s name, the class title, and the date on separate lines, double-spacing between the lines.
Leave a one-inch margin around the page.
Double-space all typed papers.
Font size should be no smaller than 10 point, not larger than 12.
Times New Roman is the MLA standard, but some teachers will allow Helvetica or New Century Schoolbook.
WRITING PROCESS
PREWRITE. Gather information. Brainstorm, map, cluster, jot notes and clump details – there are many prewriting techniques. Try different methods; you’ll discover what works for you.
“Since sites and other resources on the Web sometimes disappear altogether, you should… print the material you use during your research, so that you can verify it if it is inaccessible later” (MLA Handbook 183).
OUTLINE your essay or, at the very least, rough out your main ideas and the supports you’ll use.
Determine your THESIS and write a first ROUGH DRAFT.
REVISE the draft, making additions, corrections, deletions; rearrange material; polish your use of language – clarify, look for wordiness and economize; clean up error in grammar and usage; write smooth transitions. You may need several drafts to accomplish all this.
PROOFREAD and EDIT. Spell check.
PRINT or WRITE and error free final draft. Use correct manuscript form.
10 GENERAL NOTES ON WRITING ESSAYS
Understand the directions or purpose of the essay.
Know your due date and don’t procrastinate until the night before.
Know your audience. For whom are you writing?
Consult the library and electronic resources for up-to-date information.
Use the writing process.
Avoid such phrases, as “this essay will show,” or “in this essay.”
Write in consistent verb tense, all past or all present.
When writing about literature always use present tense (MLA).
Write in active voice rather than passive voice.
Avoid using “you” and “I” (all first and second person pronouns) unless the teacher directs.
Avoid the use of slang
ESSAY OUTLINE FORMAT
An outline is a good organizational tool, which helps ensure that you don’t miss any essential parts while you are planning your writing. Below is an outline with the minimum requirements. This format could be used for the MN Basic Standard Test or MCA test in Composition. Individual teachers may elaborate on this outline.
TRANSITION WORDS & PHRASES
A transitional expression is a word or phrase that makes a specific, logical connection between ideas. Transitional expressions tie ideas together, show their relative importance, and generally help the reader to follow a writer’s thought. Transition words and phrases will help your paper flow smoothly from one point to the next.
AVOID THESE COMMON ERRORS
We write to record and to share our ideas. If we can avoid common errors, we can make our written communication easier to understand. To be acceptable, written work in classes should meet the requirements that are listed below.
PROOFREADING MARKS
Many teachers use these symbols when correcting student papers. This is by no means a comprehensive list. Your teachers may ask you to add other symbols to this list.
PLAGIARISM WARNING
Click here if you would like to download a copy of the writing style guide.
Plagiarism is taking someone else's ideas or writing and presenting them as your own. This includes, but is not limited to, copying portions or passages from articles, books, and other reference materials; downloading from the Internet; submitting work written by a friend or family member. You are encouraged to incorporate others' ideas and facts into your writing, but you must remember to give them credit.
Sometimes young students plagiarize because they don’t know that it is wrong. Whether it is unintentional or not, it is still plagiarism.
Students must cite when:
using another writer's facts, ideas, or opinions
repeating a writer's wording
repeating a writer's particularly apt term
paraphrasing a writer's argument
presenting a writer's line of thinking
The electronic resources available to you are vast and significant. Use them to supplement your won scholarship, not as a replacement for it.
Students will use Turnitin.com for submitting papers for plagiarism review. Also realize that teachers also have access to “cheater’ websites” where they can type in a few sentences from an essay that they suspect may have been plagiarized. These sites will then show the teacher specifically if and where the phrase was copied on the internet.
Save all your research notes and rough drafts.
DOCUMENTATION
All Duluth public high schools use the Modern Language Association (MLA) style to cite sources.
CITING YOUR SOURCES AT THE END OF YOUR ESSAY
High Schools use the MLA format for documentation. When creating your Works Consulted page, make sure you do the following:
center Works Consulted at the top of your page; use size 12 font
list entries in alphabetical order by first word of the entry, excluding “a,” “an,” and “the”
use a hanging indent for entries longer than one line
double-space entries and between entries
end each entry with a period
do not number of bullet entries
COMPLETE CITING INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ON THE LIBRARY WEBPAGE
CITING SOURCES WITHIN YOUR ESSAY
You must give credit to every fact or opinion that is not your own. The only exceptions are universally known facts, familiar proverbs, and well-know quotations. If you fail to cite someone else’s ideas, you are guilty of plagiarism.
This is a serious offense. When in doubt, always cite your source.
To give credit for a quote of paraphrased idea, put the author’s last name and the page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence.
The following are various situations you may encounter. Complete information is available on the Library webpage.
You must first have your Works Cited document complete and correct before you can correctly use parenthetical citation as your reader is referred to your Works Cited when using parenthetical citation.
Author named in text
If you name the author in your text, then include only a page number in parentheses.
Model:
Noted nutritionist Hannah Holmes states that Americans eat 246 pounds of meat per person annually (3).
Model:
Meat products also contain a huge amount of cancer-causing chemicals and pollutants, while plant products do not have near as much (“Vegetarianism” 2).
TIPS FOR PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION
Complete information may be found on the Library webpage.
If you have two points from the same author that are on different pages that are not interrupted by another source or your own comments, list only the page number for the second point.
• If you mention the author’s name in your text be sure the reader will know who the author is. If not, you must explain the author’s credentials.
Long quotations
If you use a long quotation (five lines or more), type it double-spaced as a block that is indented ten spaces from the left margin, and do not use quotation marks. Put two spaces after the last punctuation mark, and add the parenthetical citation. The block quotation is indented on the left only and is double-spaced. The period goes at the end of the quotation.
Example:
Different people have different ideas about what is means to be a vegetarian. As vegetarianism grows in popularity, it is important to know exactly what it is. The World Book Encyclopedia defines it this way:
Electronic Resources
In-text citations for electronic resources follow the same parenthetical citation format as a print source. The only real difference is that electronic texts usually do not have page numbers, although sometimes paragraphs are numbered. If so, the paragraph number should appear in your citation following the abbreviation par (for paragraph).
Model:
Employees "blogging" on the job may find themselves without one (Tapper and Taylor)
Help for Writing Research Papers
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within liberal arts and humanities.
Use the format that best suits your computer software and your teacher approves.
Basic steps in Writing a Research Paper
How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement
Why You Should Use Online Databases
OWL - Purdue University Online Writing Lab
How to Cite a photograph from the web
Using Google Docs? click here for a Hanging Indent tutorial to format your works cited page.
WRITING BASICS
Help for Writing Research Papers
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within liberal arts and humanities.
Use the format that best suits your computer software and your teacher approves.
Basic steps in Writing a Research Paper
How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement
Why You Should Use Online Databases
OWL - Purdue University Online Writing Lab
Using Google Docs? click here for a Hanging Indent tutorial to format your works cited page.
CITING BASICS
Citing Basics
How to Cite a photograph from the web
Citing resources using MLA Style of citation.
Use the format that best suits your computer software.
Using Google Docs? click here for a Hanging Indent tutorial to format your works cited page.
PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS
Parenthetical Citations
MLA Format For Parenthetical Citations
MLA style uses parenthetical citations in the text following each quotation, paraphrase, summary, or reference to a source. Each citation, made up of the author's last name or key words from the title, and the page reference, refers to an entry in the Works Cited list at the end of the essay. The name or key words allow the reader to locate the entry with complete publication information for the resource. The page reference allows readers to find the exact material in the source itself. Place the citation, in parentheses, at the end of a sentence or at a logical break in its syntax. Place any punctuation marks - periods, commas, semicolons, etc. -- after the closing parentheses. Below are the various ways of citing sources within a text:
Author page format
After a quotation, paraphrase, or summary of an author's work, add the author's last name and the page number of the source in parentheses. Note that you do not need a comma to separate the author's name and the page number. The period for the sentence comes after the parentheses.
Model:
In places de Beauvoir "sees Marxists as believing in subjectivity as much as existentialists do" (Whitmarsh 63).
Author named in text
The shorter your parenthetical references are, the easier your essay will be to read. Therefore, if you name the author in your text, then include only a page number in parentheses.
Model:
As Mueller and Rodgers have shown, television holds the potential for distorting and manipulating consumers as free-willed decision makers (370).
Author of more than one reference
If you cite more than one work by an author in your Works Cited list, signal which work you mean by adding a comma and a short form of the title after the author's name.
Model:
Through Grendel, "a pointless, ridiculous monster, crouched in the shadows, stinking of dead men, murdered children, and martyred cows" (Gardner, Grendel 2), readers are presented with their own silliness.
Title without identified author
Use a short version of titles with no identified author. Use quotation marks or underlining as you would in the Works Cited list.
Model:
"Hype" by one analysis, is "an artificially engendered atmosphere of hysteria" ("Today's Marketplace" 51).
Bible
"Identify biblical quotations by chapter and verse (John 3:16). Spell out the names of all books mentioned in your text...use an abbreviation for books whose names are longer than five letters (Gen. for Genesis, Matt. For Matthew)" (Lunsford 628).
Two works referred to in one sentence
When you refer to two titles, you must make two citations in the order in which they are referred. This example is of two texts by the same author. The full titles are Tess of the D'Urbervilles and The Mayor of Casterbridge.
Model:
Thomas Hardy reminds readers in his prefaces that "a novel is an impression, not an argument" and that a novel should be read as "a study of man's deeds and character" (Tess xxii, Mayor 1).
Citing several authors who have written on the same topic
As in the example below that refers to three different writers who treat the same topic, simply list the authors and page numbers separating each by a semi-colon.
Model:
Several sources have addressed this aspect of gang warfare as a fight for survival, not just turf (Rollins 34; Templass 561-65; Robertson 98-134).
Citing a source by more than one author
If you cite a work with two or three authors, list each author's last name in the order used on the title page.
Model:
"Opinion leaders" influence other people in an organization because they are respected, not because they hold high positions (Cortner, Mahier, and Nicholson 175).
Citing a work with four authors or more
If you cite a work with four authors or more, use only the last name of the first author followed by et al.
Model:
As the Schools Council study showed in the 1960's, children will learn to write if they are allowed to choose their own subjects (Britton et al. 37-42).
Quotations for Indirect Sources
When you are using a quotation from an indirect source, i.e. not the original source, put the abbreviation qtd. in, then the author's name and page number.
Model:
Physician Michael Klaper has stated that there is "absolutely no nutrient, no protein, no vitamin, no mineral that can't be obtained from plant-based foods" (qtd. in Seamens 7).
Long quotations
If you use a long quotation (five lines or more), type it double-spaced as a block indented ten spaces from the left margin, and do not use quotation marks. Put two spaces after the last punctuation mark, and add the parenthetical citation. The block quotation is indented on the left only and is double-spaced. The period goes at the end of the quotation.
Model:
In similar fashion, the beginning of Being and Time also raises this problem: The question of the meaning of Being must be formulated. If it is a fundamental question, it must be made transparent and in an appropriate way. We must therefore explain briefly what belongs to any question whatsoever, so that from this the question of Being can be made visible as a very special one with its own distinctive character. (Heidigger 24)
Electronic Resources
In-text citations for electronic resources follow the same parenthetical citation format as a print source. The only real difference is that electronic texts usually do not have page numbers, although sometimes paragraphs are numbered. If so, the paragraph number should appear in your citation following the abbreviation par (for paragraph).
Model:
Employees "blogging" on the job may find themselves without one (Tapper and Taylor).
Library Research Guide from the U of M
Works Cited (for this Webpage):
Gibaldi, Joseph.MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: The Modern Language Association, 2003. Print.
Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual. 2nd edition. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. Print.
Lunsford, Andrea and Robert Connors, eds. The St. Martin's Handbook. 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1995. Print.
MLA Handbook For Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: The Modern Language Association, 2009. Print.
MLA Handbook For Writers of Research Papers. Modern Language Association. 2009. Web. 3 Nov. 2009 <http://www.mlahandbook.org>.
PLAIGARISM
A. PLAGIARISM: This is when an individual uses another person's ideas, expressions, or writing as if they were his/her own.
1. Copying verbatim- The most common form and happens when an individual copies words, expressions, or ideas directly from another source (e.g. book, article, Internet site, lab report, friend's paper) without giving proper credit to the author.
2. Paraphrasing- An individual borrows written ideas from a source and rewrites them in his/her own words, but does not give credit to the original author.
3. Use of an idea- An individual adapts an idea from a source without giving proper credit. (e.g. This could happen when asked to write an original piece such as a short story, you borrow an idea from a TV program, video, article, or classmate).
4. Unequal group participation- It is also considered cheating when a group is assigned an assignment as a team and the individuals do not do an equal share of the work, e.g., one member does the assignment and the other members copy from him/her instead of contributing their share.