Writing Guidelines

All languages and dialects are valid and valued.

The writing guides here are written in and for Standard American English (SAE). Additional spoken and written language will be welcome and celebrated throughout the year as a way to authentically express oneself.

MLA

Parenthetical Citations

Works Cited

Style Center

MYP English 9 = MLA Style

MYP English 9, as with most English classes, will follow the guidelines set by MLA for projects with a formal audience.

Who wrote the rules?

The Modern Language Association

MLA style is most commonly used to cite sources within the language arts, cultural studies, and other humanities disciplines.

MLA Handbook (8th ed.) ISBN 13: 978-1603292627, ISBN 10: 1603292624

Journalism = AP Style

Note: Journalism follows the AP Style guide and has slightly different guidelines for citations and other practical applications. The Associated Press sets the policies and they are updated regularly. Individual media organizations typically use this either completely or as a reference to build their own style guides. This accounts for variability by publication (example: NYT style guide requires writes to include formal titles for those they interview/feature (Mr., Ms., Mrs., etc.) which is beyond the AP Style Guide recommendations.

The purpose of AP Style is different than MLA in a few ways:

efficiency
- physical newspapers were the main media in consideration when the rules were developed and planning with saving time, ink, and space in mind--verbosity and even punctuation choices for the sake of clarity were not the priority
evolution
- these guidelines change in a responsive and cyclical way quite frequently. smaller publications will begin using more progressive or colloquial language and since the audience of media is the general public, the press will modify to keep up. academic language is often slower to jump on board. one example is codifying the capitalization of Black a few years ago (in terms of people/culture) in the style guide--smaller publications had adopted the practice, AP followed suit and made the recommendation to all publications and then it became a widespread practice.
some guiding principles behind AP style are:
- - consistency, clarity, accuracy, brevity; AP style also aims to avoid stereotypes and unintentionally offensive language.

Writing Commons

Avoid Unnecessary “to be” Verbs

This change can help with passive/active voice, concise and clear writing and as a writer learns to substitute stronger, more expressive verbs for “to be” verbs, the enlivened writing is likely to hold the reader’s interest more effectively.

How can you revise your sentences to

eliminate unnecessary “to be” verbs?

Circle or highlight forms of “to be” verbs in your sentences and paragraphs: is, am, was, were, be, being, been
Look for the “doer” in your sentences: Who is performing the action?
Make the “doer” the subject of your sentence.
Substitute more expressive words for the “to be” verbs to enliven the action performed by the “doer.”
Avoid beginning sentences with It is, There is, or There are.
Avoid the use of present progressive verb forms such as is happening, is going, and is deciding.

General Guidelines for academic writing

Double-space the text of your paper
Use Times New Roman or Georgia font, black.
The font size should be 12 pt.
Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks.
The margins of your document should be 1 inch on all sides.
- Note: most word processors will automatically meet this spacing by default
Indent the first line of each paragraph one half-inch from the left margin. MLA recommends that you use the “tab” key as opposed to pushing the space bar five times.

Formatting the First Page of Your Paper

Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested.
In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.
Double space again and center the title. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks. Write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters.
Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text.
- For example:
  - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Morality Play
  - Human Weariness in "After Apple Picking"
Double space between the title and the first line of the text.
Create a header in the upper right-hand corner that includes your last name, followed by a space with a page number. Number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin.
- Note: most word processors will automatically meet this spacing by default
- Note: utilize "different first page" option when available to exclude the header from the first page as it is redundant with either the title page or short info lines in the top left, depending on the formality of the assignment.

On Emphasis, Underlining, Italics, and Bold

Use italics throughout your essay to indicate the titles of longer works (e.g. books, albums, plays, magazines, etc.) and, only when absolutely necessary, provide emphasis.
- Shorter works (songs, chapters, acts, articles) are enclosed in quotation marks.
Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text. For example: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Morality Play; Human Weariness in "After Apple Picking"
At time of publication, I can think of no MLA sanctioned reason to underline or bold portions of your paper; please refrain from doing so in formal/academic writing. Be bold in diction and arguments, not font/formatting.

Cite your sources! Avoid plagiarism!

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations. This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period).

General Guidelines

The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

Example

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.

For example:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).
Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).
Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. The former can be used if Wordsworth is the only author cited in the paper and thus only the page number is needed as no differentiation will be needed between quotes and authors throughout the paper. The latter would be appropriate for a first mention as well as a paper that cites multiple authors. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. Oxford UP, 1967.

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