Mini-Research Paper
&
Documented Essay
English 1301 & English 1302
Joe Old, Instructor

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Basic Concept
• Basic Format
• In-text Citation Format
• Works Cited Format
• Examples
• Signal Phrases
• Why Master It Now?
• Titles of Books
• Titles of Articles
• Important Passages
• Examples of Specific Formats
• Special Problems
• The End

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Introduction In this class, we are doing a research paper or a typed documented essay:

• This requires the same skills as any major research paper does and the same method of citing sources: the Modern Language Association (MLA) Works Cited system.

• Instead of footnotes or end notes, a source is cited in the text by author’s last name (if known; short title if no author is given) and page where the information came from.

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The Basic Concept

The last name or title in the citation refers the reader to the Works Cited list at the end of the paper. Most  books have excellent examples of the Works Cited page. One is in our English 1301 text (Trimbur 608).

[NOTE: This is an example of an in-text citation. Notice that there is no "p." before the page number, no comma between author and page, and no period or comma before the parentheses.]

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The Basic Format #1 In-text citation
#2 Which refers reader to the Works Cited List

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In-Text Citation Format Here’s a line of text you want to give credit for (Source 39).

"If there’s a quote, the quote marks precede the in-text citation" (Source 39).

NOTE: The placement of punctuation -- quotes, parentheses, commas, periods -- is to be exactly as presented here and in the reference works cited below.

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Works Cited* Behar, Richard. "The Secret Life of Mahmud the Red." Time 4

     Oct. 1993: 55-61.

Beyer, Lisa. "Hold the Euphoria: Labor's Victory Could Bring

     Considerable Vigor to the Middle East Peace Negotiations,

     But Reaching a Solution is Still a Tough Game." Time 6 July

     1992: 44.

"Fatal Shooting Incites Deadly Riot in Hebron." El Paso Times 9

     April 1997: A1.

Faulkner, William. "Barn Burning." Roberts and Jacobs

    170-82.

Hacker, Diana. A Writer’s Reference. New York: St. Martin’s,

     1995.

Roberts, Edgar V. and Henry E. Jacobs. Literature: An

    Introduction to Reading and Writing. 6th ed. Upper

    Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 2001.

Trimbur, John. The Call to Write. New York: Addison, 1999.
 

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* Note #1: If the alignment appears "off" or strnage to you, it might be the size-of-text setting for your browser. Try adjusting it by holding down the control key and hitting the [-key to make the text reduce in size or the ]-key to make it increase. {That's ^[ to reduce text size; ^] to increase text size. That may make these entries line up properly.}

* Note #2: Publication titles (names books and names of magazines) can be underlined or italicized.

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Examples

If the source is an author, use last name. For example, if I were quoting from something in our text, it would look a lot like this (Trimbur 145).

If you’re quoting form a source which doesn’t have an author, use a short version of the title ("Writing Essays" 39).

NOTE: If the title is longer, shorten
it from the right-hand side, leaving the
first words in the short title the same
as the first words in the long title so
that the reader can easily find the title
in the works cited list.

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For example,

"Writing Essays for Fun and Profit"

should be shortened to this:

"Writing Essays"

in the in-text citation.

NOTE: If the title is longer, shorten it from the right-hand side, leaving the first words in the short title the same as the first words in the long title so that the reader can easily find the title in the works cited list.

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Signal Phrases

In your essay, you only need to tell the reader where to look for the complete reference. If you use the author's name in a sentence where you are citing information taken from that author, it is not necessary to put the name in the in-text citation. Using the name in the text this way "signals" the reader.

A "signal phrase," then, is a phrase that uses the name of the author in the text, which allows you to omit the author's name in the in-text citation.

If I had used Hacker’s name in a "signal phrase" in the text, I would have left it out of the citation (272-73).

If I had not used the author's name in the text, then I would need to put it into the in-text citation (Hacker 272-73).*

Look up the term "signal phrase" in Hacker's index to find out what page it's on in the edition of her book that you have.

*Note, all page references to the Hacker book in this presentation are to the third edition.

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Why Master It Now?

• Learning the basics of this system here will make English 1302 and the dreaded research paper a lot easier!

• So, the time you spend learning the system now will NOT be wasted.

1. The system is explained in two sections of the Diana Hacker’s book A Writer’s Reference.

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Titles of Books
(And names of periodicals)

Note: The title of a book can be underlined. For example:

Hacker’s book is A Writer’s Reference.

You could also put it in italics:

Hacker’s book A Writer’s Reference.

Also:

Time or Time
U.S. News & World Report
or
U.S. News & World Report

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Titles of Articles
(In periodicals)

Names of chapters, essays (such as those found in many texts such as in the Norton Reader, which some instructors use ), magazine articles and newspaper articles are put in quotation marks.]
 

You need to read over the two chapters in Hacker. The first, "Research Writing" (248-68), concerns certain writing problems. The second, "MLA Documentation" (270-303), discusses the mechanics of the system. [Note: Since I have referred to the author already by a "signal phrase," I don’t put her name in the parentheses with the page numbers (272-73).]*

*Note, all page references to the Hacker book in this presentation are to the third edition.

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Important Passages

Here are some sections of the book

you will need to refer to specifically:

R1-b: Narrow your focus

R1-d: Maintain a working bibliography

R1-e: Avoid unintentional plagiarism

R2-b: Avoid plagiarism

R2-a: Use consistent system (Sample in-text citation)

R3-a to R3-c): Integrating quotations

M1: MLA in-text citation

M2: MLA list of works cited

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Examples of Specific Formats
Provided in The Call to Write

Books (582--87)

Articles in periodicals (587-89)

           Miscellaneous sources (589-91) Sample research paper (599-609) [This is a MODEL research paper. The Hacker book also has a MODEL essay, which has marginal notes. Read every marginal note, and highlight every in-text citation with marker. This is one way to come to understand the works cited system.]
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Special Problems

What if the title of the article doesn’t capitalize all the main words?

Original:

"The secret life of a serial killer"

Proper entry in Works Cited page:

"The Secret Life of a Serial Killer"

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The End
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Return to Beginning.