Documentation
Each time you use information from a source other than your personal thoughts
or from what could be considered common knowledge (ask yourself if it issomethinganyone
in your college classes would likely know about), you mustdocumentwhere the
information came from. This is true even if you do notquote thesource directly,
word-for-word. Documentation is also called citing.Inaresearched essay, there
are two components to this documentation, the parentheticalcitation in the
body of your text and the Works Cited list at the end.
MLA Style
The Modern Language Association of America publishes the MLA Handbookfor
Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed. which contains a format commonlyusedin
the humanities for writing and documenting researched papers. Thereareother
formats, but this is the one we will use in this class. You maywantto purchase
the handbook, as it contains the most complete and authoritativeinformation
on using the MLA style. You can get it from your local bookstore,or you can
order it online from these sources:
http://www.amazon.com
http://www.bn.com
Instructions on using MLA style for documenting sources can also be found
in your textbooks for this course, but online sources and the correct way
to document them change so quickly that you will probably need to consult
the following for more up-to-date information on citing online sources:
http://www.MLA.org
When you get to the MLA page, click on "MLA Style" on the menu at theright
of your screen. Then click on "Frequently Asked Questions about MLA Style".
This will take you to a list of questions and their answers which shouldhelp
you as you document web sources. I recommend printing theseout so youcaneasily
refer to them as you work.
For more information on documenting MLA style (and tons of other stuff
on writing in general), go to:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu