MLA Workshop for ENC1102

Providing Cues, Acknowledging Audience, and Establishing Credibility

The Purdue OWL identifies three main reasons why abiding by MLA's standards is important:

Who Typically Uses MLA?

• "[It] provide[s] your readers with cues they can use to follow your ideas more efficiently and to locate information of interest to them."

• "[It] allow[s] readers to focus more on your ideas by not distracting them with unfamiliar or complicated formatting."

MLA Style is generally utilized by writers, students, and researchers conducting work in the humanities. You will most often encounter MLA style in the following disciplines: English Literature and Language, Comparative Literature, Foreign Languages, Cultural Studies, and Literary Criticism.

• "[It] establishes your credibility or ethos in the field by demonstrating an awareness of your audience and their needs as fellow researchers (particularly concerning the citing of references)."

The Rhetorical Appeals

ETHOS =

In ENC1101, you probably learned the terms "ethos," "pathos," and "logos." These are the three main rhetorical appeals writers use to create effective and convincing arguments. We use these rhetorical devices all the time in our everyday lives.

PATHOS =

LOGOS =

Ethos appeals to an audience's sense of ethics or ethical responsibility. As researchers, it is important we establish our credibility, or ethos, in regards to what we are writing.

What are some ways you could build ethos in your writing and research?

Ways to Build Ethos

• Be thorough in your research.

• Only use material from credible sources (e.g., peer-reviewed journals, .edu or .gov websites, etc.)

• Cite everything! Remember: it's always better to over-cite than under-cite.

• Choose your words carefully.

• Acknowledge any potential counterarguments.

• Proofread, proofread, proofread!

Choosing Credible Sources

Where to look:

• DSC Library databases

• Google Scholar

• Reference/help desk (Daytona and DeLand campuses)

What to look for:

• Peer-reviewed journals and articles

• Citations by other researchers

• Who, when, and where of publication

Examining Abstracts

When using the databases, finding (and understanding) articles for your research papers can be a difficult task, especially when said articles are rife with discipline-specific or academic jargon. Article abstracts, however, are a great way to filter out those articles you do not understand or that do not suit your research purposes.

Here are some tips and tricks for making the most of articles' abstracts:

• Read thoroughly.

• Identify and search for key terms.

• If you really don't understand it, don't use it!

Formatting the First Page

• Do not include a cover page (unless directed otherwise)

• List your name, your professor's name, the course, and the date (day month year format) in the upper left-hand corner of the first page

• Center your title, and do not underline, italicize, or bold it

• The only time you will italicize or add quotation marks around any part of your title is if you have a title of a work within the title of your paper

• Do not add an extra space between any of the page elements

Direct Quotations vs. Paraphrasing

Direct quotations, which are used when you are word-for-word citing source material, whether short or long, must be placed in quotation marks.

For long direct quotations (generally >40 words), use block formatting. Begin the quotation on a new line, indented 0.5", and maintain double spacing throughout.

Paraphrasing, or summary, is when you put others' material into your own words. (Paraphrasing necessitates more than just changing a few words here and there!) Provide the author and page number(s) in the in-text citation.

What Are Signal Phrases?

Signal phrases introduce direct quotations and paraphrased material by providing context to situate your reader and prepare them for the information to follow. Never begin a sentence with a quotation! Always lead in with a signal phrase.

Examples:

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).

Author Situations You'll Probably Encounter

For print sources by a corporate author:

It is okay to use the name of the corporation, along with the page number, in the in-text citation.

For print sources with no known author:

Use a shortened version of the title of the work in place of the author's name.

For works with multiple authors:

List the authors' last names in either the signal phrase or the parenthetical citation. If there are more than three authors, however, list only the first author's name and replace the other names with et al. (Latin for "and others").

Citing Indirect Sources

For indirect sources:

These are situations in which a source is cited in another source. Use "qtd. in" to indicate that the source appears in another source.

Ex. Ravitch argues that high schools are pressured to act as "social service centers, and they don't do that well" (qtd. in Weisman 259).

Citing Electronic Sources

As the Purdue OWL explains, sometimes writers panic because there are no page numbers present in their electronic sources. But if your electronic, film, or Internet source doesn't have page numbers, that's perfectly okay. Here are a few general rules for electronic in-text citations as laid out by the Purdue OWL:

• Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).

• You do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.

• Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs, such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like CNN.com or Forbes.com as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Electronic Sources: Examples

Authors' names in signal phrase:

According to Smith and Anderson, "Facebook remains the most widely used social media platform by a relatively healthy margin: some 68% of U.S. adults are now Facebook users."

Authors' names not in signal phrase:

Although other social media platforms are gaining more users, "Facebook remains the most widely used social media platform by a relatively healthy margin: some 68% of U.S. adults are now Facebook users" (Smith and Anderson).

When there is no author (or authors):

According to "The 2018 Social Audience Guide," over 2.8 billion people around the world use social media.

Over 2.8 billion people around the world use social media ("The 2018 Social Audience Guide").

Core Elements & Containers

As the MLA Style Center explains, "Each entry in the list of works cited is composed of facts common to most works—the MLA core elements. They are assembled in a specific order" ("Works Cited: Quick Guide").

The 8th edition of MLA style, which was released in 2016, emphasizes the concept of containers. The MLA Style Center describes this content as such: "When the source being documented forms part of a larger whole, the larger whole can be thought of as a container that holds the source" ("Works Cited: Quick Guide").

Print Sources: Examples

One Author:

O'Connor, Flannery. Wise Blood. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1962.

Two Authors:

Three or More Authors:

Green, John, et al. Let It Snow. Penguin, 2008.

Organization or Corporate Author:

No Author:

Begin with title of work:

Encyclopedia of Indiana. Somerset, 1993.

Print Sources: More Examples

Works in an anthology, reference, or collection:

Last name, First name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection, edited by Editor's Name(s), Publisher, Year, Page range of entry.

Works in a print periodical:

Author. Title. Title of container (self contained if book), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publisher Date, Location (pp.).

Electronic Sources

For scholarly articles:

• Author/editor name(s)
• Article name in quotation marks
• Title of the larger "work" (e.g. overall website) in italics
• Any version numbers available
• Publisher and publishing date
• Any page numbers or paragraph numbers
• URL (w/o "https://") or DOI
• Date accessed (not required but highly recommended)

Cite online databases (e.g. LexisNexis, ProQuest, JSTOR, ScienceDirect) and other subscription services as containers. Thus, provide the title of the database italicized before the DOI or URL. If a DOI is not provided, use the URL instead. Provide the date of access if you wish.

Electronic Sources: Examples

Article or page on a website:

A YouTube video:

A Tweet:

An Email:

Entire website: