Avoid Plagiarism by knowing what information you need in order to give

proper credit for ideas.

MLA Citation Style

If your source is a book you need:The author’s nameTitle of the bookWhere it was published (city)Who published itWhen it was publishedMedium of publication

So, when you have all that information, it will look like this (pay attention to punctuation):

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin,

1987. Print.Every line after the first line should be indented2

If your book has more than one author:

Everything is the same, EXCEPT:You list the authors in the same order you find

them in the book.The first author is listed last name first, after that

they are listed first then last.If the book only has two authors it will look like this:Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon

Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000. Print.

• If the book has three or more authors it will look like this:Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media: Theory

and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2004. Print.

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If your source is a Journal Article you need:Author’s nameTitle of articleTitle of journalVolume and issueYear publishedPage numbers of articleMedium of publication

So it will look like:Duvall, John N. “The Marketplace of Images:

Television as UnmediatedMediation.” Arizona Quarterly. 50.3 (1994) : 127-53. Print.

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If your source is a Newspaper or Magazine Article:Author’s NameTitle of ArticleTitle of Magazine or NewspaperDate Published (Day, Month, Year)Section it is found in (for newspapers)Medium of publication

For a magazine it looks like:Paniewozik, James. “TV Makes a Too-Close Call.”

Time 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71. Print• For a newspaper it looks like:Brubaker, Bill. "New Health Center Targets County's

Uninsured Patients." Washington Post 24 May 2007: LZ01. Print.5

An Article in a Reference Book (encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc)

Author’s name (this is the author of the article, not the encyclopedia)

Title of article (or entry)Name of EncyclopediaEdition NameYear publishedMedium of publication

It looks like:Smith, John. “Ideology.” The American Heritage

Dictionary. 3rd ed. 1997. Print.

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Web SiteAuthor/Editor/CreatorName of web siteVersion numberName of sponsoring organization or publisherDate of creation or updateMedium of publicationDate of access

It looks like:The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at

Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2008.Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory. Purdue U,

28 Nov. 2003. Web. 10 May 2006.(n.p. = no publisher/sponsor; n.d. = no date of creation or

update)

You no longer need to the actual web address (examples: www.pbs.org or www.deltaschools.com) in your citation, but YOU should still write it on your source card, so you can easily re-access that information if you need to.

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Article from an Online DatabaseCite it like you would a print source, but add the title

of the database italicized, the medium of publication, and the date of access.

Author’s nameTitle of articleTitle of journalVolume and issueYear publishedPage numbers of articleMedium of publicationIt looks like:Duvall, John N. “The Marketplace of Images: Televisions of

Unmediated Mediation.” Arizona Quarterly. 50.3 (1994): 127-53. NetTrekker. Web. 1 Feb. 2011.

Hitchens, Christopher. "The Man Who Made Us Whole." Newsweek 153.3 (2009): 56. Middle Search Plus. EBSCO. Web. 3 June 2011.

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An Image (Including a Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph)• Artist's name• The work of art italicized• The date of creation• The institution and city where the work is housed • Follow this initial entry with the name of the Website in italics• The medium of publication• The date of access.Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800. Museo Nacional

del Prado, Madrid. Museo National del Prado. Web. 22 May 2006.

Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine. 1922. Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Artchive. Web. 22 May 2006.

If the work is cited on the web only, then provide the name of the artist, the title of the work, the medium of the work, and then follow the citation format for a website. If the work is posted via a username, use that username for the author.

brandychloe. "Great Horned Owl Family." Photograph. Webshots. American Greetings, 22 May 2006. Web. 5 Nov. 2009.

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Some important things to remember:Punctuation, capital letters, underlining,

the order information is listed, MUST ALL BE EXACTLY LIKE THE EXAMPLES.

Even putting a comma in the wrong place can technically make it plagiarism.

BE CAREFUL!!!!

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Works Cited rulesAt the end of your paper, you will have a page that lists all of

your sources. This is called a Works Cited page.There are rules to follow when actually typing your Works

Cited:Double-space the text of your paper, and use a legible font (e.g.

Times New Roman, Arial or Cambria). Whatever font you choose, MLA recommends that the regular

and italics type styles contrast enough that they are recognizable one from another.

The font size should be 12 pt. Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks (unless otherwise instructed by your instructor).

Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch from the left margin. MLA recommends that you use the Tab key as opposed to pushing the Space Bar five times.

Use italics throughout your essay for the titles of longer works and, only when absolutely necessary, providing emphasis.

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Works Cited rules continued:

There are no numbers for the entries, just put them in alphabetical order.

The first word is used for alphabetizing, whether that is a last name, or a title.

You ignore A, AN, THE for alphabetizingThis entire page is double spacedThe first word of each source begins at

the left margin.If a source’s citation takes more than

one line, all the other lines are indented 1/2 inch. (hit tab)

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Annotated Bibliographies For the National History Day competition students will

actually have to complete an Annotated Bibliography instead of a Works Cited page

The annotations for each source must explain how the source was used and how it helped you understand your topic.

You should also use the annotation to explain why you categorized a particular source as primary or secondary.

Sources of visual materials and oral interviews, if used, must also be included. List only those sources that you used to develop your entry.

An annotation normally should be only 1-3 sentences long.Source (example):Bates, Daisy. The Long Shadow of Little

Rock. 1st ed. New York: David McKay Co. Inc., 1962.Annotation (example):Daisy Bates was the president of the

Arkansas NAACP and the one who met and listened to the students each day. This first-hand account was very important to my paper because it made me more aware of the feelings of the people involved.

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Annotated Bibliography: complete National History Day process paperAn excellent NHD process paper with annotated bibliography

Annotated BibliographyPrimary Sources “Declaration of Independence.” National Archives. 30/1/11.

<http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_zoom_1.html>I took the picture of the Declaration of Independence from here.Juengling, Frederick, and Alfred Kappes. “Convention at Philadelphia, 1787.” 1881.

TeachingAmericanHistory.org. 9 March 2011. <http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/juengling_kappes/>

From this website, I took a picture of the convention.Madison, James. “Madison Debates – May 14, May 25”. 2008. Yale Law School. 16/9/10.

<http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_514525.asp>.This website provided me a typed copy of Madison’s notes on May 14th and May 25th during the

convention. From here, I learned that the delegates spent their first day sorting out a president and secretary for the convention.

Madison, James. “Madison Debates – May 28”. 2008. Yale Law School. 16/9/10. <http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_528.asp>.

This is a transcript of Madison’s note on the 28th of May. The delegates spent this day sorting out rules and procedures of the convention.

Secondary SourcesDavidson, West, and James Stoff. The American Nation. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2005.Here, I learned of the ideas behind the Constitution, like the Roman republic and Greek

democracy. There are also details of the Articles.

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Doing the research• Start by narrowing your topic and creating a

thesis• What is your personal interest in this topic?• What is the significance of the topic (locally,

state-wide, nationally and internationally)?• What is the impact of your topic (culturally,

economically, politically, and socially)?• Evaluate research information for accuracy• If you have a ton of great information, it does

NO good unless you know where you got it.• You will have source cards and regular note

cards. MAKE SURE to document all your resource information on your source cards!

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Source CardsSource cards are just a note card where

you write all the citation information for a source that you are going to use.

Then you assign that source a symbol, and write it in the upper right corner.

Now any information you get from that source will be written on cards with the same symbol.

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Now I will put a star in the corner of every note card that I write information from this source on.

(Example Source Card)

Hitchens, Christopher. "The Man Who Made Us Whole."

Newsweek 153.3 (2009): 56. Middle Search Plus.

EBSCO. Web. 3 June 2011.

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I know that the idea that Bin Laden is in Delta came from the star source on page two.

I know that the Delta Police saying no way came from a different source on page sixty-four.

(Example Note Card)

The CIA says Osama Bin Laden is hiding in the basements of buildings in downtown Delta. (pg 2)

(Example Note Card)

The Delta Police say there is no way Bin Laden is here - they would know about it. (pg. 64)

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Citing the source in your paper:Anytime you use information that did not

come out of your head, you need to cite it. In MLA, we use what is called

PARENTHETICAL CITATION.At the end of sentence containing someone

else’s idea, put parenthesis with the authors name-comma-pg # all inside the end punctuation.

(Lynch, 2).If you don’t have an author, just put in

enough of the title to make it clear which source you are talking about.

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Parenthetical Citation Examples:

EXAMPLES below:

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).

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Another example:The war on terror is going on in the wrong country. We need to bring our soldiers back home to Colorado. Even the CIA admits that Osama Bin Laden is probably hiding in basements here in Delta (Lynch, 2). So our soldiers could fight the war and still see their families if they were home.

Notice how all the ideas in the paragraph are my own, except for the one that is cited. This is what you need to do.

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Good luck researching!

A few reminders:Narrow your topic and develop a thesis statement.

Answer the questions: where, when, what, who, why and how

Make sure all of your sources are accurate.Document all of your sources and the information

needed for your Works Cited.Stay organized using the note card method! Follow

the Research Checklist to earn the grade you want.

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