!
Wri
t
ing
t
he
Research
Paper
!
A Guide for Northern Valley Students
Prepared by Charles Cook, Brian Hanson-Harding, &William Menza
with the assistance of the Northern Valley Regional High School English Faculties
Revised 1997 by Brian Hanson-Harding
N
o
rthern V
all
e
y
R
eg
i
o
n
al
Hi
gh
S
c
h
oo
l
D
i
str
ic
t
William Menza, District English Supervisor Dr. Eugene Westlake, Superintendent
Office of Curriculum and Instruction 162 Knickerbocker Road Demarest, New Jersey 07627 Dr. Edward Ciccoricco, Director
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Table of Contents
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C
lick
on
any
se
ction
h
e
adin
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on
thi
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pa
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)
Introduction
T
yp
es
of
R
ese
arch
Pap
e
r
s
R
ese
arch
Proc
e
dur
e
T
opic
and
T
h
es
i
s
T
aking
N
ot
es
O
utlining
Plagiar
i
s
m
W
riting
th
e
Pap
e
r
Q
uoting
and
Paraphra
s
ing
W
ork
s
Cit
e
d
El
e
ctronic
Sourc
es
N
ot
es
Manu
s
cript
F
ormat
Ba
s
i
s
of
Evaluation:
A
Ch
e
cklist
f
o
r
Stud
e
nt
Writ
e
rs
Introduction
.K., we admit it. Writing a research paper can seem scary, difficult, and
complicated. But we don't make you do it just to torture you. We ask you to do
it so that when you leave high school, you will have the basic tools you need to
present an original idea to the academiccommunity and to be taken seriously when you do so.
Yes, there are lots of details and lots of rules. But if you follow them, people will more readily consider the ideas you present, and they'll be able tocheck out your sources easily and quickly.
The approach you take in doing a research paper is the same that scientists and thinkers in all fields use when they attempt to describe the world as truthfully as they know how, and it is in this way that they arrive at new knowledge. The research paper format is the language of intellectual truth: impartial as is humanly possible, precise, and logical.
When you finish your research paper, you will be joining hundreds ofother former students from Northern Valley, some of whom now, as research scholars, are
contributing toour knowledge of the world. If you choose your topic carefully, you should learn something of personal value and also sharpen your ability toorganize your ideas and your time.
This guide outlines and gives examples of the various steps you must take to
complete a research paper: selecting a topic, finding research material, collecting information and taking notes, organizing notes and outlines, writing the paper itself, and properly documenting your research. We hope that reading this guide and referring to it as you work on your paper will make the process easier for you.
T
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*The authors acknowledge the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers for several examples excerpted for the Handbook.
Types of Research Papers
There are two basic types of research projects you may be assigned: a factual (or informational) paper, in which you must gather and organize facts to develop your thesis; and (primarily in an English class) a critical (or argumentative) paper, which calls on you to make evaluative and analytical judgments in order to develop and prove your thesis.
An example of a factual thesis would be the following: "Mark Twain's experiences on the Mississippi River were the source of much of the material he used for the setting
of TheAdventures of Huckleberry Finn." This type of thesis requires only factual material to prove it.
Acritical thesis would be the following:"Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the
Sea and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men share a common outlook; both works portray man as a relatively weak creature trapped in a struggle with nature and society, a struggle he will inevitably lose, but one from which he will learn and grow." Such a thesis requires you to prove, by reference to the novels themselves and by citations of the opinions of acknowledged authorities (which you will find in the course of your research) that this outlook is an important theme in the two works. Since this type of thesis requires a thematic analysis of the novels, it is more demanding than the first type. (See Topic and Thesis)
Once you have decided on a topic and know what type of paper you will be writing, you are ready to begin the process in earnest. Think of the process in terms of
three basic sections:
1) research and note-taking, 2) organizing and outlining, and 3) writing and editing.
Research Procedure
Although your teachers want you to work hard on your research ,project, we do not want you to spend a lot of time "spinning your wheels" in wasted effort. To
insure that you complete your paper , efficiently, you must develop a research plan which matches your topic and the resources available in local libraries.
Sugg
es
tion
s
for
doing
r
ese
arch
1. Choose a sensible topic to make the research process a smooth and rewarding one.
2. If you do not have the ability to travel to larger libraries, select a topic which
can be investigated in our local libraries. Also, ask your school librarian about inter-library loans.
3. Take the time to become acquainted with the periodicals and materials stocked by local and school libraries.
4. Once you have chosen a topic, quickly check the card catalogue to gauge whether book-length works have been produced about your topic.
5. If no book-length works have been produced on your topic, examine the library's periodical collection.
6. Use the general rule of thumb: Older and more prominent topics or authors can be researched through the card catalog (accessible through any computer in the school), while more recent topics should be pursued through periodicals.
7. An encyclopedia may be used to generate "leads" when researching a topic
about which you know little, but should not be used as a source.
Some helpful resources
The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, The Book Review Digest, The New York Times Index, Contemporary Literary Criticism, ContemporaryAuthors, The Essay
Topic and Thesis
I
.
N
arrowing
a
T
opic
It is natural to begin thinking in broad terms, but remember, you're not writing a book. Expect to narrow a topic several times. For example, note how we have narrowed the following topic:
American Authors American Realists
Mark Twain
Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn
Autobiographical elements in Huckleberry Finn
Don't give in to the temptation of keeping a topic broad so that you'll have plenty of
easily-available information. A good paper will develop a limited topicfully and specifically.
II
.
T
h
e
Importanc
e
of
T
h
es
i
s
No single group of words will have more bearing on everything else in your
paper than will the thesis. You should be able to apply the "because" test to every level of your paper; every fact and statement must support the thesis, directly or indirectly.
"
A t hesis is lik e t he f ounda t ion o f a house.
Think of the thesis as the foundation of a house; you can't build a sound structure unless you design and establish a firm foundation; furthermore, the nature and dimensions of the thesis will determine those of a paper just as the size and shape of the foundation determine the final shape of a house.
III
.
T
h
e
Proc
ess
of
F
ormulating
a
T
h
es
i
s
You must not churn out a thesis quickly and be done with it; you must
paper. Remember, every other word in your paper depends on it.
"
Le t y ou r t h esis d e v elop as y ou do r ese a rch.
A. DoReading First
Preliminary reading plays a very important role in developing a thesis: You
must know what you are talking about, you must know what there isto talk about, and you must know what kind of information is available for you to use.
B. Choose a Thesis You Can Prove
Once you know something about the information available to you, think about
what sort of statement to make about it. Remember, a research paper is merely a long, documented essay; the thesis of a research paper or an essay is like the topic sentence of a paragraph; it must make a statement that is not only provable but calls for proof: It cannot be a statement ofcommon knowledge, nor can it be any wild, extravagant idea that strikes your imagination.
"
limi t ed t opic + poin t o f v ie w = t hesis
To be provable, a thesis must be a statement. Begin with a topic. Limit the
topic to reasonable bounds, and add a point of view; make it say something.
C. Developing A Thesis
Don't look for a ready-made thesis in your reading, formulate it as you read. It should be a product of your own thinking.
#
As k y o u r s e l f q u e s t io nsThe following are examples of a thesis in progressive stages of development
and the questions that helped to narrow them down.
"Both Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck write depressing novels."
"Both Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck write novels that take a negative view of humanity."
Which novels? All of them?
"In The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, both authors present a negative view of humanity."
Why are they so negative about humanity?
"In The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, both authors see human beings as relatively weak, struggling creatures."
What are they struggling against? Is there any point to it?
"In The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, both authors see human beings as relatively weak creatures trapped in a struggle with nature and society, a struggle they will inevitably lose, but from which they will learn and grow."
The thesis we have developed here took a lot of thinking and rewriting. It is a thesis, however, that is complex and subtle enough tooffer clear direction for writing a good paper.
Taking Notes
I
.
T
h
e
Pr
e
liminary
O
utlin
e
Before you can take notes in an organized way, you must have some idea of
the topics on which you will need information. Toformulate a list of such topics, begin your reading with a few general articles which give an overall survey. If your subject is treated in an encyclopedia, the article there will be excellent for this purpose. Another way to approach such an outline is to try to anticipate the
important questions your paper will have to answer. Jot down what seem to be the major divisions of the subject.
The preliminary outline is not an outline of your paper as it will finally be
organized. It is, rather, a guide for use in your reading and note-taking and represents the topics you think you'll want tocover. As your reading suggests new topics, insert them in the outline, and remove topics that should not be treated in the paper.
An example of a preliminary outline follows:
Autobiographical Elements in Huck Finn
I. Twain's Youth
A. In Hannibal B. River-boat pilot
II. Similarities between Hannibal and St. Petersburg
III. Huck/Twain's knowledge of the Mississippi
IV. Slavery
A. Twain's personal experience B. Attitude expressed in novel (Jim)
II
.
Sifting
for
G
old
for material to support your thesis.
Remember, to do research properly, you will inevitably do much reading that won't be fruitful; in order tochoose the best information for your thesis, you will have to sift through a lot of irrelevant material for the few goldnuggets that will serve your purposes.
III
.
G
uid
e
lin
es
for
taking
not
es
1. Most students find note cards useful because
a. they are usually the smallest units of information, b. they will not have to be broken down further,
c. and they are easy to move around to different positions in your outline.
2. Each card should contain material relating to the same point.
3. A 4" by 6"card is probably just the right size for this.
4. Use the back, not a new card, ifone side is not enough.
5. Copy all quotations correctly; check them against the original after you have
copied them.
6. If an error or misspelling appears in the original, put [sic] after it.
7. You may use only parts of a quotation, as long as you do not alter the meaning, by inserting an ellipsis { . . .} for words you leave out.
8. If you feel a word or two inserted into a quotation (for example, to identify to
whom a pronoun refers) would clarify it, use square brackets [ ].
9. It is your responsibility todocumentor cite (which means to acknowledge in parenthetical notes, end notes, or footnotes) all borrowed facts or
opinions, whether you quote them word-for-word or not; so, before you take notes, put the source and page number at the top of the card.
Note: You will make documentation a simple task if, as you take notes, you clearly indicate the source on your note cards.
A Note About Plagiarism:
A. Take short notes in your own words in addition tofull quotations.
B. Remember, just because you paraphrase does not mean you don't have to
document!
C. When in doubt, document!
D. If you do paraphrase in your final paper, you may use one(parenthetical or other) note for no more than one sentence of paraphrased material.
IV
.
Cod
e
Sy
s
t
e
m
and
La
be
ling
1. When you first decide to use a source, make out a working bibliography card. 2. Give each item in your working bibliography an arabic numeral, or a color code.
Put this same number or color in the upper right hand corner of each note
card on which you take notes from that source; this way, you won't have to
put a full bibliographical entry on each note card.
3. Put a slug in the upper left hand corner of each note card; a "slug" is a word or two indicating its content and/or purpose for your paper. This will make it easier for you to arrange your cards tofit your outline.
V
.
K
ind
s
of
N
ot
es
The notes that you will take will be direct quotations, various forms of
summary, and combinations of quotation and summary.
Although students' papers are often overloaded with quotations, this cannot be said of their note cards. If you are in doubt about whether you will use an author's actual words in your paper, take down the quotation. When you write the first draft, you can convert a quotation into a summary, but you cannot substitute a quotation
for a summary without returning to the original sources. There are four possible reasons for using a direct quotation in a research paper:
1. Accuracy: when the precise phrasing of the original is significant.
2. Authority: when the exact words of a source carry more weight than a summary
of the ideas.
3. Conciseness: when a quotation states an idea in fewer words than a summary would require.
than your summary would be.
If you cannot justify a quotation by one or more of these reasons, you should summarize a passage in your own words; but remember, a citation isstill necessary.
VI
.
Sampl
e N
ot
e
card
s
The various kinds of note cards are illustrated by samples based on the
following passage from The Unembarrassed Muse by Russel Nye. The first three paragraphs appear on p. 210 and the fourth paragraph appears on p. 211.
Dime-novel characters, plots, and style moved quickly into
the pulp magazine, a relatively short-lived publishing phenomenon which served as a bridge between the popular novel of the nineteenth century and the magazine, paperback and comic-book of
the twentieth.
The pulp originated with Frank Munsey, who made Argosy into an adventure-story magazine in 1896 and printed it on rough wood pulp paper, making it eligible for second-class postal rates. Tousey, Street and Smith, and other publishers followed suit, so that the pulp magazine almost wholly supplanted the dime novel and the "story paper" before 1910. As it became standardized, the pulp was usually about 120 untrimmed pages, seven inches by ten, with a bright enameled color cover, carrying some advertising and selling for ten to twenty-five cents. Pulps were sold only at newsstands, never by subscription. During their best days--the late twenties and early thirties--they sold at the rate of twenty million per month.
wanted the same product done in the same way time and again. The
writer who got fancy most likely had to do it over. Third, the writer must have limited inventiveness; he could vary the standard plot elements a bit, but never enough to disturb the reader's expectations. Pulp readers, as Hersey put it, did not like to be surprised too much, for much of their pleasure came from anticipating correctly. Manufacturing daydreams for the millions, one had to be sure that the dream always came true. Top-liners like H. Bedford-Jones, Frank C. Robertson, Forbes Parkhill, W. C. Tuttle, and Allan Vaughan could repeat the formula expertly and endlessly.
Pulp stories were frankly mass production items, written to a rather rigid formula, never realistic, never disturbing, never disappointing. War could never be grim, a hero must never show fear, airplanes could never have accidents (though such might threaten), cowboy life had to be exciting, courtship must end in marriage.
A. Working Bibliography Card
Before taking any notes from a source, make a working bibliography card. If you postpone making the card until you have finished with the source, you are likely to forget to make it, and you will have to return to the library and search for it again. It saves trouble if you write the information as it will appear in your Works Cited
list. (Click here for sample working bibliographycard.)
B. Quotation note
The author's last name and the page number are sufficient to identify the source. A
word or two in the upper left-hand corner indicating the content of the note (a slug) will be helpful when you begin writing your paper. A quotation must be copied exactly as it appears in the source and must be enclosed in quotation marks. The above note telescopes the last paragraph of the selection by omitting two brief passages. Each
omission is indicated by an ellipsis { . . . }. In the upper right-hand corner, be sure to put the code number or color that corresponds to the working bibliography card.
(Click here for sample quotation note.)
A summary in complete sentences (an abstract) is probably the least practical form
of note. If the author's language is not used and the content itself is significant, an
outline note might be sufficient. The summary should not echo the style of the
original. The above summary condenses information from the first paragraph of
the selection and part of the second. (Click here for sample summary note.)
D. Outline note
Ifonly factual information is borrowed from a source, rough notes in outline form may be sufficient. Abbreviations and other shortcuts that could not be used in a quotation note are permissible here. A danger in this type of note-taking is that if overused, it may encourage you tofollow a single source tooclosely. The above note tabulates facts from the second paragraph. (Click here for sample outline note.)
E. Combination note
A note may combine quotation and summary. For the experienced writer of research papers this type of note is often the most efficient because it encourages the blending
of quotations with the writer's sentences. In a sense, when you write a combination note, you are beginning tocompose your essay while taking notes. It is especially important to be meticulous in the use of quotation marks in a combination note.
(Click here for a sample combination note based on the third paragraph.)
VII
.
Coding
b
y
Sourc
e
--
Multipl
e
Sourc
es
Acknowledging where you got your information, which is called documentation, is what makes a paper a research paper. It is crucial, therefore, for every note
card to have a color or number code and a page number;otherwise it's useless. As you do your research you will discover what information is "general knowledge" and what must be "cited". Usually, you must cite information or ideas you found in only one or even two sources (some teachers would say three sources). Be sure to ask your teacher to explain "general knowledge."
Outlining
An outline is a tool for organizing thoughts and illustrating logical relationships. There are many purposes for outlines, but here we will deal only with outlines used
for organizing ideas prior to writing a paper.
I
.
G
uid
e
lin
es
in
outlining:
1. An outline is a blueprint for which you use the slugs from your note cards; eventually, you will make these into sentences.
2. Constantly revise your outline as you do more reading, and keep it coordinated with your note cards.
3. Keep your outline flexible and make it work for you; it should be a tool, not a burden.
4. Ultimately, however, your outline will become fixed, so that you may use it as a table ofcontents for your final paper.
5. Since this booklet concerns itself primarily with essays and research papers in which you prove a statement, we will emphasize the sentence outline; only a
complete thought can logically support another complete thought.
II
.
Conv
e
ntion
s
of
O
utlining
The purpose of an outline is to show graphically the order, the unity, and the relative importance of the various parts of an essay. To show these qualities, certain
conventional practices are in general use.
A. Values are shown by symbols.
The most common system ofoutline symbols is very simple:
I. II.
A.
1.
2.
a.
b.
To subdivide further, you merely alternate arabic numerals and lower case letters. If you must subdivide to this extent, however, you are probably including too many insignificant details or you have omitted a necessary main heading. You will seldom deal with a set of ideas on five or six levels of importance. Symbols are an important way of showing relative values because all items with the same kind of symbol are of approximately the same importance. Something is wrong with an outline in which A represents a paragraph and B represents single sentence.
B. Indentation is another means of showing values.
It allows the reader to see all numbers and letters on the outline clearly. All headings on the same margin are of approximately the same importance.
C. Single division is a logical error in an outline.
A single symbol, therefore, is a danger signal. When you indent and begin a set of subordinate symbols, you are dividing ideas. Since nothing can divide into only one part, you must have at least two sub-topics or none at all.
III
.
F
rom
N
ot
e
Card
s
to
O
utlin
e
1. Go through your note cards, shuffle them, and read them.
2. Repeat step #1 three times.
3. Once you have a sense of the kind of material you have, start arranging cards that seem to go together into separate piles.
5. Each pile should be enough for a paragraph; piles that go together could make up a general category heading; and the main idea of each note card could be
a major support for the paragraph it is in.
6. Once you have finished this process, set the order of the cards and number them in the lower right hand corner of each card.
7. On your outline, put the appropriate numbers you have just assigned next to the major idea the note card supports.
From this numbered outline and organized set of note cards, you will be able to write your paperfrom start to finish.
IV
.
Sampl
e O
utlin
e
There are three kinds ofoutlines commonly used for research purposes:
1) the sentence outline;
2) the topicoutline;
3) the combination outline.
Although the sentence outline is probably the best for your purposes, since it's easier to prove a statement with a statement, your teacher may ask you or permit you to use a topicoutline or a combination topic/sentence outline.
The following is an example of a sentence outline because topic sentences and major supports are expressed in sentences, allowing you tocheck the
soundness of your reasoning. The Roman numerals stand for topic sentences, the
capital letters stand for major supports, and the arabic numerals stand for minor supports, which are in phrase form. (Notice that the introduction and conclusion are not included.)
Thesis: Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men share a common outlook; both works portray man as a relatively weak creature trapped in a struggle with nature and society, a struggle he will inevitably lose, but from which he will learn and grow.
I. In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago loses his agonizing struggle with nature and society.
1. Physical pain.
2. Allusions to Christ's suffering.
B. Sharks devour his prize.
C. Society is indifferent to his plight.
1. Condemned to poverty.
2. Tourists (at end of novel) have no idea what has happened.
{Outline continued next page}
II. In Of Mice and Men, Lenny and George are trapped by their environment.
A. Nature has made Lenny a misfit.
1. Retarded.
2. Cannot control his strength.
B. Both Lenny and George's lives are controlled by rigid social order.
1. Imprisoned in lowest class.
a. Lack of education.
b. Rootlessness.
2. Held in line by social hierarchy.
b. Bare subsistence salary.
c. Curly.
III. Both novels suggest that the characters' suffering leads to growth.
A. Santiago is "defeated but not destroyed."
1. Survives to battle nature again.
2. Manolin learns from him.
B. George learns the value of friendship.
C. Santiago reveals nobility through suffering.
1. Fishes for 40 days, without help.
2. Struggles with sharks, even after marlin is destroyed.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism, the act of passing off the writings and ideas ofothers as one's own, is often not taken seriously by students because nothing tangible is stolen. However, a student who plagiarizes cheats himself in an important way and steals a precious
commodity from another person.
First, your teachers want you to learn to write term papers properly, for you will do many of them during your academiccareer. Although course requirements vary widely, most college courses demand at least one research paper per semester.
Additionally, we want to read your prose and to help you to improve it, not a thinly
-disguised copy of a literary critic's writing. Tocopy a paper verbatim from another source, therefore, robs you of an important aspect of your academic preparation.
After all, Bruce Springsteen did not learn tocompose music and write lyrics by reproducing songs by previous artists.
Not only is plagiarism unethical and illegal, but it is also a sad admission that you cannot produce an acceptable paper yourself. Certainly, if you don't try to do independent and original work at this early stage of your education, you may never develop this vital capacity.
I
.
Sugg
es
tion
s
to
aid
in
avoiding
plagiari
s
m:
1. Follow your teacher's schedule to break up your research project into manageable segments.
2. Try to take notes in your own words, except when noting direct quotations.
3. Document original ideas even when paraphrasing them.
4. Do not attempt tofinish your paper at the last minute. Removing the pressure of
time is one of the ways to remove the temptation of plagiarism.
II
.
Und
e
r
s
tanding
W
h
e
n
to
Cite
Very few students plagiarize intentionally, but some may do so inadvertently.
Writing the Paper
After you have finished taking notes, organizing your note cards, and writing
your outline, you are ready to begin work on your first draft.
Many students seem to misunderstand the nature and purpose of a first draft and fail to realize how important it is to the success of the whole research project.
Writing the first draft entails transforming your notes into a coherent and unified manuscript, so it must be written carefully and then rewritten, perhaps several times; in any case, a first draft is not something that is written once and then just
copied or typed. If you want anything more than a mediocre grade on your paper, you must allow yourself enough time to edit: That is, revise, rewrite, and
restructure your first draft. We suggest, then, that you start writing the first draft a minimum of a week before the final draft is due.
I
.
Introduction*
Aclear and complete introduction is an essential element in a good paper, so
give it particular attention. The introduction should follow the general-to-specific structure you have been taught to use for introductory paragraphs, with the thesis statement as the last sentence in the paragraph, and it should give the whole paper a clear sense of purpose and direction.
II
.
Conclu
s
ion*
Make sure your paper has a conclusion; don't leave it "hanging" at the end of the body. An effective conclusion will sum up briefly what you have covered in the paper and will somehow hark back to ideas or images first brought up in the introduction. Do not introduce any new ideas in the conclusion.
III
.
T
itl
e
*After you have completed the first draft, you should be ready to formulate a title for the paper. Make sure it briefly and clearly states the topic(for example,
"Hemingway and Steinbeck's Outlook on Man"); do not use your thesis statement as a title.
III
.
F
inal
D
raft
After you have edited and revised the first draft thoroughly, you can begin your final draft. The final draft should be typewritten and adhere to the
manuscript format described in the last section of this booklet. It must also be
cited and documented properly: the following section, Quoting and Paraphrasing,
describes how to quote sources in the text of your paper; the Works Cited section explains how to prepare a list of of the works you use; and the
Notes
section discusses the corresponding parenthetical notes, end notes, or footnotes. Read these sections carefully, because failing to followthese guidelines mayresultin inadvertent plagiarism.
Quoting & Paraphrasing
I
.
Q
uot
e
?
Paraphra
se
?
O
r
b
oth
?
The following three examples use the same material in different ways, but
all three require documentation (a note). (click here for further discussion of this)
A. Direct quotation
Whenever you quote a source, you must put quotation marks around it --or,
if it is long, use block form -- and show where it came from:
As Jameson has said,
For such an obsessed hero (whose prototype is of
course Don Quixote), the apparent resistance of the
real world can be easily accounted for by magic and
the hostile operations of evil sorcerers: Thus he
never really comes in contact with outside reality,
but only with the Utopian vision of it which was his
starting point (174).
B. Mixing quotation with paraphrase
Whenever you quote just a few words, perhaps paraphrasing the rest, you still
must put quotation marks around the words you've quoted and show where the passage came from:(click here for further discussion of this)
Heroes like Don Quixote attribute the hostility of the world to
"magic" or "operations of evil sorcerers"; these explanations
only those worlds they have created (Jameson 174).
C. Simple paraphrase
Whenever you paraphrase or summarize a source, even if you do not quote
any of the exact wording of the original, you may have to acknowledge that the ideas are not your own:(click here for further discussion of this)
Heroes like Don Quixote manage to ignore the claims of the real
world by attributing its hostility to magic; they confront only
the imaginary worlds they themselves have created (Jameson 174).
{The above parenthetical notes are keyed to this entry in Works Cited:}
Jameson, Fredric. Marxism and Form. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971.
D. When to use quotation
Students tend to use quotations more often than necessary. Often a
paraphrase of your source, properly acknowledged, is adequate. Certainly you should never quote more than you are actually going to use. Don't quote a whole paragraph when all you are really interested in is a key phrase; don't reproduce a whole speech from Hamlet when you're planning to discuss only twoor three lines. Quote only when the exact wording is crucial for your argument. Use a quotation to
support a statement -- not to substitute for one.
II
.
How
to
u
se q
uotation
corr
e
ctly
A. Quoting accurately
When you do need the exact words, you must give them exactly as they are written. Never change, add, or leave out something without showing what you've done. Your quotations must correspond exactly to the original, word for word, comma
for comma, unless you indicate changes, omissions, or additions.
Original:[from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address]
firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right,
let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind
up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have
borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do
all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting
peace among ourselves and with all nations.
B. Using ellipses
Indicate omissions in your text by substituting an ellipsis (three spaced periods)for the words left out.
As Lincoln said, "With malice toward none, with charity for
all, . . . let us strive on to finish the work we are in" (67).
Be sure that your omissions do not distort or destroy the meaning, grammar, or
syntax of the original. No ellipsis is necessary when your quotation is obviously a
fragment:
Lincoln's main concern at the end of the Civil War was "to bind
up the nation's wounds" (67).
Nor is an ellipsis necessary if your quotation can stand as a complete sentence.
C. Altering the original
Indicate additions or changes by using square brackets [], (not parentheses, which could be understood to be part of the original text).
either side] and . . . his widow and his orphan" (67).
Often you will need to make minor changes, like the omission of "for" (before
"him") in the preceding example, to make the quotations fit your sentence.
Sometimes, for example, you will have tochange a pronoun and the tense of a verb:
After Lincoln's death, the nation did "strive on to finish the
work [it was] in" (67).
Indicate emphases not in the original text in parentheses after the quotation.
In the speech, Lincoln constantly referred to the country as a
whole: "Let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind
up the nation's wounds" (67, emphasis added).
Otherwise, your reader will assume that the writer had emphasized these words
in the original, as Lincoln did elsewhere in the Second Inaugural Address.
Use sic -- the Latin for thus or so-- in square brackets when you think you must point out errors offact, spelling, logic, or usage in the original:
Coleridge believed that literary works should have a "circular
form, like the snake with it's [sic] tail in its mouth" (143).
One travel writer remarks that "in Jerusalem, where Christ was
born [sic], East and West mingle" (16).
D. Incorporating prose quotations
Incorporate prose quotations not more than fourtyped lines long in your text, as we have done with the brief quotations from Lincoln above. (If you use the quotation as part of your sentence, be sure it fits smoothly into your sentence structure. Don't insert a lengthy quotation in the middle of your sentence.)
Prose quotations exceeding four lines (that is, four lines as they would appear in your paper) should be set off from the text by using block form:
1. start a new line,
2. indent 10 spaces from the left margin,
3. continue to double-space within the quotation, 4. but do not enclose it in quotation marks.
At the beginning of the Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln
refers to his first address four years before:
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago
all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending
war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While
the inaugural address was being delivered from this
place, devoted altogether to saving the Union with-
out war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to
destroy it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union
and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties
deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather
than let the nation survive, and the other would
accept war rather than let it perish, and the war
came. (66)
difference between the two parties.
Note: The reference to page 66 in the example above comes after the period, not before the period as it would in the case of a short quotation, because this refers to
several sentences.
F. Indirect quotations
When you borrow something from a source word for word, you are making a direct quotation. When you borrow something from a source word for word, and it was already in quotations in that source, you are making an indirect quotation. If it's already in quotations in the source you're reading, that means the author of that source either borrowed it from another source (which you'd call the original source)or wrote down the words of someone who was speaking.
Warning: If you find yourself making a lot of indirect quotations, and if a lot of these are from one or twooriginal sources, that means you really ought to use the original source(s) yourself. For example, if Source A and Source B both quote (and cite)
Source X frequently, and if that information is useful to you, then you ought to get hold of Source Xfor yourself.
•Appearance of indirect quotations
For quotations under four lines in length, it's quite simple. Use regular double
quotation marks ("like this") to indicate where your borrowing from your source
begins and ends, and use single quotation marks ('like this') to indicate where your source's borrowing from the original source begins and ends. The singles are always within the doubles. Study the following example.
If this is the way it appears in your source . . .
At the urging of Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, who did not want the U.S. "to come in as a cock boat in the wake of the British man-of-war," Monroe and the Cabinet decided on a unilateral
statement.
. . . then this is the way it should appear in your paper.
statement."
For quotations over four lines, you must use block form, which doesn't need quotation marks. So if you have an indirect quotation in block form, use
quotation marks exactly as your source does. For an example, see the block quotation on in the sample page at the end of this manual.
G. Introducing quotations
Always introduce a quotation! Let the reader know what she is about to read!
You have three choices for punctuation:
1. If the introductory material flows directly into your quotation, no punctuation is needed (see example);
2. If the introductory material is just a phrase (As Lincoln said, Hegel writes,)
use a comma;
3. If the introductory material is a complete sentence, use a colon (see example).
#
Remember: Block quotations don't need quotation marks! * H. Quoting poetryTreat threeor fewer lines of poetry as you would prose, except
1. be sure tocapitalize the first word of each line (if it is done in the poem), and 2. indicate the end of a line of poetry with a virgule "/".
Shakespeare the actor shone through when he wrote, "All the
world's a stage / And all the men and women merely players"
(2.7.147-8). {These numbers denote act, scene, and lines.}
I. Using Block Form with poetry
Elizabeth Bishop's "In the Waiting Room" is rich in evocative detail:
It was winter. It got dark
early. The waiting room
was full of grown-up people,
arctics and overcoats,
lamps and magazines. (6-10) {These are line numbers.}
If the spacing within and between lines is unusual, reproduce it as accurately as possible. Also, if the quotation begins in the middle of a line, reproduce it that way.
Shakespeare revealed his view of drama in As You Like It:
All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. (2.7.147-51)
In a block quotation of poetry, indicate the omission of a line or more of poetry by a line of spaced periods equal in length to the other lines of the poem:
All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players:
. . . .
And one man in his time plays many parts,
Works Cited
Note: All information and guidelines in this section are taken directly from the MLA (Modern
Language Association) Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, third edition, 1988, sections 4 & 5.
"In writing a research paper, you must indicate exactly where you
found whatever material you borrow -- whether facts, opinions, or quotations." -- MLA Handbook, section 4.1, p. 86
The basis of a research paper is, ofcourse, research. You must acknowledge
your sources
1. by creatingan alphabetical list oftheresearch materials you use; and
2. by providing citations,or notes, within the text of your paper.
This list (#1) is called WorksCited.
The notes (#2) can be in the form ofparenthetical notes(i.e., notes in parentheses within the text), end notes, or footnotes.
This section will discuss the list of Works Cited, and the following section will discuss the three options for notes.
I
.
Pr
e
paring
a
li
s
t
of
W
ork
s
Cit
e
d
A list of Works Cited includes the sources which you have cited (referred to)
in your paper. To prepare the list, refer to the working bibliography cards which you made before you began to take notes. You should have one card for every source from which you took notes which you have used.
This list is essential to your paper. Although it will appear at the end of
your final draft, it should be one of the first things you prepare; if you write down all the information about each of your sources at the very beginning, you'll have it when you need it as you proceed with your paper, even after you have returned materials to the library.
Differences from traditional bibliography
means "description of books." However, since many students use not only books, but also articles, recordings, films, and interviews, Works Cited is the best title.
Some teachers may ask you to provide an Annotated Bibliography or
Annotated List of WorksCited, in which you describe and comment on each item.
IMPORTANT: If you put an item on a list of Works Cited, that means you have
cited (referred to) that item by means of a parenthetical note, endnote, or footnote,
or by directly referring to it by author or title in your text. If you do not cite an item at least once, then that item does not belong on the WorksCited List.
Works Consulted
Some teachers may ask you to provide a separate, additional list after the Works Cited list. This list, titled Works Consulted, would include items which you consulted, read, or referred tofor general or background information, but which you did not cite directly in your paper.
II
.
F
ormat
for
W
ork
s
Cit
e
d
1. Include name and page number in the upper right-hand corner as you do with all
other pages, and center the title Works Cited (not underlined or in quotations)one inch from the top of the page. Double-space between the title and the first entry.
2. Arrange the list in alphabetical order according to the last name of the author or the first letter of the first main word in a title where no author is cited (Ignore "a,"
"an," and "the.").
3. Begin the first line of an entry at the left margin; for any lines following the first, indent five spaces.
4. Double-space within and between entries.
5. Do not number WorksCited entries! We have done so below only for the
Sam
p
le
Entr
i
es
1. Book with single author
Ellison, Ralph.
Invisible Man.
New York: Vintage Books, 1972.
2. Book withmultiple authors
Eastman, A. M., and G. B. Harrison.
Shakespeare's Critics.
Ann Arbor: The
University of Michigan Press, 1964.
{Do the same for 3; for more than 3, use the first name and then "et al." See #5 below.}
3. Book with corporate author
Automation.
Detroit: General Motors Corporation, 1945.
4. An anonymous book
Who's Who 1984-85
. 43rd ed. 2 vols. London: A. C. Black, Ltd., 1985.
5. A multivolume work-- using 2 or more volumes
Potter, G. R., et al., eds.
The New Cambridge Modern History.
14 vols.
Cambridge UP, 1957-70.
6. -- usingonly one volume
Daiches, David.
A Critical History of English Litera
ture. 2nd ed. Vol. 2.
New York: Ronald, 1970. 2 vols.
7. -- usingone volume withits own title
Churchill, Winston S.
The Age of Revolution.
New York: Dodd, 1957. Vol. 3
of
A History of the English- Speaking Peoples.
4 vols. 1956-58.
8. -- using an article in a multivolume work*
Political Parties.
Gen. ed. Arthur M. Schlesinger. Vol. 3. New York:
Chelsea, 1973. 2541-669. 4 vols.
{Note: Omit vol. # in an alphabetized work, e.g. an encyclopedia. See #21.}
9. An editionor translation
{Note: Always indicate later editions: "2nd" or "3rd," "revised," or "1988 ed." Also, indicate a modern edition of an older work. You may provide original publication date after title.}
Dostoevsky, Feodor.
Crime and Punishment.
1866. Trans. Jessie Coulson.
Ed. George Gibian. Rev. ed. New York: Norton, 1964.
10. A workin a collectionof pieces all by the same author
Malone, Kemp. "Etymologies for Hamlet." S
tudies in Heroic Legend and in
Current Speech.
By Malone. Ed. S. Einarsson and N. E. Eliason.
Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1959. 204-25.
11. A workin a collectionof pieces by different authors *
O'Connor, Flannery. "Everything That Rises Must Converge."
Mirrors: An
Introduction to Literature.
Ed. John R. Knott, Jr., and
Christopher R. Reaske. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Canfield, 1975. 58-67.
* {Note: See #36, "cross-references," for 2 or more from one collection.}
12.Reprinted article -- with a new title
Shanahan, D. H. "The Human Factor."
Celtic Myth in English Romance.
Ed.
Inmaculada Lazaro. London: Routledge, 1985. 219-23. Rpt. as
"Viewpoints: D. H. Shanahan."
Twentieth Century
Interpretations of
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Ed. T.
Adorno. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1994. 100-01.
{Note: Don't underline Sir Gawain ... because it's a title within a title.}
13.Reprinted article -- with the same title:"Rpt.in,"not "Rpt. as"
14. Anintroduction,preface, foreword,or afterword
Schickling, Evelyn. Introduction.
The Prairie: A Tale.
By James Fenimore
Cooper. New York: Holt, 1950.
{Note: Use this form if you use only the introduction and not the rest of the book. Do the same with preface, foreword, or afterword.}
15. Article from weekly or monthly magazine or newspaper
Kilmartin, Cecilia. "The Wales of Dylan Thomas."
New Yorker
23 Sept.
1982: 34-48.
"Steinbeck of Salinas."
Life
May 1970: 71-75.
{Note: Do not give volume and issue even if they're listed.}16. Article from a journal with continuous pagination
Howard, Elise. "Sweet Valley Turns Sour."
PMLA
102 (1987): 177-86.
{Numbers given: volume, year, pages.}
17. a journal that pages eachissue separately
Chapman, Leo. "The Ethics of Ennui."
Parisian Journal,
20.5 (1984): 24-47.
{Numbers given: volume, issue, year, pages.}18. Article fromdaily newspaper
Hom, Julie. "Invisible Man: A Thirtieth Anniversary." Oakland Tribune 12
Oct. 1981, late city ed., sec. 3: 48+.
{"+" means article continues.}
19. --if page # includes sectiondesignation
McClellan, Alan. "Actors Show Cool and Verve."
Daily Californian
17 May
1986: 4C.
20. -- editorial
21. Article from common reference work
{a. Begin with author, if given, otherwise with title. b. Omit editor. c. Give full information only for lesser known or obscure works. d. Omit volume number of alphabetized works. See also #4.}
"Hemingway's Code Heroes."
Collier's Encyclopedia.
1958 ed.
22. A government publication
U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Productivity.
Washington, D. C.:
Government Printing Office, 1958.
23. Letters --published
Eliot, George. Letter to Charles Bray, 11 June 1848. Letter 37 in
The
Brontes: The Critical Heritage.
Ed. Miriam Allott. London:
Routledge, 1974.
24. Lecture, speech,or public address
Ciardi, John. "Wisdom of Words." Opening Session. NCTE Convention.
Washington, 19 Nov. 1982.
{If there's no title, simply write "Address." or "Lecture."}
25.Interview: personal or radio
Ellison, Ralph. Personal interview. 6 May, 1978. Morrison, Toni.
Interview.
All Things Considered.
National Public Radio. WNYC, New
York. 16 Feb. 1986.
26.Recording
{Include name, title, company, catalogue number, and year.}
Murrow, Edward R.
Year of Decision: 1943.
Columbia, CPS-3872, 1957.
Holliday, Billie. "God Bless the Child." Rec. 9 May 1941.
Billie Holliday:
The Golden Years.
Columbia, C3L 21, 1962.
27. Filmor similar medium
{Note: You may add film size and length after date.}
28. -- citing the contributionof anindividual
Chaplin, Charles, Dir. Modern Times. With Chaplin and Paulette Goddard.
United Artists, 1936.
29. -- filmstrip, slide program,or videotape
Alzheimer's Disease.
Videocassette. Prod. Hospital Satellite Network.
American Journal of Nursing, 1994 . 28 min.
30. -- televisionor radioprogram{See also #25.}
"In Search of Ancient Ithaca." Narr. Elizabeth Strouse. Prod. Kevin Murphy.
Dir. David Finacom.
The Quest for Homer.
Exec. prod. Caroline Tauxe.
PBS. WNET, Newark. 8 May 1995.
31.Workof art --original
Bernini, Gianlorenzo.
Ecstasy of St. Teresa.
Santa Maria della Vittoria,
Rome.
32. --publishedphotograph
Cassatt, Mary.
Mother and Child.
Wichita Art Museum, Wichita. Slide 22 of
American Painting: 1560-1913. By John Pearce. New York: McGraw,
1964.
33. Cartoon
Addams, Charles. Cartoon.
New Yorker
21 Feb. 1983: 41.
34. Pamphlet {Treat it like a book}
35. Twoor more works by the same author(s) {Use three hyphens}
Schwartz, Carol.
Energy: A Scarce Resource.
New York: Scribner's, 1984.
---.
Look, Ma, No Hands!
New York: Avon, 1995.
36. Other problems
Missing information:
No place of publication: N.p.: Scribner's, 1993.
No publisher: New York: n.p., 1993.
No date of publication: New York: Scribner's, n.d.
Page numbers:
Give inclusive page numbers if you use a part of a book -- a story, essay, or article: New York: Scribner's, 1988. 2-10.
Cross-references:
To avoid repetition in citing 2 or more works from the same collection, first, list the collection in a separate entry; then, in the entries for the individual articles, refer to the collection by the author's or editor's name.
Jacobson, Seth. "Fatherhood in the 90s." Rudnick 66-70.
Electronic Sources
C
D
-
ROM
Treat a work in CD-ROM format as you would any other published work. The only difference is that you will not be able to list a page number, so be sure to indicate whatever keyword you searched under.
For further help with these citations, click on this link
(http: / / www.wilpaterson.edu / wpcpages / library / mla.htm) which
will bring you to the William Paterson College library’s web page about following MLA style. Then scroll down the page until you see “CD-ROM.”
Internet
S
ources
With the advent of the Internet and its vast resources of information, there’s even greater reason to be very careful and selective about what information you rely upon and cite. While books and magazines that you find in libraries have been selected by professionals who have some basis for deciding what is and is not a valid source, when you’re on the Internet, you’re on your own. It’s kind of like the Wild West, with no real law, no one really guaranteeing that any information is valid or reliable.
So it is very important that you know who assembled or wrote the
information you are using. Is this person in a position to be an expert?
Does he or she have any credentials? You should also know, for example, who sponsors or runs any Web site you want to use. One way to get some sense of where information is coming from is to look for certain suffixes in Internet addresses:
•com indicates a commerical enterprise •org indicates a non-profit organization •edu indicates a university
•k12. [state initials, such as nj]. us indicates a public or private school
Citing Web Sites
and other electronic sources
Citing Web Sources
Since the Northern Valley Research Paper Guide is based on the style
manual of the Modern Language Association, it makes sense to go first to
the MLA’s web site at the following address:
http://www.mla.org/style/sources.htm
(Note: If you click this link and no web browser has been selected, you will be
prompted to select one. If you’re at Northern Valley, go to the Student Save Folder and look for Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer under “Applications.”)
Other Online Sources
Another good source that goes into slightly more detail about various
online and electronic sources is the Columbia Guide to Online Style:
Notes
I
.
D
ocum
e
nting
Sourc
es
with
N
ot
es
A note is a reference to a book or other source of information used in a paper. Papers use one of three types of notes:At Northern Valley we use parenthetical notes (these are in parentheses all throughout the paper). Other old-fashioned notes you may come across include end notes, which are listed on a separate page at the end of the paper, and footnotes, which appear at the foot of each page of the paper.
Why and when to use notesor Avoiding plagiarism
When you use anyone else's words or ideas that are not considered "general knowledge"(see discussion below), you must acknowledge your debt. This applies to any borrowings: from a published work, from a lecture, or from a friend's old term paper. Failure to acknowledge your borrowings is plagiarism -- intellectual dishonesty -- and a serious academicoffense. You "document"(i.e., acknowledge your debt) by providing a "citation," which involves a "note."
Exactborrowings:
In the following cases, always use a note!
1. Allword-for-word quotations, except common sayings) 2. Allcharts, graphs,diagrams that are not your own.
3. All statistics that you have not compiled yourself.
4. Allkeywords or terms, unless the same ones are found in 3 or more of your sources.
Rearranged borrowings:
In the following cases, use a note onlywhen the borrowing is not
general knowledge(see below).
5. Allpassages that youhave summarizedor paraphrased.
6. All theories or interpretations that are not your own.
How to clarify what is cited in paraphrase
#1 above is simple; ifyouquote it, you cite it. #3 and #4 are also pretty
obvious. However, #2, #5, and #6 can be more tricky because paraphrase or summary does not stand out the way quotation does. When you paraphrase more than one or two sentences, you must make it clear to the reader exactly what ideas you have borrowed. It would be unacceptable, therefore, to place a note at the end of a paragraph that does not contain quotations. If you must paraphrase a good deal of material from one source in a paragraph, acknowledge the source by
mentioning the author's name at the beginning of your borrowing and placing the note at the end of the borrowing (or paragraph).
What you don't haveto document
Do not document proverbs, familiar quotations, your own original ideas, or general knowledge (e.g., "The Revolutionary War began in 1775.").
What's general knowledge?
There's a sticky problem here. What's "general" knowledge to a college
graduate may not be to a high school freshman. So how do you know what to cite and what not tocite? Could you conceivably cite every single sentence?
This really depends on the kind of topic and sources you use. Typically, however, if you are using good, reputable sources, and most of them agree on particular information, then you could consider that information to be general knowledge. Also, depending on the subject matter, information you find in a typical, brief article in a general encyclopedia is probably "general knowledge."
(Such encyclopedias, however, are usually unacceptable as sources.) Still, the bottom line is askyour teacher!
Finally, remember: WHENIN DOUBT, USE ANOTE!
II
.
Par
e
nth
e
tical
not
es
: S
impl
e and Sens
ibl
e
At Northern Valley, as at most leading universities since 1988, students
following sentence appears in your paper
The Babylonian goddess, Ishtar, is similar to the Greek Aphrodite (Stone 41).
-- the reader can consult Works Citedfor full information:
Stone, Merlin. When God Was a Woman. New York: Harcourt, 1976.
The parenthetical note contains the minimum essential information --only the
author's last name and the page number. (Note: Don't abbreviate "page"; simply put the number in the right place.)
Punctuation and Placement
Whether you place the parenthetical note before or after the period depends on how long your quotation or paraphrasing is.
Before the punctuation:If the quotation or paraphrasing that you are citing is one sentence or less, then the note becomes part of the sentence and belongs before the punctuation (see
Quoting and Paraphrasing)
.After the punctuation: If the quotation you are citing consists of more than
one sentence (see example in
Quoting and Paraphrasing)
, or if the paraphrasing is more than one sentence, then place the note after the period.For further examples, see the sample page at the end of this manual.
Two or more worksby thesameauthor
If, for example, you cite twoor more works by Robert Graves, you would
include the title, or a shortened form of it, in the note.
The cult was introduced by Heremon, nineteenth King of All Ireland, after 1267 B.C. (Graves, Goddess 131).
This way, the reader can easily distinguish between the works listed in Works
Cited:
Penguin, 1985.
---. The White Goddess. New York: Farrar, 1984.
Readability
The principle behind this system is to include documentation in the text while making it as readable as possible. Including too much information in the
parenthetical note becomes distracting to the reader. Whenever possible, therefore, work the information into your sentence. The examples above could be rewritten as
follows:
Stone finds similarities between Ishtar and Aphrodite (41).
It was Heremon, Graves maintains, who, as nineteenth King of All Ireland, introduced the cult after 1267 B.C. (Goddess 131).
The following example follows the same principle. The note is placed at a natural pause. (Notice how it cites the first volume of a multivolume work.)
In his The Greek Myths, Graves points to Pan, "a humble fellow . . . content to live on earth" (1: 101), as an example of the many powerful Greek gods who did not live on Olympus.
Mentioning the author's name in your text is a useful technique when you have more than one sentence paraphrasing or summarizing a source. Mention the author's name at the beginning of the paraphrase and then place the page number(s)
in parentheses at the end of the paraphrase; this way, the reader will know what exactly has been borrowed.
Consecutive successive references need not repeat author or title. Page number only implies the citation is from the same source as the previous one. For example, the citation (Jones 13) can be followed simply by (14) in the next sentence. Commonsense!
III
.
O
th
e
r
s
ampl
e
r
e
f
e
r
e
nc
es
--
Par
e
nth
e
tical
Syst
e
m
Listed below are samples of some kinds of references you may have to make
in your paper. If you encounter a situation not covered here and cannot figure it out according the the principles discussed, consult the MLA Handbook or ask your teacher.
Citing an entire work -- omit page numbers
