Transcript WRT 150 In Class Papers

WRT 150 In Class Papers
The Main and the Plain
• There needs to be a Works Cited with such heading centered and
spelled correctly at the end of the essay or the top of a new page
without special formatting, not in bold face, and in the same size
type as the list that follows it (just like the title of the essay).
• This list of works cited (nothing more) should be in alphabetical
order (ignoring articles such as “the” and “a”).
• Each entry should end with a period.
• Each entry should begin with the author’s last name, comma,
then first name; or, if unavailable, the title of the work being cited.
(Ignore “The” or “A” when alphabetizing.)
• The list should involve a “hanging indent” (apply Ctl-t to the
paragraph).
• The list should be evenly spaced throughout.
• Titles of magazine articles or chapters should be in quotes;
titles of books, newspapers, journals and magazines should be
italicized (or underlined).
• Inclusive page numbers typically accompany a journal or
magazine entry.
• The in-text citation of one of these works on the list should refer
unambiguously to a specific work on the list—not to nothing on the
list and certainly to the first word in the hanging indent
(not to something in the middle of the citation like a title or year).
• The item cited should in fact exist as listed, and the reference
should not contain a factual error that would prevent a reader
from finding the work (e.g., The title of the book should be correct
and the author’s name spelled correctly).
Beyond the main and the plain, things get more difficult for both
students and teachers. The first level of error beyond the main and
the plain does not cause me to discount the paper much if at all unless
it appears as a pattern of mistake. In a sense, these errors are like
other mechanical, content, and formatting errors in a paper. . . One
uses some teacherly judgment about how much to discount the essay
in the larger context of the student’s writing. These are errors I might
catch but another teacher might not.
• Following a list of editors and a comma, the student uses “Eds.”
Instead of “eds.”
• The order of the entry is wrong; i.e., a journal title appears before
the journal article title (one of these is a “mistake” and a pattern of this
error seems rather serious).
• The publisher’s name is not abbreviated properly (e.g., we should
use Knopf, not Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; or we should use Cambridge UP
not Cambridge University Press).
• The title of a website is in italic, but the title of the article in the site
is also in italic.
• Inclusive page numbers fail to abbreviate the second number
(112-117).
• Parenthesis is omitted around the year in a journal citation.
• The volume number in a scholarly journal should not be preceded
by “vol.”
These kinds of errors are endless and some of us make more of a point
to teach these things than others. Students should be aware that we
expect them to pay attention to this level of detail, but experts disagree
on some of these matters and citing web sources can involve lots of
judgment calls.
Integration of Quotations
Unacceptable
Carnegie Mellon researchers study climate
“Scientists disagree about whether climate change
will be a serious problem in the next 50 to 100
years” (“U. S. Global Change”) [fused sentence]
Good
According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon
University, “Scientists disagree about whether
climate change will be a serious problem in the
next 50 to 100 years” (“U. S. Global Change”).
Signal Phrases
In the previous passage, the opening clause is a signal phrase.
It tells the reader something about the source quotation that is to follow.
In a signal phrase, the author or source organization’s name is included,
as well as a verb or form of a verb that tells something about the author’s
position. Some verbs that are commonly used in signal phrases include
the following: claims, states, suggests, finds, reports, says, contends,
explains, and observes. The choice of verb shows the writer’s own
interpretation of the author’s point and provides stylistic variety. Signal
phrases can precede the quotation, interrupt it, or follow it, as in the
examples below:
Signal phrase precedes quotation
Rivers provides an insightful revelation about gender roles:
“He distrusts the implication that nurturing, even when done by a man,
remains female” (Barker 107).
Signal phrase interrupts quotation
“Stable introverts,” another study found, “are the highest academic
performers” (Furnham and Medhurst 197).
Signal phrase follows quotation
“Extroverts prefer locations where socializing opportunities
abound,” report Campbell and Hawley (141).
Providing Interpretations or
Explanations
Ideas found in the quotations must be integrated into the flow of the sentences of the
text, which can be done by interpretations or explanations of the quotation and its
relevance. A quotation cannot stand on its own. The author is obliged to explain why it
is being used. Compare the following passages:
Unacceptable
“The main reason for this disagreement is that
nobody knows for sure whether climate changes
caused by human actions will be large enough
and fast enough to cause serious damage” (“U. S.
Global Change”).
Good
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University note
that there is no agreement among scientists as to
the seriousness of global warming. In their
research report, they state that “[t]he main reason
for this disagreement is that nobody knows for
sure whether climate changes caused by human
actions will be large enough or fast enough to
cause serious damage” (“U. S. Global Change”).
Paraphrasing
Instead of directly quoting, writers can paraphrase the information,
but must be careful not to plagiarize. You can place the
information in a new order or break the complex ideas into small
units. It is unacceptable to copy words directly:
If you’re faced with an illness or want to exchange views about a
medical topic, you'll want to find your way to a newsgroup.
Despite the name, these are not news items. They are virtual
bulletin boards open to anyone. The messages generally consist of
ordinary text (Schwartz 28).
The author has changed two words, but it is still plagiarism. The
idea of using a newsgroup needs to be expressed in the writer’s
own words with an in-text citation after it.
Passage taken from The New Century Handbook.
WRT 150
MLA Documentation and Format
Writing Works Cited Entries
Write the Works Cited entry for the following fact patterns. Then indicate what the in-text citation
would be.
1. the fact that four out of five students in college need a vehicle
--“College Students Spend $200 Billion per Year,” which you found at
http://www.Harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=480.
It was put there on 29 July 2008 by Harris Interactive. You saw it on 10 Oct. 2008.
2. the idea that money saved by not having a vehicle could be put toward tuition
--on page 10 of a book written by Murray Baker called The Debt-free Graduate:
how to survive college without going broke. It was published two years ago by Career
Press, which is located in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.
3. the economist Alan Loomis’ statement that “College students are better off without the
money concerns that come with maintaining a car”
--in an article entitled “Students and Cars” in the July 2001 issue of the journal
Economics Today, found in volume 42, issue 4 on pages 100-09.
4. the statistics tabulating the number of college students at GVSU who own cars as 10,000 or 50%
of the university population, which you took from a Grand Rapids Press article entitled
“Cars and Students”
--a front-page feature that appeared on September 9, 2008 and was written by Susan Brown,
Daimon Suarez and Tim Lockheed. It was lengthy, covering columns 1, 2, and 3.
5. the observation that time is important to college students
--on page 14 of a scholarly journal article “Watching the Day” by David E. Kivan and Myron A. Marty.
You discovered it in this winter’s issue of Time Management, which you downloaded from
Academic Search Premier on October 22, 2008.
Format Features
Type should be black 12 point Times New Roman. Margins should be kept at Microsoft Word’s
default setting (top=1, bottom=1, sides=1.25). Indentations are one tab. The body of the paper should
be double-spaced. Number your pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner.
You do not need a title page. The heading should be as follows:
James Thurber
Writing 150-20
February 24, 2008
Sister Lucia Treanor, F. S. E.
Portfolio papers should have a well-considered title with no extra line spacing between it and the first
sentence of the essay. The paper begins with a paragraph indentation. In the body of the paper,
there should be one space after a period or a comma. If you use paragraph headings, there is no extra
line spacing. Just <return> as usual before and after the heading.
If you have a long quotation, it should be organized as a block with a single tab on the left
margin and an unjustified right margin. It is double-spaced like the rest of the paper. The
in-text citation goes outside of the final period like this. (Brown 4)
The Works Cited should be on a separate page. It contains only works mentioned in the paper.
Center the title “Works Cited” horizontally and there is no extra line spacing. Begin with the last name
of the authors in alphabetical order. If the same author is used for another work, use three hyphens
followed by a period, a space, the title and the rest of the information.You may include a Works
Consulted page that gives the works that informed your paper in a general way, but that you did not
cite.
It should be on a separate page and follow the same format as the Works Cited page.
For up-to-the-minute MLA info, see http://www.mla.org/style/style_faq/.