FORMATTING IN M.L.A. FOR THE JUNIOR ESSAY

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1 FORMATTING IN M.L.A. FOR THE JUNIOR ESSAY When to Use Quotations: Use quotations to serve as examples of your main points and observations. Choose only important material that effectively supports your point. Select quotations carefully and purposefully for a research paper or for literary analysis: to illustrate or explain an opinion or idea to assert a fact to provide authority for an assertion you have made to provide a focal point to show many opinions Referencing a SINGLE BOOK/STORY/POEM using in-text citation: Quote the selection EXACTLY as it reads Integrate the quotation selection into a larger sentence of your own writing (this is called embedding) Properly reference the work Properly punctuate the quotation, the sentence and the reference For Example: Original quotation from To Kill a Mockingbird is: I was becoming nervous. Atticus seemed to know what he was doing but it seemed to me he d gone frog-sticking without a light. NOTE WELL: 1. These are the words of Scout s thoughts (not what she has said to someone). 2. The quotation is found on page 179 of the COPY OF THE NOVEL THAT I HAVE but someone else s copy may be different because it was published by a different company or at a different time. 3. This is the FIRST quotation I m making from the text. Therefore, cite reference the quotation with author s last name and the page number within parentheses (Lee 179). 1 P a g e

2 I only want to use the section that says that Scout is nervous and that she knows that Atticus knows what he s doing, so I m only going to include the section I need (but I will not omit any words from that section). I want this quotation to help prove that Scout believes in her dad. There are a number of acceptable ways to integrate quotations but the options use slightly different punctuation: Option 1 - Sprinkle your discussion with key phrases and terms, which should be surrounded with quotations marks: 2 P a g e against Atticus and his defense of Tom Robinson. However, she reflects that she was becoming nervous and remembers Atticus seemed to know what he was doing but it seemed to me he d gone frog-sticking without a light (Lee 179). <Notice that author s name is included for the first quotation. Option 2 - Use an indirect statement with "that : against Atticus and his defense of Tom Robinson. Scout notes that she was becoming nervous. Atticus seemed to know what he was doing (179). Option 3 - Blend your lead-in and quotation: Scout knows her father was becoming nervous (179). Option 4 - Use a complete sentence lead-in. Follow with a colon and two spaces before the quotation: against Atticus and his defense of Tom Robinson: I was becoming nervous. Atticus seemed to know what he was doing (179). Option 5 - Use an introductory phrase or clause: According to Scout, Atticus seemed to know what he was doing (179). Option 6 - Use the author's name and/or his/her authority to introduce quotations from secondary sources: Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, uses language specific to the Southern United States. To help give the characters an authentic Southern voice, she uses phrases such as he d gone frog-fishing without a stick (179). Option 7 - Use a comma for a brief, informal, or grammatically incomplete introduction:

3 Scout thinks, it seemed to me he d gone frog-sticking without a light (179). Punctuating Quotations You MUST be aware of the variety of punctuation rules as they apply to the use of quotations. Reminder 1 Use a colon to separate your own complete sentence lead-ins from quotations. Remember that a complete sentence must be on either side of the colon. against Atticus and his defense of Tom Robinson: I was becoming nervous. Atticus seemed to know what he was doing (179). Reminder 2 Use an ellipsis [...] to indicate material omitted from the quotation. Hamlet tells Ophelia, "you jig and amble... and make your wantonness your ignorance" (III.i ). Reminder 3 To indicate material omitted at the end of your sentence, put a period with no space in front and then follow with three spaced periods. Hawthorne writes that "Robin gazed with dismay and astonishment.... The effect was as if of two individual devils, a fiend of fire and a fiend of darkness, had united themselves to form this infernal visage" (887). Reminder 4 If using an ellipsis and a parenthetical page reference at the end of a sentence, put the fourth period after the parentheses. According to Anne Barton, the last part of A Midsummer Night's Dream shows "the relationship between art and life..." (219). Reminder 5 If omitting a whole sentence, use four dots. Singer writes that, "His thoughts turned to matters of business.... It was easier to think about practical matters" (279). Reminder 6 Use a line of spaced dots to signal that a line (or more) of poetry has been omitted. Two lovers they sat on a hill: And could not talk their fill (lines 6-8). 3 P a g e

4 Reminder 7 Use square brackets [ ] to indicate editorial changes that you must make to clarify the quotation or improve the grammatical structure of your sentence. Flaubert writes, "She looked carefully for the place where [Elizabeth] had entered the garden" (65). Flaubert says that "she [has] an excess of energy" (97). Reminder 8 Reproduce your source exactly in a quotation. Use the word [sic] immediately after a problem word or obvious mistake in the original text. "There were no pieces of strong [sic] around the boxes," one witness wrote (37). Reminder 9 Introduce long quotations (more than four lines IN YOUR PAPER) with a complete sentence followed by a colon. Single space them with 1 INCH / 2.5 cm INDENTATION FOR EVERY LINE. Note that in this case the reference DOES NOT GO INSIDE THE FULL SENTENCE, but is separated by the end stop of the quotation and that there are NO QUOTATION MARKS USED. Do not use italics either. In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Wolff speaks about women in literature and history: A very queer, composite being thus emerges. Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history. She dominates the loves of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact, she was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. (60) Reminder 10 Use double quotation marks for a quotation and single quotation marks for an inner quotation. After his interview with Hester, Dimmensdale sinks into self-doubt: "'Have I then sold myself,' thought the minister, 'to the fiend whom... this velveted old hag has chosen for her prince and master!'" (237). Reminder 11 Always put colons and semicolons outside quotation marks. The senator announced, "I will not seek re-election"; then he left the room (25). 4 P a g e

5 Reminder 12 Put other marks of punctuation (question marks, dashes, exclamation points) inside when they are part of the quoted material, and outside when they are not. 5 P a g e When King Hamlet's ghost reveals that he was killed by Claudius, young Hamlet exclaims, "O my prophetic soul!" (I.v.40). What are the implications of Hamlet's statement, "To be, or not to be" (III.i.55)? Reminder 13 Use a slash (/) with a space before and after the mark to indicate line division in poetry when quoting three lines or fewer. For poetry quotations that are four lines or more, use the full 10-space indentation format with the line breaks as they are set up in the poem (see reminder #9). In Harlem by Langston Hughes, the speaker asks, "What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?" (1-3). Reminder 14 When introducing a quotation, use no comma after it and no capital to start the quotation unless it begins with a proper noun. In the closing lines, Birkla asserts that guided by the compass of her inner strength, [she] finally made her way back home" (140). Make sure your sentences are complete. How to Trouble Shoot Problems: Incorrect: We learn that there is some resistance outside the village over lotteries: "over in the north village." Correct: We learn that there is some resistance outside the village over lotteries: "over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery; some places have already quit lotteries" (208). Clarify pronouns that have no clear antecedent (be sure it is clear who he/she and him/her are). Incorrect: She does not, it should be noted, question the fairness of lotteries, just of the particular draw: "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair" (209). Correct: She does not, it should be noted, question the fairness of lotteries, just of the particular draw: "You didn't give him [her husband] time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair" (209).

6 Make subjects and verbs agree. Incorrect: Wilfred Owen says that the only prayer said for those who die in battle is war's noise, which "patter out their hasty orisons" (line 7). Correct: Wilfred Owen says that the only prayer said for those who die in battle is war's noise, which "patter[s] out their hasty orisons" (line 7). Make pronouns and antecedents agree. Incorrect: The father, Abner, has taught Sartoris "... to stick to your own blood or you will not have any blood to stick to you" (107). Correct: The father, Abner, has taught Sartoris "... to stick to [his] own blood or [he] will not have any blood to stick to [him]" (107) The Works Cited list At the end of ALL writing you do that references ANY text (print, non print, and electronic), you MUST include a Works Cited list. Below is what a BOOK reference looks like. EVERY type of text or source has a different style. So for my work above on To Kill a Mockingbird. On a separate page at the end of my paper, set at the top of the page: 6 P a g e Works Cited List Lee, H. To Kill a Mockingbird. Canada: Popular Library, Print. The format is: 1. Author (last name, first initial) {followed by a PERIOD} 2. Title (underlined because it s a book) {followed by a PERIOD} 3. Place of publication (city or country, depending on what is given city is preferable) {followed by a COLON} 4. Publisher {followed by a COMMA} 5. Date of publication {followed by a PERIOD} **note that the publication date may well be AFTER the copyright date but use the publication date 6. Medium {followed by a PERIOD} ** Note the punctuation! ** When a Works Cited list includes multiple references, list them in alphabetical order using the authors last names.