At NKHS (and in many colleges, too) your teachers will expect that you know how to format a report using the formatting style known as Modern Language Association Style, or MLA. They do not expect to spend class time reviewing details about spacing conventions or citations. Access to this guideline should help you.
You will be expected to internalize the major points of MLA for the final exam in this class. These points are:
A. Use Double Line Spacing (DS) NO SPACING throughout. No exceptions. [You'll eventually set your ruler for a first line indent (see "F" below). This helps your reader establish where one paragraph ends and another begins.]
B. Instead of using a cover page, 7 different elements belong at the top of page 1. Count them, as follows:
C. The first 2 of these 7 elements belong in the Header:
1: The page number. Besides selecting the header and upper right, also select the "page number wizard" so that each page will be marked automatically and accurately.
2: Your last name. Use the back arrow to make sure your name precedes the number. Keying these 2 things in reverse order doesn't work. The page number wizard cancels whatever you've key in too early.
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D. The next 4 of these 7 elements belong DS in the upper left corner of your report, using the default margins
of 1 inch, in the following sequence:
3: Your full name, followed by
4: (enter 1x, which will be DS -- see 1 above) Your teacher's name (enter)
5: The name of your class (use Technology Readiness here; then enter)
6: Today's date (then enter)
E. 7: Without fanfare, enter the Title (and also potentially subtitle) of your report, using initial word capitalization (except for prepositions), and then enter again to start your report.
F. After reaching the next line, recognize it as the beginning of the body of your report. Set your ruler to indent 1/2 inch after each "Return," by moving the top triangle on the Left Margin Ruler Tool (“hour glass”) 1/2 inch to right.
G. To retain proper spacing, start the very first sentence of your report --even if by just keying in a single letter.
H. Only then, return to "E", the title, and center it to the page. This completes your 7 top elements.
I. Key in the subsequent paragraphs of the body of your report. Only hit ENTER at the end of each paragraph to keep the text wrap working properly.
J. Keep track of all your references. (You'll key in a specific Bibliography, or "Works Cited" page at the very end of your report, and will need to organize and even alphabetize each of these. I'll refer generally to Book References here for simplicity, and then broaden the discussion at the end.) But each specific author will be mentioned "parenthetically" as you quote specifically from one of your references. That means, the author's last name along with the specific page number you are citing are placed inside a short parenthesis, just before the sentence ends with a period. Here is an example:
- And having escaped a close call, Carly knew she had learned an amazing lesson about loyalty (Baker, 333).
K. When the line spacing of such quotes take up more than 3 full lines, they require special consideration, as follows:
1. Key in the entire quote to find out if it qualifies for the indent, but mostly to retain your current line spacing.
2. Begin the NEXT sentence which follows the quote!
3. Only then is it safe to highlight the entire quote and work to indent it.
4. The top triangle on the Left Margin Ruler Tool (that hour glass shaped tool) gets brought back to its base.
Then, aim your mouse directly at the rectangular base to drag the entire tool 1 inch to the Right.
5. Maintain your Double Spacing.
6. Glance at your Right Margin for lonely words, which for legibility, could best be brought to the line below. Using the single upwards pointing triangle which is the Right Ruler Tool, experiment by indenting the quote at the Right as well, for maximum legibility.
L. Avoid singleton lines on your final report. Start on a fresh page, when only a single line of a new paragraph fits on the prior page. This is called an "orphan line." And, if only a single line of an extended paragraph runs onto the following page, enter a page break a line earlier, to avoid what is called a "widow line." Regardless of what they are called, avoiding them is easy, but will require your attention -- once you have edited your final copy.
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M. Once you have completed the body of your report, ENTER a Page Break, to guarantee that, no matter how much editing you wind up doing, your Works Cited page will begin at the top of the page at the end of your report.
N. Continue Double Spacing.
O. Key in Works Cited without any fanfare, and enter.
P. Organize all of your References into alphabetical sequence but Author (followed by ...). Key in the last name of the first author in your sequence, and then get ready to space your Works Cited page.
Q. First, Center the 2 words: Works Cited
R. Then, aim your mouse at the lower of the 2 triangles on the Left Margin Ruler Tool, which performs the Hanging Indent function. This function allows all of your authors' names to have clear white space above and below them, for quick reference and appreciation. Do NOT strike the ENTER key until you begin entering your second reference, because that cancels text wrapping. It's text wrapping together with the Ruler Tool which set up the hanging indent.
S. Things to consider when keying in Book References:
1. Besides any page numbers for your parenthetical citations, everything you need to include on the Works Cited page can be found in the first few pages.
2. After the last name, include the first name and potentially middle initial, just as listed, along with any other authors' names (sometimes there are multiple authors).
3. End this section with a period. But keep textwrapping. Avoid the Enter Key!
4. Then, add the title, and either underline or italicize it; just be consistent. End this section with a period.
5. Include the edition (look for one), if there are multiple publication dates. End this section with a period.
6. Add city of publication. Enter a colon.
7. Add the publisher. Enter a comma.
8. Enter the publication year. Enter a period.
T. Things to consider when citing an online reference:
1. Author's name (see above #2) If there is no author, that should be noted online.
2. Cite the page title in quotations. Use either the page’s headline, or what you copy from your browser window.
3. Cite the URL.
4. Cite the date you have viewed the page.
U. There are specific citations for magazine and newspaper articles, as well as for journals. But the big trend today is to use a citation generator, so I'll skip ahead to that here.
1. Open up EasyBib website.
2. Copy and paste the URL into the template on the site as directed.
3. Select "Autocite" and "MLA Style"
4. Copy the reference.
V. Using EasyBib for online journals, encyclopedias, and data bases
1. Use the citation they provide at the end of the article.
2. Or, look for a link called "Cite Now" or "Cite Here", and copy the citation provided.
3. You should have a chance to select MLA Style.
4. But that citation will probably be unedited. Instead of quotation marks, you may have math arrow symbols(<...>).
5. Also, make sure you return to the page if you are asked to include the URL,
because that will be lost in this process, so you'll need to retrieve it.
W. Using EasyBib for books takes keying in the 13 digit ISBN number (Int'l Standard Book Nr.) into the template
