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Assignment | INRW Argumentative Essay (Caesar): MLA Style

ESOL 0310 INRW | Prof. Lorena Caesar (Fall 2022)

The Paper Set-Up

  • Font: Times New Roman, size 12
  • Double-space everything
  • Last name with page number does inside the top header
  • Everything else is in the normal part of the page.

Start an MLA paper with your name, your professor's name, the class and the date, all double-spaced. One line down, centered, is the title. In the upper-right corner, in the header, is your last name with page number.

Works Cited Page

Here, you will list your sources in alphabetical order by the last name of the author. You must list every source that you use in your paper (a minimum of 3).

MLA last page set-up and model: start on a new page at the end of your paper. Title this page Works Cited. List sources in alpabetical order. Use the hanging indent.

When You're Quoting...

Original Text from Source:

A much larger analogue of the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt is a cosmic junkyard, full of rubble thought to be left over from the formation of the solar system. But whereas the asteroid belt is made mostly of rock and metal, objects in the Kuiper Belt are composed largely of frozen water, ammonia and methane.

How should you add this information to your paper?

Check the Writing page for tips on how to make your citations flow with your sentences.

"A much larger analogue of the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt is a cosmic junkyard, full of rubble thought to be left over from the formation of the solar system. But whereas the asteroid belt is made mostly of rock and metal, objects in the Kuiper Belt are composed largely of frozen water, ammonia and methane" ("Two Years On").

The Break-down:

  • Too long of a quote for a 4-page paper
  • Doesn't use any original content to introduce the quote or finish up the thought

The Kuiper Belt consists of icy chunks of frozen water, ammonia, and methane believed to be "leftover from the formation of the solar system," much like the rocky field of the asteroid belt ("Two Years On").

The Break-down:

  • Only directly quotes what is needed
  • Original content introduces the quote

Though both the asteroid belt and Kuiper belt are believed to be remnants of the solar system's formation, the Kuiper belt consists mostly of ice rather than rock, including frozen methane and ammonia as well as water ("Two Years On").

The Break-down:

  • The source material is almost completely re-written
  • This would much more easily fit into the organization of my paper.

A bigger version of the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt is a cosmic junkyard, full of rubble believed to be left over from the formation of the solar system. But while the asteroid belt is made mostly of rock and metal, objects in the Kuiper Belt are composed largely of frozen water, ammonia and methane.

The Break-down:

  • No citation is given
  • Even if there were a citation, there are no quotation marks around the words repeated verbatim.
  • A few words have been swapped out for synonyms but this does not actually introduce originality.

One period, to the right of the citation

Works Cited Citation for the Above Examples:

“Two Years On, the Kuiper Belt is in sight.” The Economist, 16 Sept. 2017, www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2017/09/16/two-years-on-the-kuiper-belt-is-in-sight.