I have below here a grouping of beginning arguments done by former students. They are not perfect but they can allow you some window/insight into the process.

Sample Arguments

VIDEO LECTURE:

MLA FORMATTING FOR RESEARCH PAPERS

Here are some things I saw while looking at your Argument, Part 1 submitted on Monday. I want to discuss them a bit.

1.Punctuation in quotations goes after the citation, not before.

2. Use of Direct Quotations

This simply means I want to make sure that when you are writing your paragraphs you should and need to be directly quoting from source material both your graphic novel and external sources.

3. Citing Quotations, Paraphrasing, and Summaries

Whether you are directly quoting, paraphrasing, and/or summarizing the works of others in your work, you need to cite that work. That means providing an in-text citation.

See Point 5 for further details below.

Failing to do this could lead to one being accused of Plagiarism.

4. Integration of Quotations

Taking another look at the “Citing Short Quotations 1” above under Point 1, you must when putting a quotation in your paper lead to and introduce it, as well as integrate it with your own words in a sentence. See this example again from McCloud:

5. In-text Citations

Basic rules of in-text citation in MLA 8th edition are as follows:

1. Source has an author -> use the author’s last name. 

Example: Kenneth Burke – (Burke).

2. Source has TWO authors -> use both author’s last names. 

Example: Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (author and artist of All-Star Superman graphic novel) – (Morrison and Quitely).

3. Source has THREE or MORE authors -> use last name of the first author and then write “et al.” for the rest. 

Example: J. Moore, Rob Johnson, and Michael Thomas – (Moore et al.).

4. Source has NO AUTHOR -> use the title of the work, usually an online article or anonymous post on a website, or television show. 

Example: “Statistics on Global Warming in the Americas” – (“Statistics on Global Warming”). 

**Note, I am and you are allowed to shorten the title some for the in-text citation.

5. There is no author or title and it is an online source -> Cite the name of the website in italics. 

Example: (cnn.com).

6. Source is a movie or television show -> Movie would just have the title of the movie in italics. 

Example: An Inconvenient Truth – (An Inconvenient Truth). Television show would be the title of the episode. 

Example: “Valentine’s Day.” The Office – (“Valentine’s Day”).

I have some detailed discussion at the following link HERE.

6. Block Quotation rules

With short quotations, one’s under 3 lines typed, the rule is to integrate into your own prose.

Example: According to Kenneth Burke, “humans are symbol using animals” (3).

A. You integrate with your own words, 

B. You use quotation marks to distinguish your words from their words,

C. You don’t put punctuation at the end of the quotation, but only after the citation that follows to draw distinction and make sure it is clearly connected to your quotation.

Block Quotations are different ->

You will read this for Wednesday’s class

https://youtu.be/9Dh2nmHs210

This is building on a previous example we looked at in class in the post “MLA Formatting – Integrating Quotations”.

EXERCISE

Integrating a Quotation Example

SAMPLE

Integration Quotation Sample

HELPFUL HANDOUTS

(from University of N. Carolina Writing Center)

1. Arguments

2. Evidence

3. Reading to Write