A sample of the research paper gives clear instructions how to write a good research paper in MLA format. Thank you so much for making it easy. Now I can start my third essay which has to incorporate two critical secondary sources. In the sample, the writer uses multiple secondary sources to discuss how it relates to his argument about the primary source. It is very helpful to see how the writer incorporates them into his writing. The comments at the end of the sample are very useful because they break the research paper down into parts.
Chapter 8 Choosing Topics helped me to brainstorm and get some of the ideas down on paper. One of the most difficult preliminary steps was to identify my audience. I am still not sure if I know who is my audience. Strategies that were suggested are very helpful. I always freewrite, brainstorm and make an outline before writing. However, I never heard about the graphic organizer. I have a visual imagination and graphic organizer will definitely help me to generate and organize my ideas, make connections and structure thinking.
From the MLA handbook, I learned that my research paper should be about my own ideas and quotation should merely help me to support those ideas. In my paper, I should guide the reader through my text and do not drop quotations into the paper and leave it to the reader to make connections.
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I never was sure how to quote a few lines of text, so I haven't used in any of my papers. However, now I am pretty confident. According to the MLA Handbook, for quotations that are more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse, I should use a free-standing block of text indented half an inch from the left margin, omit the quotation marks, start the direct quotation on a new line, indent the first word of paragraphs only if quoting multiple paragraphs, use double spacing in the quotation, and include parenthetical citation after the ending