The research theme counts as 20% of your semester grade. Remember, as you prepare your submission, that the best papers are written long before they are due and are carefully edited and proofread on paper, not on a computer screen, multiple times.
All themes should be typed using 12-point Courier New.
Current MLA Handbook conventions should be strictly followed in format and citations. You may have used this format in high school, but most certainly, you were acquainted with this documentation method in EH 102. Consult the current edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, as the definitive MLA source book. If you are not an English major, you may elect to save some money by referring to the abbreviated—but correct—rules found in The Little, Brown Handbook, or Purdue University's Online Writing Lab.
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_style_introduction.html
Other resources for MLA style are readily available, including other OWLs, software-based solutions, websites, and other textbooks; however, your instructor has not assessed their accuracy. Use non-recommended resources at your own risk. Note: Some sources offer MLA formatted citations for Works Cited pages that are incorrect. You are responsible for checking each entry's accuracy
To avoid plagiarizing (and a 0), you must cite direct quotations and paraphrased passages every time they appear.
You must use a block quotation for any quotation that exceeds four (4) lines on your printed page. Handle poetry that exceeds four (4) lines similarly. Integrate shorter poetry quotations within the text, separating lines with forward slashes (type a blank space on both sides of each slash).
Long works, such as books, novels, plays, and movies, are italicized in MLA style. Shorter works, such as short stories, poems, essays, and song titles, are enclosed by quotation marks.
Your Works Cited page should be the last page of your document and should feature your last name and sequential page numbering in the header, but the Works Cited page does not count as a page of text to fulfill this assignment. (Nice try.)
On your Works Cited page(s), only include sources you've actually referenced in your paper. A Works Cited page is not a reading bibliography.
Every line of text in your essay should be double spaced, which means if you hold two or more pages up to a light, you'll see perfect, vertically aligned text on every other line with only three exceptions. Word will move the last line of a page to the top of the next page to prevent a half line orphan. In addition, you will likely have some blank lines on the last page of your document and after your last MLA entry. In addition, you should not have any double-double spaces.
Never put quotation marks around your title or around Works Cited.
Every word or number (such as your last name and page numbers in the header) should be in Courier New.
Turn in everything that you have written or used to develop your essay, including all outlines and handwritten or typed (and marked-up) rough drafts, replete with marginal doodles of your pet ferret. Often, I can give you credit for work you've done in prewriting if things go horribly awry in your submitted essay. I am always looking for evidence of your revision process. If you only turn in your final draft, I can only assume that you wrote only one draft. probably and hour before it was due.