English 104 Style Sheet

     Students should know that every academic discipline requires  writers to conform to certain standards of visual  presentation or "format."  Most disciplines' formats differ from  one another, but all are important to readers.  Because this course is taught in the English Department, papers should conform to the MLA Stylesheet, a summary of which is presented  below. For full instructions, see the Harbrace College  Handbook (11th edition) or the MLA Handbook for Writers of  Research Papers (3rd edition, 1988).  ("MLA" stands for the Modern Language Association, a major professional organization in the field of English literature and composition studies.)  These rules are not trivial.  They help to establish readers' sense of your authority.  Ask your instructor and Writing Center tutors  for help. 

Overall Paper Format:

     All papers must be typed or computer printed, double‑spaced,  with appropriate margins.  Papers should not include separate pages for titles or Works Cited sections, and no blank pages or special binders should be used.  All papers must identify themselves on  the first page by title, author, course and section  number, and date.  All pages must be  numbered.  Each paper must end with an accurate and properly  constructed "Works Cited" section.  All sources quoted, paraphrased, or summarized (including handouts you get in class) must be acknowledged in  parentheses in your text, as in this direct quotation of a claim that "the cost of elective pregnancy termination . . . must be approaching $500 million a year" (Wilson 19).

     Use endnotes only to explain complex indebtedness.  The  course encourages discussion outside of class.  If your paper has  benefited in any important way from the ideas of others,  acknowledge them in an endnote to the first sentence which says  something like this: 

1)  This paper benefited from conversations in Michelle  Tokarczyk's English 104 class, especially from Edith Piaf's comments  on poverty and arts funding.  I also thank my Writing Center  tutor, Nancy Atwell, whose conferences helped me define my thesis  about Ginsberg's struggles to write in poverty.

 This note protects its author from violation of the Honor Code,  helping to explain how it might be that Edith's paper contains  similar ideas about poverty and the arts, or that another writer  who talked with Nancy Atwell had a similar thesis about  Ginsberg.  Remember, acknowledged collaboration on a paper is not  plagiarism unless your teacher has told you specifically not to  collaborate (e.g., on a take‑home exam, etc.).

 Common Types of "Works Cited" Citations: 

Book with one author: 

DeLillo, Don.  White Noise.  N.Y.: Penguin, 1986.

Book with two or three authors: 

Fornara, Charles W., and Loren J. Samons II.  Athens from  Cleisthenes to Pericles.  Berkeley: U of California P, 1991. 

Book composed of essays edited by one or more authors: 

Chafe, William H., and Harvard Sitkoff, eds.  A History of Our   Time: Readings on Postwar America.  3rd ed.  N.Y.: Oxford U  P, 1991. 

Article in a magazine or newspaper (note that a translation credit comes after the title of both articles and books):  

Tolstaya, Tatyana.  "In Cannibalistic Times."  Trans. James  Gambrell.  The New York Review of Books  XXXVIIII:7  (April 11, 1991) 3-6. 

A single article reprinted in a collection (e.g., Chafe &  Sitkoff): 

Tolkien, J.R.R.  "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936)    Rpt. in R.D. Fulk ed., Interpretations of "Beowulf": A  Critical Anthology.  Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana U P, 1991.   

A movie or video: 

The Manchurian Candidate.  Dir. John Frankenheimer.  M.C. Productions, 1962. 

Internet web page (note that the date is essential—web page contents change): 

"Gilman Inducted into National Women's Hall of Fame."  Charlotte Perkins Gilman Newsletter 5.1 (Spring 1995): n. pag.  Online.  Internet.  8 Dec. 1995.  Available http://orchard.cortland.edu/PerkinsGilmanNews.html.