Writing Research Papers/ Citing Sources

What Makes a Good Literature Paper?

 

 

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Contributors:Purdue OWL.

 

Summary:

 

This handout provides examples and description about writing papers in literature. It discusses research topics, how to begin to research, how to use information, and formatting.

 

An argument

 

When you write an extended literary essay, often one requiring research, you are essentially making an argument. You are arguing that your perspective-an interpretation, an evaluative judgment, or a critical evaluation-is a valid one.

 

A debatable thesis statement

 

Like any argument paper you have ever written for a first-year composition course, you must have a specific, detailed thesis statement that reveals your perspective, and, like any good argument, your perspective must be one which is debatable.

 

Examples

 

You would not want to make an argument of this sort:

 

Shakespeare's Hamlet is a play about a young man who seeks revenge.

 

That doesn't say anything-it's basically just a summary and is hardly debatable.

 

A better thesis would be this:

 

Hamlet experiences internal conflict because he is in love with his mother.

 

That is debatable, controversial even. The rest of a paper with this argument as its thesis will be an attempt to show, using specific examples from the text and evidence from scholars, (1) how Hamlet is in love with his mother, (2) why he's in love with her, and (3) what implications there are for reading the play in this manner.

 

You also want to avoid a thesis statement like this:

 

Spirituality means different things to different people. King Lear, The Book of Romans, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance each view the spirit differently.

 

Again, that says nothing that's not already self-evident. Why bother writing a paper about that? You're not writing an essay to list works that have nothing in common other than a general topic like "spirituality." You want to find certain works or authors that, while they may have several differences, do have some specific, unifying point. That point is your thesis.

 

A better thesis would be this:

 

Lear, Romans, and Zen each view the soul as the center of human personality.

 

Then you prove it, using examples from the texts that show that the soul is the center of personality.

 

Contributors:Purdue OWL.

 

Summary:

 

This handout provides examples and description about writing papers in literature. It discusses research topics, how to begin to research, how to use information, and formatting.

 

On Literature Topics and Research

 

What kinds of topics are good ones?

 

The best topics are ones that originate out of your own reading of a work of literature, but here are some common approaches to consider:

 

• A discussion of a work's characters: are they realistic, symbolic, historically-based?

 

• A comparison/contrast of the choices different authors or characters make in a work

 

• A reading of a work based on an outside philosophical perspective (Ex. how would a Freudian read Hamlet?)

 

• A study of the sources or historical events that occasioned a particular work (Ex. comparing G.B. Shaw's Pygmalion with the original Greek myth of Pygmalion)

 

• An analysis of a specific image occurring in several works (Ex. the use of moon imagery in certain plays, poems, novels)

 

• A "deconstruction" of a particular work (Ex. unfolding an underlying racist worldview in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness)

 

• A reading from a political perspective (Ex. how would a Marxist read William Blake's "London"?)

 

• A study of the social, political, or economic context in which a work was written — how does the context influence the work?

 

How do I start research?

 

• The Internet

 

Once you have decided on an interesting topic and work (or works), the best place to start is probably the Internet. Here you can usually find basic biographical data on authors, brief summaries of works, possibly some rudimentary analyses, and even bibliographies of sources related to your topic.

 

• The library

 

The Internet, however, rarely offers serious direct scholarship; you will have to use sources found in the library, sources like journal articles and scholarly books, to get information that you can use to build your own scholarship-your literary paper. Consult the library's on-line catalog and the MLA Periodical Index. Avoid citing dictionary or encyclopedic sources in your final paper.

 

How do I use the information I find?

 

The secondary sources you find are only to be used as an aid. Your thoughts should make up most of the essay. As you develop your thesis, you will bring in the ideas of the scholars to back up what you have already said.

 

For example, say you are arguing that Huck Finn is a Christ figure; that's your basic thesis. You give evidence from the novel that allows this reading, and then, at the right place, you might say the following, a paraphrase:

 

According to Susan Thomas, Huck sacrifices himself because he wants to set Jim free (129).

 

If the scholar states an important idea in a memorable way, use a direct quote.

 

"Huck's altruism and feelings of compassion for Jim force him to surrender to the danger" (Thomas 129).

 

Either way, you will then link that idea to your thesis.

 

Contributors:Purdue OWL.

 

Summary:

 

This handout provides examples and description about writing papers in literature. It discusses research topics, how to begin to research, how to use information, and formatting.

 

Literature Paper Formatting

 

What about the MLA format?

 

All research papers on literature use the MLA format, as it is the universal citation method for the field of literary studies. Whenever you use a primary or secondary source, whether you are quoting or paraphrasing, you will make parenthetical citations in the MLA format [Ex. (Smith 67).] Your Works Cited list will be the last page of your essay. Consult the section on Citing Sources/ MLA farther down this page for further instructions.

 

Note, however, the following minor things about the MLA format:

 

• Titles of books, plays, or works published singularly (not anthologized) should be underlined. (Ex. Hamlet, Great Expectations)

 

• Titles of poems, short stories, or works published in an anthology will have quotation marks around them. (Ex. "Ode on a Nightingale," "The Cask of Amontillado")

 

• All pages in your essay should have your last name the page number in the top right hand corner. (Ex. Jones 12)

 

Tip

 

If you're using Microsoft Word, you can easily include your name and page number on each page by following the these steps:

 

1. Open "View" (on the top menu).

 

2. Open "Header and Footer." (A box will appear at the top of the page you're on. And a "Header and Footer" menu box will also appear).

 

3. Click on the "allign right" button at the top of the screen. (If you're not sure which button it is, hold the mouse over the buttons and a small window should pop up telling you which button you're on.)

 

4. Type in your last name and a space.

 

5. Click on the "#" button which is located on the "Header and Footer" menu box. It will insert the appropriate page number.

 

6. Click "Close" on the "Header and Footer" window.

 

That's all you need to do. Word will automatically insert your name and the page number on every page of your document.

 

What else should I remember?

 

• Don't leave a quote or paraphrase by itself-you must introduce it, explain it, and show how it relates to your thesis.

 

• Block format all quotations of more than four lines.

 

• When you quote brief passages of poetry, line and stanza divisions are shown as a slash (Ex. "Roses are red, / Violets are blue / You love me / And I like you").

 

• For more help, see the OWL handout on using quotes.

 

 

 

Citing Sources MLA Style

 

(For an authoritative explanation of MLA style, see the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, available for purchase at )

 

 

In-text citation:

 

In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done in two ways. When you make reference to someone else's ideas, either through paraphrasing or quoting them directly, you:

 

• provide the author's name (or the title of the work) and the page (or paragraph) number of the work in a parenthetical citation

 

• provide full citation information for the work in your Works Cited list

 

This allows people to know which sources you used in writing your essay and then be able to look them up themselves, so that they can use them in their scholarly work. Here are some basic guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text.

 

Parenthetical Citations

 

MLA format follows the author-page method of citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear in your works cited list (see Creating Works Cited Pages, below). The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

 

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).

 

Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

 

Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

 

If the work you are making reference to has no author, use an abbreviated version of the work's title. For non-print sources, such as films, TV series, pictures, or other media, or electronic sources, include the name that begins the entry in the Works Cited page. For example:

 

An anonymous Wordsworth critic once argued that his poems were too emotional ("Wordsworth Is A Loser" 100).

 

Sometimes you may have to use an indirect quotation. An indirect quotation is a quotation that you found in another source that was quoting from the original. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source. For example:

 

Ravitch argues that high schools are pressured to act as "social service centers, and they don't do that well" (qtd.in Weisman 259).

 

 

Creating Works Cited Pages

 

Formatting your works cited list:

 

• Begin your works cited list on a separate page from the text of the essay.

 

• Label the works cited list Works Cited (do not underline the words Works Cited nor put them in quotation marks) and center the words Works Cited at the top of the page.

 

• Double space all entries and do not skip spaces between entries. Arrange the items on your Works Cited list alphabetically by author, interfiling books, articles, etc.

 

• Indent the second and all following lines of each entry 5 spaces (or one half inch). To do this you usually can just hit the Tab key on the upper left-hand corner of the keyboard.

 

• If no author is given, start with the title.

 

 Abbreviate the names of all months except May, June, and July.

 

 Websites: include the title of the web page, the name of the entire web site, the organization that posted it (this may be the same as the name of the website). Also include the full date the page was created or last updated (day, month, year if available) and the date you looked at it.

 

 As for page numbers, different databases will provide different information. Include the range of pages (ex. 25-28.); or the starting page followed by a hyphen, a blank space, and a period (ex. 64-. If no page information is given, then leave it out.

 

 For documents and situations not listed here, see the printed version of the MLA Style manual.

 

Samples of the most common types of citations appear below (beginning on a new page, just as your own Works Cited page will)

 

 

Works Cited

 

(This is a sample. You of course would not include the identifier of (Book) or (Article) on your real Works Cited page, and the entries would be in alphabetical order.  The formatting, however, is to be followed down to the placement of periods and use of italics.)

 

(Book)

 

Okuda, Michael, and Denise Okuda. Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future. New York: Pocket, 1993.

 

(Journal Article)

 

Wilcox, Rhonda V. "Shifting Roles and Synthetic Women in Star Trek: The Next Generation." Studies in Popular Culture 13.2 (1991): 53-65.

 

(Newspaper or Magazine Article)

 

Di Rado, Alicia. "Trekking through College: Classes Explore Modern Society Using the World of Star Trek." Los Angeles Times 15 Mar. 1995: A3.

 

(Book Article or Chapter)

 

James, Nancy E. "Two Sides of Paradise: The Eden Myth According to Kirk and Spock." Spectrum of the Fantastic. Ed. Donald Palumbo. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1988. 219-223.

 

(Website)

 

Lynch, Tim. "DSN Trials and Tribble-ations Review." Psi Phi: Bradley's Science Fiction Club. 1996. Bradley University. 8 Oct. 1997 .

 

(Newspaper or Magazine Article on the Internet)

 

Andreadis, Athena. "The Enterprise Finds Twin Earths Everywhere It Goes, But Future Colonizers of Distant Planets Won't Be So Lucky." Astronomy Jan. 1999: 64- . Academic Universe. Lexis-Nexis. B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Lib., Brookville, NY. 7 Feb. 1999 .

 

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(Some material for this cheat sheet was stolen from the Long Island University C W Post campus website: < http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm> and Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab website < http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html>.  We thank and acknowledge them.)