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MLA Style |
Research Guide | Copyright & Plagiarism
MLA Style
Memphis
University School has adopted the MLA Handbook for
Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., as its official
style manual for all subject areas.
RED & BLUE GUIDE FOR WORKS CITED LISTS (New version, formerly known as the Quick Guide to Bibliographic Citations). MUS librarians
have chosen examples of the most frequently needed citation styles at
our school and created a PDF document for your convenience.
MLA
Formatting Mrs. Balton's online guide to
setting up MUS papers.
DianaHacker.com
This site gives good
examples of citations in MLA format, with a drop-down index
of document types.
MLA
Citations The Modern Language Association homepage informs users how
to format citations for documents procured over the World
Wide Web. Select "MLA Style" at the MLA
homepage and click on "frequently asked
questions."
The
Owl at Purdue This college site provides a
guide to MLA style and the research process, with examples and links to several other
similar sites.
As for Citation Machine and other online bibliography generators: Note the warning from this website itself, and don't assume that it will correctly format all your citations: "Warning: There are many nuances to how citations are formed, and this software may not pick up all of the circumstances that influence a citation's proper format. Because of the myriad of characteristics in information sources, neither David Warlick, nor The Landmark Project, can fully guarantee the accuracy of citations generated by this tool."
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Research Guide
Finding Different Types of Sources | Research and Topic Guides
Big 6 (Steps to Research) Wondering how to get started with your research and how to finish with the grade you want? This is the best map we know to chart your course!
Evaluation Checklist Information is not all of the same quality or usefulness. Here is a short list of questions to ask when determining whether a book, video, magazine article, CD-ROM, or web page fits your information needs.
Glossary of Library Terms Here's what we mean when we use some of those specialized words.
Finding Different Types of Sources: a Quick Pathfinder for Gathering Information
(If you already know which type of source you need, go to our Search the Databases page and select the type of information you need under Databases by Media. This guide is here to help you compare your options for gathering data.)
Books
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Books often display the results of years of research, benefit from editorial direction, and usually supply the backbone of a good research paper. They may outperform and outlast information you find on the internet.
Articles
Databases
Maps
- Library Catalog Maps can be found in the library's excellent collection of atlases, reference books, and stack books and can be used as primary or secondary sources in all kinds of projects. Online maps are improving; below are some of the better websites for maps.
- North American Indian Map Page Links "This site archives thousands of historical events which happened to or affected the indigenous peoples of North America."
- Northwestern University Libraries Has exhibits containing ancient maps.
- Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection Wonderful map resource for researchers and historians. Maps are drawn from the university's extensive collection or from non-copyrighted sources.
- Maps Area Features a keyword search engine of global maps. In addition to maps, link topics for this site include map companies, map magazines and forums, and a big list of historical map resources.
- Library of Congress Map Collection 1500 to the present includes wonderful images of maps from the famous to the mundane. Their divisions include military and battle maps; transportation and communication; cities and towns; conservation and the environment; discovery and exploration; cultural landscapes; and general maps.
Videos
Primary Sources
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Research and Topic Guides
To help you choose or narrow a topic, these databases and internet sites provide excellent guides.
Databases
Student Resource Center-Gold Includes a Topic Trees tab which gives you a choice of 6 subjects: Cultures, Science, Geography, U.S. History, Literature, and World History. Each of these topics gives a comprehensive list of various themes, subjects, and ideas for a research paper. Use the Subject Guide tab to search through subject terms in the database, like 'Washington' to bring up a list of available subjects (Washington State, Washington D.C., George Washington, etc).
History Study Center Holds primary and secondary sources from Proquest and gives good research guides for your history project.
American National Biography Online Oxford database that includes a Research Ideas and Teacher's Guide tabs.
Internet Links
Research Strategy Cornell University's 7 Steps of the Research Process.
Dewey Decimal Classification Outline Browsing is one of the most gratifying library activities! Use this as a very basic map to the collection.
Using Historical Materials This site provides definitions of primary and secondary sources and it lists examples of each.
Hamilton Writing Center Offers good advice on how to avoid the pitfalls of plagiarism.
When the Book? When the Net? This article, written by Jamie McKenzie and first appearing in From Now On, will help you figure out what type of information format may be useful for your specific purpose.
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Copyright & Plagiarism
Copyright
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U.S. Copyright Office website
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Guidelines for educational fair use
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Copyright is a complicated issue; there are laws that have yet to be tested in court, and because of that, publishers, authors, and users have attempted (not always successfully) to come up with standards that are agreeable to all parties. The Stanford University Libraries have a Copyright & Fair Use website that may be helpful.
- In general, it is usually acceptable for a teacher or student to make a copy of part of a printed work for limited educational use without having to write for permission; however, if in doubt, it's best to write a copyright holder for permission to copy his or her work. Copying a complete work or making repeated sets of multiple copies for any purpose, including educational, may be illegal.
Plagiarism
- Plagiarism is a form of cheating that involves using another person's ideas or words without acknowledging the source. Whenever you write a research paper, you must tell specifically where you got each idea, whether you quote it directly or paraphrase it (put it in your own words). This information can be included in parenthetical notes or worked into your sentence structure; putting a title in your works cited list is not enough.
- Plagiarism is one of the most frequent types of honor code violations at MUS, according to the Honor Council.
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To avoid plagiarism, be sure to take detailed notes on each source and always write down the author, title, and page number on each note. Keep up with your notes, and don't copy and paste text into your paper from another document.
- Never buy or borrow any work that someone else has done and turn it in as your own; that's the most blatant form of plagiarism, and it's easy for teachers to recognize it.
- See this Checklist for Avoiding Plagiarism from the Iowa State University website.
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