English Homework Help

 Write a draft of the project in MLA format. 2 pictures, sample paper and pre-writing are attached. Requirements and Instructions are below.

For this project, we’ll use a formal system of acknowledging sources known as “MLA,” short for Modern Language Association. 

Modern Language Association style calls for you to cite your sources in two places:

1. within your sentences (called a brief in-text citation) and
2. in a list of works cited at the end of your text (called a Works Cited page)

There should be only three or four sources that you’ll cite in your paper: Jean Kilbourne’s video and/or Jackson Katz’s video (remember that you’re required to use and refer to at least one of the videos in your paper!), and your two chosen images.  But you need to cite your sources in both of the places mentioned above.

In-text citations

1. When you refer to Jean Kilbourne’s or Jackson Katz’s ideas within your paper itself, you’ll usually need to use a “signal phrase” – a phrase that tells readers who’s saying what.

So, for instance, if you paraphrase Kilbourne, you might use a sentence like this in your paper:

Jean Kilbourne, a media critic, says in her video Killing Us Softly 4 that women are often objectified in advertisements.

Notice that the source’s full name (Jean Kilbourne) is used here.  But the full name should be used ONLY the first time you mention a source. The next time you refer to Kilbourne (and the time after that, and the time after that), you should refer to her by last name only. (That’s just how it’s done–that’s the convention in academic and many other kinds of writing.) Notice also that the first time you mention a source, you should give some brief context about him/her. The example above provides context by describing Kilbourne as a “media critic.” 

Notice also that the sentence uses present tense in referring to Kilbourne. That’s the convention for referring to sources in the MLA system of documentation. Notice also that there’s no parenthetical information (no in-text citation) at the end of the sentence because the student has already mentioned the relevant source info in the sentence itself. 

If you decide to use a direct quote from Kilbourne, you’ll have to use quotation marks.  Here’s an example:

Kilbourne says in her video that ads have “long promised us a better relationship via a product” (Killing Us Softly 4).

Notice that in this second example, parenthetical information is included. That’s because the name of the video wasn’t mentioned in the sentence. The formal Works Cited entry (see below) begins with the title of the video. Therefore, you use a shortened form of the title of the video in parentheses. Note that you don’t need any page numbers here because you’re citing a video. However, if you want to use time stamps in parentheses, you may. 

2. When you refer to your images within the text of your paper, you can just refer to the images by name. For example:

The ad for Extra gum portrays a stick of gum wearing a bikini.

Be sure to refer to the assigned readings for the week for more info about in-text citations!  

Works Cited page citations

The last page of your paper should be labeled Works Cited. You should have a total of THREE or FOUR citations listed: one for the Kilbourne and/or Katz video, and one for each of your images. The citations should be arranged alphabetically.

1. To cite the Kilbourne or Katz video, follow the example from The Field Guide (blue book: p. 582; yellow book: p. 534), but replace with the appropriate info about the video: 

Title of Film. Role by First and Last Names, Production Studio, Date. 

EXAMPLE: Casablanca. Directed by Michael Curtiz, Warner, 1942. 

Here’s the actual citation for the Kilbourne video:Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women. Created by Jean Kilbourne, Media Education Foundation, 2010.

Here’s the actual citation for the Katz video:Tough Guise: Violence, Media, and the Crisis in Masculinity with Jackson Katz. Produced by Sut Jhally, Media Education Foundation, 1999.  

2. To cite your images, follow these examples from The Field Guide (blue book: p. 581+; yellow book: p. 533+), but replace with the appropriate info about your images:

 To cite a print ad:

Name of Product or Company. Advertisement or description of ad. Title of Periodical, Date, Page. 

EXAMPLE:BlueCross BlueShield. Advertisement. Fortune, 8 Dec. 2003, p. 208.

 To cite an ad on the web:

Name of Product or Company. Advertisement or description of ad. Date. Name of Host Site, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.

EXAMPLE: Nike. Advertisement. Design Your Way, http://www.designyourway.net/blog/inspiration/35-nike-print-advertisements-that-boosted-the-companys-income/. Accessed 5 May 2015.

To cite other images (original art, online art, cartoons, etc.):

 See The Field Guide (blue book: p. 581+; yellow book: p. 533+). 

It’s time to WRITE A DRAFT of your paper!

Use the resources available to you: go back to last week’s prewriting to get started, re-read the assignment description to remind yourself what your goal is, read the Student Success gallery papers, etc.

And then…open a document, and start writing!

For your first draft, don’t worry about getting your source citations exactly right.  You can go back to those later.  For now, just get the ideas down in sentence and paragraph form.

At some point during your drafting process this week, spend some time thinking about the design of your document. 

A couple of things to consider:

1. The assignment asks you to use MLA format, which provides rules for spacing, font, etc.

sample paper

Look at the sample paper above to see how your own paper should look when word-processed in MLA format.  Your paper should be double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman or Arial font.  Notice that your name, teacher’s name, date, etc. should appear in the top left corner of the first page. 

The image attached above shows the first page only.  You can see an entire sample paper, including the Works Cited page, at the end of The Norton Field Guide chapter on MLA Style (blue book: chapter 54; yellow book: chapter 52). 

2. Include the actual images you’re analyzing.

It’ll be helpful to your readers if you can copy your images directly into your text.  (See the example student paper from last week.) Just copy-and-paste the images right into your paper.

But remember:  even with the images included in your document, you should still describe those images fully in your writing. Show your readers that you’ve thoroughly studied the images: describe what’s going on, how the people look, what they’re doing, how they’re posed, what their expressions are like, what’s in the background, etc. Point out all the little things that readers/viewers might not notice on first glance!