Research Paper Topics - Databases - Quote Guidelines

Two Graded Sections:   first draft, final copy

Final Copy Length:   1000-2000 words

Format:   a style format following the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, (work through the tutorial ), including parenthetical notes* within the paper and a Works Cited at the end of the document.

* Note:   You must have at least five sources, only two of which may be Web-based (excluding electronic journals and databases - see databases below).

I will grade the first draft as an essay. but please include your parenthetical references to both primary and secondary sources and Works Cited. I will grade the final copy for MLA format and first draft revisions.


Please choose one research topic from the following list:

  1. Identify a specific "issue" (pp. 26-33) of a single literary work (story, poem, drama, or essay) in Part II (pp. 283-1543) of the textbook, and write a literary analysis based on how the author or poet treats that issue.
  2. Based on your reading of a single work, identify the author's or poet's argument with reference to claims, persuasion, audience, evidence, and/or warrants (32-36) from a work in Part II (pp. 283-1543). Be very specific with your thesis concerning how the author or poet deals with one or more of these elements.
  3. Investigate a single topic of literary criticism (pp. 49-55) concerning one work in Part II (pp. 283-1543) of the textbook, and write an extended analysis of how the author or poet treats this topic as a thesis.



 

Collin Library Databases

Other secondary sources (about the topic or author) exist in books, magazines, special periodicals, and academic journals. Our library has extended digital databases for electronic books, journals, and reference works on a variety of authors and subjects that may prove useful to you as secondary resources:

Collin Library Databases

For information on how to access these electronic materials from home, please consult:

FAQs for Access to Collin Library Databases

For information on how to find and make effective use of the Collin Library databases, please review the online tutorials available at:

Collin Library Database Tutorials


 

First Draft - Guidelines for Quotations

Reference: MLA Handbook (4th ed.), A Handbook for Scholars (Oxford, 1991).

 If you must quote:
  1. Quote only the quotable.

  2. Quote for color; quote for evidence.
    Otherwise, do not quote.

  3. Quote the vivid or memorable or questionable, strange or witty; paraphrase the rest.
  1. Do not pad your work with quotes; avoid them, if possible. Quoted material should not make up more than 5%-10% of the paper length. Mixing your style of writing with that of other authors makes for difficult reading. Paraphrase, summarize and synthesize your sources, but do not fail to give credit for the information with parenthetical references according to the MLA format.


  2. Always introduce any quoted material. This requirement needn't lead to a monotonous series of "he states," "she states," "the author relates." Make certain that the reader knows where the quotation comes from without having to constantly flip back to the Works Cited page.

    Incorrect: (author missing):
    The long hard trail from West Wales to London proved full of dangers. "Skilled robbers and highwaymen in a not-so-romantic fashion would regularly waylay drovers by shooting them in the back in ambushes set in the dark and steep passes leading into the cloudy mists of the Cambrian mountain range" (23). Furthermore...

    Correct: (quote introduced after naming the author)
    The long hard trail from West Wales to London proved full of dangers. Hughes eloquently commented on this danger in his history. "Skilled robbers and highwaymen in a not-so-romantic fashion would regularly waylay drovers by shooting them in the back in ambushes set in the dark and steep passes leading into the cloudy mists of the Cambrian mountain range" (23). Considering the economic success of this class of cattlemen, such statements should not surprise anyone.

    Correct: (paraphrase with author in the parenthetical reference)
    The long hard trail from West Wales to London proved full of dangers. Historians have remarked that highwaymen and robbers were a constant danger to drovers on their way home from the market (Hughes 23). Such encounters always followed travelling businessmen in that age, and among their peers drovers counted as men who meant business.

    NOTE: Always follow primary source material with some analysis or commentary.


  3. If you quote, quote whole. If you paraphrase, paraphrase. Do not combine the two:

    Incorrect:
    Albert Schweitzer stressed the "one truth" that, according to him, "something spiritual" lies beneath "all that happens in world history" (24).

    Either quote:
    Albert Schweitzer wrote, "One truth stands firm. All that happens in world history rests on something spiritual" (24).

    Or (preferably) paraphrase:
    Albert Schweitzer believed that some spiritual essence underlies world history (24).


  4. Indent long quotations (over fifty words, over two sentences, or over two lines of verse). Indent 10 spaces.


  5. With reference to final punctuation:

    1. Use single quotes for quotes within quotes.

      Original Quote: (from the poet Shelley)
      Call the world if you please "The Vale of Soul-making."

      As used by the writer:
      Tossing off an elevated statement like "Call the world if you please `The Vale of Soul-making'" with a shrug was all a part of his pose.


    2.   A period that finds another type of punctuation mark disappears.

      Incorrect: He states, "What harm is there in owning a handgun?" (Barnes 23).

      Correct:  He states, "What harm is there in owning a handgun?" (Barnes 23)


  6. A quotation construed as sentence, no matter how short, begins with a capital letter:

    According to Jones (86), Freud said something along the line of "Nuts!" and went on his way.


  7. A quotation construed as a fragment, no matter how long, begins with lower-case (unless the fragment begins the sentence it lies within):

    During the interview, the subject said "waving the wiwwy pretty once" for "wearing the really pretty ones."

    "Wearing the really pretty ones" came out "wearing the wiwwy pretty once."


  8. A quotation placed into a subordinate clause with an introductory word like "when," "whether" or "though" is a fragment, not a full sentence. Among these introductory words, "that" is the most common:

    Quote:
    The want of a thing is perplexing enough, but the possession of it is intolerable.

    As included in the text:
    Vanbrugh said that "the want of a thing is perplexing enough, but the possession of it is intolerable" (56).

    Also:
    Though "slumber is more sweet than toil," he was famous for the long hours he worked on his research.


  9. The Comma-Quote convention requires that a comma separates any transitive verb analogous to "say" from a whole-sentence quotation that is its direct object:

    The tombstone states, "I told you I was sick."

    A word or phrase may intervene: Graves wrote in his Spiritual Quixote, "Go to the tavern, and call for your bottle and your pipe and your Welsh rabbit" (45).

    This convention applies only to full-sentence quotations:

    Incorrect: He writes, "a Mindy weeke" after every tale...

    Correct: He writes "a Mindy weeke" after every tale...


    Nor does it apply to infinitives, participles or gerunds:

    Incorrect: To say, "I think not" is all very well for the non-specialist.

    Correct: To say "I think not" is all...


    Incorrect: Writing, "Nothing may come of this" more than once in his diary, Cavendish nevertheless plunged ahead.

    Correct: writing "Nothing may come of this" more than once...