MLA Literature Paper (Larson)

Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006).

Marginal annotations indicate MLA-style formatting and effective writing.

The opening linesname the storyand establish context.

Present tense is used to describe detailsfrom the story.

Quotations fromthe story are cited with pagenumbers in parentheses.

The opening paragraph endswith Larson’s research question.

Quotation from a secondary source: author isnamed in a signalphrase; page number is given inparentheses.

The thesis asserts Larson’smain point.

Larson 1

Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006).

A long quotation isset off by indenting;no quotation marksare needed; ellipsisdots indicate a sen-tence omitted fromthe source.

Larson summa-rizes ideas from asecondary sourceand then quotesfrom that source;he names the author in a signalphrase and gives a page number in parentheses.

Topic sentence focuses on Larson’sinterpretation.

Larson 2

Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006).

Topic sentencesfocus on interpre-tation, not just plot.

Details from thestory provide evidence for the interpretation.

Larson 3

Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006).

Ellipsis dots indi-cate omitted wordswithin the sentenceand at the end ofthe sentence.

Transition servesas a bridge fromone section of thepaper to the next.

Larson 4

Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006).

Larson gives evidence that Mrs.Peters has beentransformed.

Larson draws on a secondary sourcethat gives back-ground on Glaspell’slife.

Larson 5

Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006).

Larson’s conclusionechoes his mainpoint without dullyrepeating it.

Larson 6

Source: Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006).

The works citedpage lists the primary source(Glaspell’s story)and secondarysources.

Larson 7