Writing Flashcards
How do you generally format in MLA
* Type your paper on a computer and print it out on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper.
* Double-space the text of your paper, and use a legible font (e.g. Times New Roman). Whatever font you choose, MLA recommends that the regular and italics type styles contrast enough that they are recognizable one from another. The font size should be 12 pt.
* Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks (unless otherwise instructed by your instructor).
* Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on all sides.
* Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch from the left margin. MLA recommends that you use the Tab key as opposed to pushing the Space Bar five times.
* Create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor may ask that you omit the number on your first page. Always follow your instructor’s guidelines.)
* Use italics throughout your essay for the titles of longer works and, only when absolutely necessary, providing emphasis.
* If you have any endnotes, include them on a separate page before your Works Cited page. Entitle the section Notes (centered, unformatted).
How do you format the first page of the thing
* Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested.
* In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor’s name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.
* Double space again and center the title. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks; write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters.
* Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Morality Play; Human Weariness in “After Apple Picking”
* Double space between the title and the first line of the text.
* Create a header in the upper right-hand corner that includes your last name, followed by a space with a page number; number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor or other readers may ask that you omit last name/page number header on your first page. Always follow instructor guidelines.)
How do you avoid plagerism?
Develop a topic based on
what has already been said and written
BUT
Write something
new and original
Rely on experts’ and authorities’ opinions
BUT
Improve upon and/or disagree with those same opinions
Give credit to previous researchers
BUT
Make your own significant contribution
Improve your English to fit into a
discourse community by building upon what you hear and read
BUT
Use your own words and your own voice
Doesn’t “Rhetoric” Mean Something Like “Persuasion”?
Yes and no. Throughout much of history, “rhetoric” used to have a more narrow meaning like “the art of persuasion.” However, over the course of the 20th century, “rhetoric” came to be used as a descriptor for all use of communication (ancient Greeks known as the Sophists also had a broader view of the term “rhetoric”). The simplest explanation for this is that “rhetoric” in the persuasive sense implies an effort on the part of speakers to get what they want out of other people.
The newer sense of “rhetoric” implies that whenever humans communicate with other humans, they seek to elicit any number of responses ranging from understanding to emotional reaction to agreement to enlightenment or any one of almost limitless reactions. At its most basic, communication is the set of methods whereby humans attempt to identify with each other.
Elements of a Rhetorical Situation
Every rhetorical situation has four basic components: an author, an audience, a text of some sort, and a context in and through which each situation occurs. All of these terms (author, audience, text, and context) are fairly loose in their definitions and all of them affect each other. Also, all of these terms have specific qualities that affect the ways that they interact with the other term. Below, you’ll find basic definitions of each term, a brief discussion of the qualities of each term, and then finally, a series of examples which illustrate various rhetorical situations.
Author
“Author” is a fairly loose term used to refer to anyone who uses communication. An author could be one person or many people. An author could be someone who uses writing (like in a book), speech (like in a debate), visual elements (like in a TV commercial), audio elements (like in a radio broadcast), or even tactile elements (as is used in making Braille) to communicate.
Whatever authors create, authors are unavoidably human beings whose particular activities are affected by these general constraints: authors have specific purposes that guide their actions in communicating, authors have specific attitudes which affect what and how they communicate, and authors have specific backgrounds that inform the nature of their communication.
Author’s Purpose
Authors’ purposes in communicating determines the basic rationale behind other decisions authors make (such as what to write or speak about, what medium to use, etc.). An author’s purpose in communicating could be to instruct, persuade, inform, entertain, educate, startle, excite, sadden, enlighten, punish, console . . . you get the idea. Authors’ purposes are only limited to what each author wants to accomplish in his or her communication. There are as many purposes for communicating as there are words to describe those purposes.
Author’s Attitude
Attitude is a much overlooked element of rhetorical situations, but it affects a great deal of how a rhetorical situation unfolds. Consider if an author communicates with a flippant attitude as opposed to a serious attitude, or with drama as opposed to comedy, or calmly as opposed to excitedly. Depending on authors’ purposes, audiences’ specific qualities, the nature of the context, and other factors, any of these attitudes could either help or hinder authors in their efforts to communicate depending on the other factors in any given rhetorical situation.
Author’s Background
Many factors affect authors’ backgrounds. These can include age, personal experience, gender, location, ethnicity, political beliefs, parents, peers, level of education, and others. Authors’ backgrounds affect the things that authors assume about the world, their audiences, what and how they communicate, and the context in which they communicate.
