MLA Style Center

Summary: The students learned more about Modern Language Association (MLA) formatting and MLA Works Cited. Then, collaboratively, the class confirmed the steps of the research process, the key terms of academic writing, narrowing down a research topic, finding reliable and solid research material, and taking useful notes. The students also carefully considered and followed the activities of Alex Essay Writing Tool, steps 4 -6.

“The best time to plan a book is while you’re doing the dishes.”

~ Agatha Christie

Alex Essay Writing Tool Step 04 – Parts of your essay

Alex Essay Writing Tool Step 05 – Now you can read

Alex Essay Writing Tool Step 06 – Balance

Homework is due at 1 p.m. the day before Session_08. Take photos of your notes and insert all pages under Research Articles #2 & #3 in your shared online document. The readings should be on the same issue you researched in Research Article #1, which includes general or basic information and the causes of the theme. Please type your MLA Works Cited, including the URL link above your notes. Remember to write the author’s name(s), the date, and page or paragraph numbers if you use direct quotations for in-text citations. Try to summarize your work and do not simply copy/paste.

Note-taking Sample A on the Death Penalty and COVID-19

Works Cited

Amnesty International, “Death Penalty 2020: Despite Covid-19, Some Countries Ruthlessly Pursued Death Sentences and

Executions.” Amnesty International, 2004-2021, https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/death-penalty-2020-despite-covid-19-

some-countries-ruthlessly-pursued-death-sentences-and-executions/ 

MLA Note-taking Sample B on Freedom of Speech:

Miklaszewska, Justyna. “Freedom of Speech in Modern Political Culture.” Avant: Journal of the Philosophical-

Interdisciplinary Vanguard 10, 77-88, 30 June 2019, pp. 77-88,

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7513/20f2b891b74388e4fb533f948b18dd71c14d.pdf?

_ga=2.106479559.577207015.1622045798-1412271447.1622045798.

Documents:

Quick Guide to Citing in MLA 9th Edition

MLA 9th Quick Guide

Student-Sample-MLA-Paper

How to Find an Issue to Research

Free Database Engines off Campus to collect research for your MLA Paper: 

New! Zenbird Media: Topics & Issues: Do you often think about researching issues related to your local community, or Japan in general, but find the data in the Japanese language? Then, Zenbird Media is for you!

Carrot 2 Carrot helps you find topics related to your search term. After entering the term and then clicking on ‘search,’ you can choose to see the results as a list, treemap, or pie chart that helps you visualize your issue and narrow your search at the same time.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): DOAJ is a community-designed and maintained online journal directory that provides access to robust, open-access, peer-reviewed journals. This search engine is independent and free, including being indexed in DOAJ. Please use this engine for topical issues and authors; you might find research that provides evidence for your academic essay. DOAJ is an educational outreach search engine focusing on high-quality applications and submissions.

Google Scholar: Google Scholar helps you do a broad or narrow search of articles. It also lets you cite your “references” for APA and “works cited” for MLA!

CORE Research Engine UK: This research search engine claims to be the largest open-access research database in the world, giving free access to 1-This website is very informative and easy to understand, where you might find research on your issue from Professor Andy Barfield:

Learning About Global Issues—This relates to Chuo University Faculty of Law English courses and provides 18 core global issues. I got permission. Thank you, Chuo U, for the Sadai students.