| In-text Citing: What's Wrong?! | Incorporating Quotations: What's Wrong?! | Work Cited: What's Wrong?! | Miscellaneous Language Errors | ?!? Mystery ?!? |
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In MLA, never cite in the middle of a sentence! At the END only!
Rushdie insists that the origin stories of every religion are quite simply "wrong, wrong, wrong" (92) and that people should no longer restrict themselves by allowing religious leaders to tell them how to live their lives.
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FLOATING QUOTATION
Astyk and Newton discuss the contributing social factors of poverty and hunger, such as the rise of industrialization. "Around the world, industrial agriculture has consolidated land ownership into the hands of smaller and smaller populations" (Astyk and
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No/improper hanging indent hanging indent
Card #1
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"Students" needs to be possessive AND plural = students'
students = two or more student's = indicating something belonging to one student students' = something(s) belonging to multiple students
Find and explain the error:
The teacher was upset to see that two students essays contained plagiarism. |
Leo
One of my guilty pleasures is checking my horoscope every day; if my birthday is in July, what is my sign?
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There should be no comma between the author's name and the page number
He claims that "cooking is defined as work, and fast foor is both a pleasure and a crutch" (Bittman, 61).
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Lame, boring, inaccurate verb -- SAID IS DEAD.
No "says," or "speaks about," or "talks about" -- a) find a stronger, more descriptive verb, b) unless using a quotation from an actual speech, this is most likely inaccurate anyway.
Singer speaks about how people are "failing to live a morally decent life" by not donating all extra money to the poor (91).
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Improper stylization (quotation marks or italics)
Card #2
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"Who's" should be "whose"
Who's = contraction of "who is" or "who has" Whose = indicates possession
Find and explain the error:
The teacher, who's degree was in English literature, was excited to be teaching Expo II in the spring. |
Bunker Hill Community College, Merrimack College, Boston College
Name ONE other school at which I have taught.
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If author is named in the sentence, does not need to be named in the citation
Kathy Freston claims that the meat industry is one of the primary causes of global warming and that "we are eating our planet to death" (Freston 2).
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Pronoun inconsistency, need to use square brackets to make quotation fit grammatically.
If one has extra money beyond what is needed to meet one's essential needs, "you shouldn't buy that new car, take that cruise, redecorate the house or get that pricey new suit," but should donate it instead (Singer 5).
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No periods where needed
Card #3
(same TYPE of problem, occuring TWICE) |
Semi-colons join two INDEPENDENT CLAUSES (basically, complete sentences).
"The students were excited for the lesson in their next Expo I class; their teacher had created an MLA Jeopardy game to play."
Find and explain the error:
The students were excited for the lesson in their next Expo I class; MLA Jeopardy. |
Baseball
The "hot stove" is a term referring to the off-season of what sport? (It's also the name of a bar/restaurant in my hometown!)
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Period needs to go OUTSIDE of parentheses
In their article, "The Rich Get Richer, the Poor Go Hungry," Sharon Astyk and Aaron Newton claim that our world "cannot afford rich people." (1)
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No need for ellipses before and after -- ONLY if taking words out of middle of something, while still quoting the beginning and end.
Bittman claims that "...people in this country (and a higher percentage of poor people) consume too many calories rather than too few..." to advocate for healthier cooking at home (1).
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Missing date of access -- with an online document, you need both the date of publication (if available) AND the date you accessed the text (always available).
Card #4
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FRAGMENT -- the second sentence is a dependent clause (in that it DEPENDS on the first sentence to make sense).
"Because it was their last day of class with Ms. White, the students cried and cried."
Find and explain the error:
The students cried and cried all day on December 2nd. Because it was their last day of class with Ms. White. |
Benedict Cumberbatch
Hearts broke around the world when this actor, famous for playing Sherlock Holmes and Smaug from LOTR, recently announced that he was engaged.
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FOUR OR MORE authors: just use FIRST author's name and "et al." -- (White et al. 12)
Sarah Waters' most recent novel reveals "an inextricable link between the physical destruction of London and the changing nature of the private lives of Londoners" (White, Thews, Fullam, and Wassell 12).
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Comma splice, improper way to introduce a quotation.
Sullivan examines the evolutionary habit of generalizing in society in regard to hate crimes, "Human beings generalize all the time, ahead of time, about everyone and everything" (1).
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Author's names inverted/not inverted
Card #5
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The items in the list LACK PARALLELISM.
Parallelism calls for the same structure in lists or sentences for easier readability/clarity. GradING essays, plannING lessons, or commutING longs distances to school.
Find and explain the error:
Professors love winter break just as much as students do, because they do not have to deal with grading essays, planning lessons, or long commutes to school. |
John Steinbeck
East of Eden is one of my favorite books, written by this author, also famous for the Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.
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