Matsers thesis about Obama's Health care Reform: How to use footnotes in MLA Style 7 th edition

[Haifa]

Hi every body, I am writing my masters thesis about Obama's healthcare reform . It has been 2 years Now it is such a frustrating process. I came here looking for suppor t and advice especially on how to use MLA Style 7 th edition and how to avoid plagiarism . I want to submit my work this semester but It hs been very hard and frustrating. My MA is keeping my life on hold you're welcome to share with me ur stories and ideas

[danieleWrites]

To avoid plagiarism, do two things. First, learn the difference between common knowledge (you never have to cite it, even if you have to look it up, though you can cite) and what must be cited. Second, cite everything that you get from someone else, either in quote, paraphrase, summary, idea, or whatever. When in doubt, cite it! It's easier to over-cite the first draft and take unneeded citations out than to under-cite and find you've technically plagiarized and have to put them back in.

 

Keep a bibliography. If you go back and use a source, copy and paste from you bibliography.

 

Buy the book, if you don't have it, and learn MLA's logic. Works cited page citation entries follow a pattern. If you learn the logic of the pattern, you can pretty much just type the citation out on the go and fix any minor formatting details with relative ease. Do not rely on a citation generator like easybib. If you do, you'll have to go through and fix the formatting details that it often gets wrong. MLA's current edition does not require the use of URLS for web-based sources, but it's better to have it and have to remove it than not have it and have to hunt it down.

 

If you don't know how to make tables, add graphics, create footnotes or endnotes, or, in general, do more than some basic things with your word processor, learn how to take advantage! Take a class, buy a book, or find an online tutorial. The word processor can be a thesis writer's best friend.