Provisional Works Cited
4% of quarter grade
due Wednesday, March 7th
submit along with a clean copy of your first draft

The provisional "Works Cited" consists of a substantial list of your research sources.   Using 8-1/2" by 11" paper and employing MLA formatting, you will document (in alphabetical order) the information sources of your research project.   In essence, this assignment is a dry run for the final product, the researched argument you will submit on March 14th.   If you are making errors in creating the works cited, better to catch the mistakes now than later.

You can find formatting guidelines
both in The New St. Martin's Handbook (pp. 519+)
and on line: MLA

This works cited should comprise only entries that you are actually using, or planning to use, in your final argument.   In other words, only include entries in the work cited for which an in-text citation exists or soon will exist.   If you have found a source useful but are not planning to quote, paraphrase, or summarize it in your essay, do not include it in the works cited.  

While I have no stipulation regarding a minimum or maximum number of citations for this assignment, you should have roughly between seven and fifteen entries.   If you are using fewer than seven, ask yourself why you are using so few.   Will your argument carry weight if you use only a few sources to back it up?   Conversely, if you are using more than fifteen, ask yourself whether you padding the documentation.   Are you using your experts and authorities efficiently, or are you having them repeat the same points?   Along similar lines, are your experts and authorities harmonizing in a chorus that strengthens your argument?   Or are they creating a cacophony that drowns it out?

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