At the end of my chosen work sample I included a works cited page that included all of the pieces of writing I would be referring to in my essay. The prompt of the essay was to connect the opinions of one of the writers we read in class to the thoughts of two of our classmates’ ideas about technology’s effect on our lives. I chose Nicholas Carr’s, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” to write about. To cite his work I would write in the following format: last name, first name. Publisher. Date of publication. This format of citing his work was used through MLA format provided to me by Professor Miller. To cite my classmates’ work I would use the following format provided to me by Professor Miller: last name, first name. “Title of essay.” Publisher, URL. Date accessed. When including quotes in my text, I would introduce the author of where that quote came from and then end it with the page number I retrieved that quote from in parentheses. For example, I would write something along the lines of the following: Carr believes that technology is distracting and reduces our ability to concentrate. He writes, “then I would drop the quote here” (page number). In my introduction I always add the name of the writers I am citing and the titles of their work that I will be using going forwards. That way, I can just refer to Nicholas Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid as Carr’s work. Because of this, my essay flows better, and is easier for the reader to follow along. It is important, however, when dropping a quote from someone else’s writing into my work that I provide enough context and information about the passage I dragged it from. I need to make sure that my reader can follow along with the combination of ideas in my work, instead of just dropping in different quotes without blending them into my work.
