Tips and things that you should know:

1. Be very meticulous in creating your cards, so that they will be useful to you in writing your paper. If you have thought about how you are going to use a quotation when you are making out the card, note it right there and then. Mark any such thought with the code MT (for my thought). It’s important to jot down thoughts when you have them because you might lose them otherwise. Also, when using outside sources, remember four is the magic number.

2. If you take four consecutive words from a text, you must put them in quotations.

3. When you have four lines of more to put in your paper, then you must set off the quotation.

4. Any idea which is not your own must be documented! Operate under the premise that there is no such thing as an original thought. It is better to over document than to under document.

Bibliography cards: MLA format

Formula: Make a card for each source that you find whether you use it or not. You should make the card before you even look at the book.

* indent 5 spaces on the second line