L.9-10.3: Writing and Editing to a Style Manual (MLA and Turabian)
In plain English: L.9-10.3 is the Common Core ELA standard that asks students to apply knowledge of language to understand how it works in different contexts, make effective choices for meaning or style, and read and listen more fully. Its part a asks students to write and edit work so it follows a style manual, such as the MLA Handbook or Turabian, that fits the discipline and writing type. It is taught in grades 9 and 10.
Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
a.Write and edit work so that it conforms to the guidelines in a style manual (e.g., MLA Handbook, Turabian's Manual for Writers) appropriate for the discipline and writing type.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy · Domain: Language Standards · Cluster: Knowledge of Language · Official standard
Students learn what a style manual is and why different disciplines use different ones. In an English class, papers about literature usually follow the MLA Handbook of the Modern Language Association, now in its ninth edition (2021). In a history class, papers often follow Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (ninth edition, 2018), which adapts the Chicago Manual of Style and uses footnotes and a bibliography. Students read two public-domain texts they will quote and cite: section II of Zitkala-Sa's memoir essay "The School Days of an Indian Girl" (first published in 1900) and Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem "We Wear the Mask" (1895).
Students write citations and quotations that follow each manual, then edit a planted-error draft so that it conforms. Throughout, they treat the manual's rules as language in context: the same facts about a source take different forms in an essay, a history paper and a spoken presentation, and choices such as a signal verb (recalls, argues, admits) change what a sentence says about the source. The lesson describes the manuals in its own words; teachers should check the edition their school or assignment requires.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Explain why an English essay and a history paper follow different style manuals, and name the manual each usually uses
Write MLA in-text citations and Works Cited entries for a poem and an essay in a collection, including a second container
Write a Turabian footnote, shortened note and bibliography entry for the same source
Edit a draft so that its quotations, titles, citations and source list conform to the manual
Choose signal verbs and integrate quotations so that the sentence reports the source accurately in writing and in speech
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Quoting or paraphrasing sources and following a standard format for citation W.8.8
Using an ellipsis to show an omission L.8.2
Using verbs in the active and passive voice for effect L.8.3
"Your English teacher wants citations in parentheses. Your history teacher wants footnotes. If both teachers just want to know where a quotation came from, why don't they use the same rules?"
Give students two minutes to write, then collect answers on the board. Guide students toward three ideas: each discipline has readers with different needs (literature scholars compare wording across editions, historians trace documents and archives); a style manual is a shared agreement so that readers find information in the same place every time; and a writer who follows the manual shows readers that the work belongs to that field. Tell students that today they will cite the same two texts in two manuals and in speech.
Direct Instruction20 minutes
Part 1: What a style manual covers. A style manual sets rules for four things: page layout (margins, spacing, heading), quotations (when to set them off, how to mark omissions and changes), citations in the text, and the list of sources at the end. The MLA Handbook uses short parenthetical citations keyed to a Works Cited list, built from core elements: author, title of source, title of container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date and location. Turabian's notes-bibliography style puts a numbered note at the foot of the page and a full bibliography at the end. Read the Zitkala-Sa excerpt aloud, then work through the examples.
1But this eating by formula was not the hardest trial in that first day. Late in the morning, my friend Judéwin gave me a terrible warning. Judéwin knew a few words of English; and she had overheard the paleface woman talk about cutting our long, heavy hair. Our mothers had taught us that only unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair shingled by the enemy. Among our people, short hair was worn by mourners, and shingled hair by cowards!
2We discussed our fate some moments, and when Judéwin said, "We have to submit, because they are strong," I rebelled.
3"No, I will not submit! I will struggle first!" I answered.
4I watched my chance, and when no one noticed, I disappeared. I crept up the stairs as quietly as I could in my squeaking shoes,—my moccasins had been exchanged for shoes. Along the hall I passed, without knowing whither I was going. Turning aside to an open door, I found a large room with three white beds in it. The windows were covered with dark green curtains, which made the room very dim. Thankful that no one was there, I directed my steps toward the corner farthest from the door. On my hands and knees I crawled under the bed, and cuddled myself in the dark corner.
5From my hiding place I peered out, shuddering with fear whenever I heard footsteps near by. Though in the hall loud voices were calling my name, and I knew that even Judéwin was searching for me, I did not open my mouth to answer. Then the steps were quickened and the voices became excited. The sounds came nearer and nearer. Women and girls entered the room. I held my breath and watched them open closet doors and peep behind large trunks. Some one threw up the curtains, and the room was filled with sudden light. What caused them to stoop and look under the bed I do not know. I remember being dragged out, though I resisted by kicking and scratching wildly. In spite of myself, I was carried downstairs and tied fast in a chair.
6I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit. Since the day I was taken from my mother I had suffered extreme indignities. People had stared at me. I had been tossed about in the air like a wooden puppet. And now my long hair was shingled like a coward's! In my anguish I moaned for my mother, but no one came to comfort me. Not a soul reasoned quietly with me, as my own mother used to do; for now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder.
Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin), The School Days of an Indian Girl, section II, "The Cutting of My Long Hair" (paragraphs 3-8 of the section; the first two paragraphs, about the first breakfast at the school, are not included) (1900; this edition 1921). Public domain (published 1921). Source text.
MLA in-text citation for prose with no page numbers
A student quotes Judéwin's warning in paragraph 2 of the excerpt, using the Project Gutenberg text, which has no fixed page numbers.
Result: Judéwin warns, "We have to submit, because they are strong" (Zitkala-Sa, sec. 2). The essay prints numbered sections, so the citation gives the section; a comma follows the author because the locator has a label, and the sentence's period comes after the parenthesis. A student reading a printed anthology would give its page number instead, with no comma, for example (Zitkala-Sa 42) for page 42. The paragraph numbers on this page are for class only and are not cited, because the source does not print them.
MLA Works Cited entry with two containers
The essay is part of a book, American Indian Stories (1921), and the book is part of a website, Project Gutenberg, which released it on December 1, 2003.
Result: Zitkala-Sa. "The School Days of an Indian Girl." American Indian Stories, Hayworth Publishing House, 1921. Project Gutenberg, 1 Dec. 2003, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10376. The essay title goes in quotation marks because it is part of a larger work; each container title is italicized; MLA writes dates day-month-year and abbreviates longer month names. MLA also lets a writer leave out https:// from a web address. Diagram 1 labels every element.
MLA quotation from a poem
A student quotes lines 12-13 of "We Wear the Mask" inside a sentence.
Result: The speaker admits, "We sing, but oh the clay is vile / Beneath our feet" (Dunbar, lines 12-13). A slash with a space on each side marks the line break. The first citation says "lines" so readers do not mistake the numbers for pages; later citations of the same poem can give the numbers alone. Quotations of more than three lines of poetry are set off as a block instead.
Turabian notes and bibliography for a history paper
A student writing a history paper on boarding schools cites the same passage for the first time, then cites it again later.
Result: First note: 1. Zitkala-Sa, "The School Days of an Indian Girl," in American Indian Stories (Washington, DC: Hayworth Publishing House, 1921), sec. 2, [URL]. Later note: 2. Zitkala-Sa, "School Days," sec. 2. Bibliography: Zitkala-Sa. "The School Days of an Indian Girl." In American Indian Stories. Washington, DC: Hayworth Publishing House, 1921. [URL]. Here [URL] stands for the full web address of the Project Gutenberg page, beginning https://, which Turabian gives at the end of the note and the entry. The note separates elements with commas and puts the publication facts in parentheses; the bibliography uses periods and adds the place of publication, which MLA leaves out. Turabian's current edition prefers a shortened note to ibid.
Integrating a quotation (a choice for meaning)
Original: "I crept up the stairs as quietly as I could in my squeaking shoes". A student wants to write about Zitkala-Sa in the third person.
Result: Zitkala-Sa recalls that she "crept up the stairs as quietly as [she] could in [her] squeaking shoes" (sec. 2). Square brackets mark words the writer changed so the quotation fits the sentence's grammar, and the author's name in the sentence means the citation needs only the locator. The verb recalls fits a memoir; argues would suggest she is making a case, and admits would suggest she is confessing a fault.
Show Diagram 1 while students label the elements of the entry in Example 2, and Diagram 2 while you compare Examples 1 and 4. Stress that a manual is a set of conventions, not a law: a teacher or publisher may ask for a different edition or a local rule, and the assignment's directions come first.
Guided Practice15-20 minutes
Read "We Wear the Mask" aloud twice: once for meaning (what is the mask, and who wears it?) and once for form (where do the lines and stanzas break?). Then pairs decide how the MLA Handbook would have them quote each item in the organizer. They write the quotation as it would appear in an essay, with the citation, and name the rule they applied. Circulate and ask each pair to justify one choice aloud.
1We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, 5And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask.
10We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, 15We wear the mask!
Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask (1895; this edition 1913). Public domain (published 1913). Source text.
Quoting the poem: pairs fill in the last two columns
What you want to quote
How it appears in your essay
Rule applied
Two lines from the first stanza
The last line of one stanza and the first line of the next
The whole third stanza (six lines)
A single word from line 1
Independent Practice15 minutes
Students edit the draft below so it conforms to the MLA Handbook. They mark every change and write the rule in the margin, then compare with a partner. Remind them that quotations from the source are never changed except with brackets or an ellipsis.
1In her essay The School Days of an Indian Girl, Zitkala-Sa described the day her long hair was cut at a boarding school in the East. At first she refuses to give in. She answers her friend "No, I will not submit! I will struggle first!" (Zitkala-Sa, pg. 2). By the end of the section, she is "only one of many little animals driven by a herder" (Zitkala-Sa sec. 2).
2Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem "We Wear the Mask" shows a different kind of hiding. The speaker says that "We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes" (Dunbar 1-2). In the last stanza "We sing, but oh the clay is vile / Beneath our feet" (Dunbar, lines 12-13).
3Works Cited
4Zitkala-Sa. The School Days of an Indian Girl. American Indian Stories, Hayworth Publishing House, 1921. Project Gutenberg, December 1, 2003, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10376.
5Dunbar, Paul Laurence. We Wear the Mask. The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1913. Project Gutenberg, 7 May 2006, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18338.
Written for this page (an invented student draft with planted errors), Draft for editing: a student paragraph and Works Cited list in MLA style. Original passage written for this page.
Teacher key (15 planted errors):
Paragraph 1: (1) the essay title needs quotation marks, not italics, because the essay is part of a book; (2) "described" should be "describes," the present tense MLA writers use for what a text says; (3) a comma is needed after "her friend" to introduce the quotation; (4) "pg. 2" should be the section, "sec. 2," because the e-text has no page numbers; (5) the last citation needs a comma before the labeled locator, "(Zitkala-Sa, sec. 2)," or the section alone, since the author is already clear.
Paragraph 2: (6) the two quoted lines need a slash between them; (7) the first citation of the poem must say "lines" (Dunbar, lines 1-2), after which later citations may give the numbers alone; (8) "In the last stanza ..." is a fragment, fixed by adding a speaker and a verb, for example "In the last stanza, the speaker admits, ..."
Works Cited: (9) the entries must be alphabetical, Dunbar before Zitkala-Sa; (10) the essay title needs quotation marks; (11) Project Gutenberg must be italicized in the Zitkala-Sa entry; (12) the date must read 1 Dec. 2003; (13) the poem title needs quotation marks, not italics; (14) the book title The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar must be italicized; (15) "and Company" is dropped from the publisher, leaving Dodd, Mead.
Closure5-10 minutes
Exit ticket: (1) Name the manual you would follow for a paper in your history class and one feature that makes it different from MLA. (2) Write one sentence that quotes three words from line 3 of the poem with a correct MLA citation.
Teacher note on language and content: Zitkala-Sa writes about being taken to a boarding school where staff cut Native children's hair, which her people associated with mourning and cowardice. She uses the words of her time and of her own account, such as "paleface" (paragraph 1 of the excerpt) and "Indian" (in the essay's title), and elsewhere in the essay "braves," which are kept exactly as published. Discuss them as part of the historical text; in student writing, use the names of specific nations (Zitkala-Sa was Yankton Dakota) or "Native American" or "Indigenous" unless quoting. Dunbar's poem refers to Christ in line 10; treat it as the speaker's cry, not as a religious claim the class must discuss.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give a one-page model sheet with one correct MLA in-text citation, one Works Cited entry and one Turabian note, each color-coded by element
Provide an element-by-element template for the Works Cited entry (author, title, container, publisher, date, location) with blanks to fill
Reduce the editing draft to the first paragraph and the two Works Cited entries
For Advanced Students
Ask students to cite a source with three containers, such as a poem in an anthology found in a library database, and explain each container
Have students compare the MLA and Turabian treatment of a quotation over four lines and write a short guide for classmates
Ask students to find a footnote in a printed history book and explain what each part of it tells the reader about the source
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Grade conformity and judgment separately. For conformity, check the details the manual fixes: the form and punctuation of in-text citations, line and section locators, slashes in poetry, titles in quotation marks or italics, the order and punctuation of entries, and the date format. For judgment, look for the right manual for the discipline, quotations that fit the sentence's grammar, and signal verbs that describe the source accurately. Watch for students who add page numbers to a source that has none, cite the paragraph numbers printed only on this page, or mix MLA parentheses into a Turabian paper.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Manual Match
15 minGroups of 3-4
Each group sorts 8 citation cards by the manual they follow and the job they do. The activity shows that a manual is a system: each form belongs to a place in the paper and to a discipline (standard a and the main standard).
The 8 Cards
Card 1: (Ortiz 58)
Card 2: Ortiz, Maya. Rivers of the Valley. Central Plains Press, 2019.
Card 3: 1. Maya Ortiz, Rivers of the Valley (Fresno: Central Plains Press, 2019), 58.
Card 4: Ortiz, Maya. Rivers of the Valley. Fresno: Central Plains Press, 2019.
Card 5: 2. Ortiz, Rivers of the Valley, 61.
Card 6: (Zitkala-Sa, sec. 2)
Card 7: Zitkala-Sa. "The School Days of an Indian Girl." In American Indian Stories. Washington, DC: Hayworth Publishing House, 1921.
Card 8: "As Zitkala-Sa remembers in her essay 'The School Days of an Indian Girl' ..."
Maya Ortiz and Rivers of the Valley are invented for practice.
Procedure
Groups sort the cards into three piles: MLA, Turabian, and spoken attribution
Within each pile, groups label each card's job: in-text citation, first note, shortened note, entry in the source list, or spoken attribution
Teacher key: MLA is cards 1, 2 and 6 (in-text, Works Cited, in-text); Turabian is cards 3, 4, 5 and 7 (first note, bibliography, shortened note, bibliography); card 8 is spoken attribution
Discussion Questions
Cards 2 and 4 describe the same book. What does the Turabian entry include that the MLA entry leaves out?
Why does card 5 not need the publisher or year?
Which card would help a listener most, and why can't a listener use a parenthetical citation?
2
Build the Entry
20 minPairs
Pairs build the MLA Works Cited entry for "We Wear the Mask" from the facts on its source, then check each other's entries against a checklist. Students write to the manual and edit a partner's work (standard a).
Source Facts Card
Poem: "We Wear the Mask," by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Book it appears in: The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, published by Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1913
Website: Project Gutenberg, released 7 May 2006, at www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18338
Procedure
Each partner writes the entry alone, using Diagram 1 as a model for the order of elements
Partners swap and check five points: name order, title punctuation, italics for each container, publisher form, date form
Teacher key: Dunbar, Paul Laurence. "We Wear the Mask." The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Dodd, Mead, 1913. Project Gutenberg, 7 May 2006, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18338.
Pairs then write the Works Cited list for both class texts, in alphabetical order, with the heading Works Cited centered
Discussion Questions
Why does MLA drop the words "and Company" and the city of publication?
What would change in the entry if you read the poem in a printed copy of the 1913 book?
Modification for Distance Learning
Share the facts card in a shared document. Partners type their entries in separate boxes, then leave comments on each other's entries using the five checkpoints.
3
Say the Source
15 minPairs
Pairs present a one-minute comparison of the two texts that quotes each once. Listeners cannot see parentheses, so speakers must build the citation into their sentences. The activity applies language to a new context and trains students to listen for sources (the main standard).
Procedure
Partner A writes a four-sentence script that quotes one line of the poem and one sentence of the essay, naming the author, the title and the type of text aloud
Partner A presents; Partner B writes down, from listening only, each author, title and quotation
Partners compare B's notes with the script and revise any attribution a listener missed, then switch roles
Discussion Questions
Which words told you a quotation was starting or ending?
What source information belongs on a final slide rather than in the speech?
Challenge Variation
Present the same script to a partner as if it were a podcast episode, then decide which attributions to shorten and which to keep, and explain why.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: The Elements of an MLA Works Cited Entry
The entry for the Zitkala-Sa essay, split into its MLA core elements. The source (the essay) sits inside a first container (the book), which sits inside a second container (the website). In the Works Cited list the entry is one paragraph with a hanging indent; it is split here only to show the elements.
Diagram 2: The Same Source in Three Contexts
An English essay following the MLA Handbook cites in parentheses; a history paper following Turabian's notes-bibliography style uses a note number, a footnote and a bibliography; a speaker names the author and title aloud. The facts about the source do not change, only their form and place.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
L.9-10.3 Homework: Writing and Editing to a Style Manual
Directions: Complete all six problems. Problems 1 and 5 use the Zitkala-Sa excerpt and the Dunbar poem in the lesson plan. The authors and titles in Problems 3 and 4 other than Zitkala-Sa are invented for practice. Use the MLA Handbook for Problems 1, 2 and 4 and Turabian for Problem 3.
Part 1: Writing to the Manual (Problems 1-2)
Write a paragraph of 6-8 sentences in MLA style that compares how Zitkala-Sa and Dunbar's speaker hide or refuse to hide their feelings. Quote at least one line of the poem and one sentence of the essay, integrate each quotation into your own sentence, and cite both correctly. End with a Works Cited list for both texts.
Set up the first page of an MLA essay for this assignment: write the four-line heading exactly as it would appear, the running header and a title. Then list the rules for margins, line spacing and the placement of the title.
Part 2: Editing to the Manual (Problems 3-4)
This history-paper draft should follow Turabian's notes-bibliography style. Rewrite the sentences and notes so they conform, add a bibliography, and name each rule you applied. (Carmen Ruiz and her book are invented.) Draft: Many boarding schools cut students' hair soon after they arrived.1 Zitkala-Sa remembers the scissors that would "gnaw off one of my thick braids" (Zitkala-Sa, sec. 2).2 Ruiz returns to the practice later in her book.3 Notes: 1. Ruiz, Carmen. Hair, Home and School. Denver: Front Range Press, 2014, 45. 2. Zitkala-Sa, "The School Days of an Indian Girl," in American Indian Stories (Washington, DC: Hayworth Publishing House, 1921), sec. 2. 3. Ibid., 47.
Edit this MLA Works Cited list so it conforms, and explain each change. (All three sources are invented.) Owens, Grace. Letters Home. Summit Press Inc., 2012. Ken Nakamura. "Hair and Honor in Dakota Tradition." Prairie Studies Quarterly, vol. 9, 2014, pp. 12-30. Adeyemi, Tola. Schooling and Survival. Riverbend University Press, 2020.
Part 3: Language in Context (Problems 5-6)
Rewrite each sentence with a more precise signal verb, and explain in one sentence how your verb changes what the reader thinks the source is doing: (a) Zitkala-Sa says the school cut her hair. (b) Dunbar says people hide their pain. (c) Judéwin says the girls must submit. (d) A historian says boarding schools harmed families.
Turn your paragraph from Problem 1 into a one-minute spoken script for a class presentation. Replace every parenthetical citation with spoken attribution, then write three sentences explaining what a listener needs to hear, what can go on a final slide, and why a reader and a listener need different forms.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Writing to the Manual
Quotations, in-text citations and entries all follow the manual
One or two errors in form
Citations missing or in no consistent style
Editing
Every error found and fixed, with the rule named
Most errors fixed, some rules missing
Few errors found
Choosing the Manual
The right manual for the discipline, applied consistently
Right manual, mixed with another style
Wrong manual or none
Language for Meaning and Audience
Signal verbs and spoken attributions fit the source and the listener
Choices are correct but general
Choices misreport the source
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Several questions use the Zitkala-Sa excerpt (paragraph numbers as shown in the Direct Instruction phase) and the Dunbar poem (line numbers as shown in Guided Practice). Names marked as invented are made up for practice. Your score updates as you answer, and Reset quiz clears everything so you or your students can try again.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student quotes page 112 of a printed book by Samuel Okafor (an invented author) and does not name him in the sentence. Which in-text citation follows the MLA Handbook?
Answer: C
MLA puts the author's surname and the page number with no punctuation and no abbreviation between them. A adds a comma, which MLA uses only before a labeled locator such as sec. or lines. B and D add a page abbreviation that MLA does not use for page numbers.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which sentence quotes lines 6-7 of "We Wear the Mask" correctly in MLA style (first citation of the poem)?
Answer: D
Lines 6 and 7 are in the same stanza, so one slash marks the line break, and the first citation of a poem uses the word lines. A runs the lines together with no slash. B uses the double slash, which marks a stanza break. C omits "lines," so a reader could take 6-7 for pages.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student quotes the end of the second stanza and the start of the third: lines 9 and 10. How is the break between them marked in MLA style?
Answer: A
Line 9 ends the second stanza and line 10 begins the third, so MLA uses a double slash to mark the stanza break. B marks only a line break. C hides the break. D uses an ellipsis, which signals words left out, and nothing is left out here.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student wants to quote five typed lines of prose from Zitkala-Sa's essay in an MLA essay. What should the student do?
Answer: B
MLA sets off prose quotations of more than four lines as a block indented half an inch, with no quotation marks, and the citation after the final punctuation. A treats it as a short quotation. C invents a limit: long quotations are allowed but formatted differently. D moves the quotation out of the essay's body; in MLA, quotations stay in the text, and notes are for comments.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which sentence formats both titles correctly? (The author and titles are invented.)
Answer: C
A short work that is part of a larger one (a story, an essay, a poem) goes in quotation marks, and the larger work (a book) is italicized. A reverses the two. B leaves the book title without italics. D both italicizes and quotes the story title.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In what order do these four sources belong in an MLA Works Cited list? (All are invented.) Nakamura, Ken; Adeyemi, Tola; "A Winter at the Mission School" (no author); Ferris, Dana
Answer: D
Entries are alphabetized by the first word of the entry, and a work with no author is alphabetized by its title, ignoring A, An or The, so this one files under W. A files the title under A. B lists the surnames in reverse order. C alphabetizes by first names (Dana, Ken, Tola) instead of surnames.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A website posted an article on February 3, 2021. How does that date appear in an MLA Works Cited entry?
Answer: A
MLA writes dates in the Works Cited list as day, month, year, and abbreviates months longer than four letters (Feb., but May, June and July stay whole). B is the order used in running prose in American writing. C spells out the month and adds a comma MLA does not use. D uses an ordinal and puts the month first.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In this MLA entry for an invented article, which element is the first container? Bell, Aaron. "Braids and Belonging." Plains History Review, vol. 12, no. 3, 2016, pp. 44-59. JSTOR.
Answer: C
The article is the source, and the journal that published it is the first container; the database that holds the journal is the second container. A is the title of the source itself. B is the second container. D is the location within the first container.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A history paper cites an invented book, Lin Zhou's Mission School Letters (Boston: Harbor Light Press, 2011). Which form is the Turabian bibliography entry?
Answer: B
A Turabian bibliography entry inverts the author's name, separates elements with periods and gives place, publisher and year. A is the first footnote, with the name in normal order, commas and parentheses. C is the MLA Works Cited form, which leaves out the place. D is an MLA in-text citation.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
The same history paper cites page 47 of Zhou's book again, a few notes after the first full note. Which note does Turabian's current edition prefer?
Answer: C
After the first full note, Turabian uses a shortened note: surname, short title (a title of four words or fewer is given whole) and page. A uses ibid., which the ninth edition discourages. B puts the book title in quotation marks; a book title is italicized in a note, as in the bibliography. D is an MLA parenthetical citation.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student is writing a research paper for a U.S. history class, and the teacher asks for footnotes and a bibliography. Which manual fits the assignment?
Answer: B
Footnotes with a bibliography are the notes-bibliography system that Turabian adapts from the Chicago Manual of Style, the manual usually used for history. A uses parenthetical citations. C and D ignore the teacher's directions and the discipline's convention, which the manual is chosen to follow.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which signal verb reports the last two lines of "We Wear the Mask" (lines 14-15) most accurately? Dunbar's speaker ____ that the world will see only the mask.
Answer: C
"But let the world dream otherwise, / We wear the mask!" ends the poem with a firm statement and an exclamation point, so insists fits. A fits the question in lines 6-7, not the ending. B implies the speaker is giving up a point to an opponent. D is too tentative for an exclamation.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which sentence integrates a quotation from paragraph 6 correctly in MLA style?
Answer: A
The original reads "Then I lost my spirit." Brackets mark the words changed to fit a third-person sentence, and the author named in the sentence leaves only the section in the citation. B leaves a pronoun clash (she ... my). C repeats the name and leaves out the comma before the labeled locator. D changes the words without brackets, so it misquotes the source.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In a class presentation, which spoken sentence gives listeners the clearest attribution?
Answer: D
Listeners need the author, the title and a clear start to the quotation before they hear it, which D gives in a natural sentence. A reads a written citation aloud, which is hard to follow and gives no title. B names neither the author nor the title. C hides the author.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Write an MLA Works Cited entry for this invented book: author Rosa Delgado; title Voices from the Plains; publisher Northfield University Press; published 2018. Name two rules you applied.
Model answer: Delgado, Rosa. Voices from the Plains. Northfield UP, 2018. Rules: the author's name is inverted; the book title is italicized; MLA abbreviates University Press as UP; the city of publication is left out. Rubric line: 2 points for a correct entry and two accurate rules; 1 point for an entry with one error or rules missing.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Edit this sentence so it conforms to the MLA Handbook, and name each change: In "We Wear the Mask", Dunbar shows that the speakers "smile" while they hide their pain (Dunbar, pg. 10).
Model answer: In "We Wear the Mask," Dunbar shows that the speakers "smile" while they hide their pain (lines 4, 10). Changes: in American usage the comma goes inside the closing quotation mark; a poem is cited by line, not page, and the first citation says "lines"; the word smile appears in lines 4 and 10, so both are cited, separated by a comma; the author is named in the sentence, so the name is not repeated in the parentheses. Rubric line: 2 points for all four changes; 1 point for two or three.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Write the first Turabian footnote and the bibliography entry for "We Wear the Mask" as printed in The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1913), read on Project Gutenberg (write [URL] where the web address goes). Explain one difference between the two forms.
Model answer: Note: 1. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "We Wear the Mask," in The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1913), [URL]. Bibliography: Dunbar, Paul Laurence. "We Wear the Mask." In The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1913. [URL]. Differences: the note gives the name in normal order and uses commas and parentheses; the bibliography inverts the name so it can be alphabetized and uses periods. A note may add line numbers when a specific line is quoted. Rubric line: 2 points for both forms and a correct difference; 1 point for one correct form.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
Explain to a ninth grader why an English essay about Dunbar uses (Dunbar, lines 1-2) while a history paper about the 1890s uses a footnote for the same poem.
Model answer: Each discipline has its own style manual because its readers use sources differently. English papers follow the MLA Handbook, which keeps short citations in the sentence so a reader comparing wording can see the line at once. History papers usually follow Turabian (Chicago), whose footnotes hold full publication facts, including place, and room for comments on documents, which historians need to trace evidence. The facts about the poem are the same; the context sets the form. Rubric line: 2 points for naming both manuals and linking each form to its readers; 1 point for naming the manuals without a reason.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
A history book has this footnote: 7. Okafor, Plains Journeys, 88. (Okafor and his book are invented.) What does each part tell you, and where would you look for the full publication facts?
Model answer: It is a shortened Turabian note: Okafor is the author's surname, Plains Journeys is the title (italicized, so it is a book, and short enough to give whole), and 88 is the page cited. Because the note is shortened, the book was cited in full in an earlier note, and the full facts (author's full name, place, publisher, year) are in that first note and in the bibliography. Rubric line: 2 points for identifying the parts and both places to look; 1 point for one.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Revise this sentence so it quotes paragraph 4 of the excerpt, uses a precise signal verb and has a correct MLA citation: Zitkala-Sa says that she hid under a bed. Explain your choice of verb.
Model answer: Zitkala-Sa recalls that she "crawled under the bed, and cuddled [herself] in the dark corner" (sec. 2). Recalls fits a memoir about a remembered event; the brackets mark the change from myself to herself so the quotation fits the sentence; the author is named, so only the section is cited. Other defensible verbs, such as remembers or describes, earn credit if the explanation fits. Rubric line: 2 points for an exact quotation, correct brackets and citation, and a reasoned verb; 1 point for two of these.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does L.9-10.3 mean?
L.9-10.3 means that students in grades 9 and 10 use what they know about language to write, speak, read and listen well in different contexts.
Its part a is specific: students write and edit work so that it follows a style manual suited to the discipline and the type of writing, such as the MLA Handbook for English or Turabian's Manual for Writers for history.
Does L.9-10.3 require MLA format?
No. L.9-10.3 names MLA and Turabian only as examples.
The requirement is to follow the manual that fits the discipline and the writing type. Many English classes use MLA, many history classes use Turabian or Chicago, and psychology and other social sciences often use APA. Students should learn to read and apply whichever manual an assignment requires.
What is the difference between MLA and Turabian?
MLA uses short citations in parentheses and a Works Cited list; Turabian's notes-bibliography style uses numbered footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography.
They also differ in details: Turabian gives the place of publication, puts the publication facts in parentheses in a note, and prefers shortened notes for later citations, while MLA builds entries from core elements and containers.
How do you cite a source with no page numbers in MLA?
Cite a numbered part the source itself prints, such as a chapter or section, or give the author alone if there is none.
For example, the Project Gutenberg text of Zitkala-Sa's essay has numbered sections, so a citation reads (Zitkala-Sa, sec. 2). Never cite page or paragraph numbers that you or a website added.
Why do students still need to learn citation rules if tools can generate citations?
Because generators often make errors, and students must be able to check them.
Citation tools misread titles, miss containers, capitalize wrongly and mix editions. The standard asks students to edit work so it conforms, which means spotting and fixing these errors, and choosing the right manual in the first place.
How does a style manual connect to the rest of this standard?
A style manual is one case of the standard's main idea: language works differently in different contexts.
Students see that the same facts about a source take different forms in an essay, a history paper and a speech, and that choices like a signal verb or a bracketed change affect meaning. Reading footnotes and listening for spoken attribution also help them comprehend more fully.
What are common MLA mistakes in grade 9 and 10 essays?
Frequent problems are wrong title formatting, extra punctuation in citations, and poetry quoted without slashes or line numbers.
Other common errors: listing sources out of alphabetical order, citing page numbers that do not exist, writing dates month-first in the Works Cited list, and changing words in a quotation without brackets.
Is L.9-10.3 tested on state or college entrance tests?
Tests rarely ask students to format a full citation, but they do test the language skills behind it.
Editing items on many state tests and in the Reading and Writing section of the SAT ask students to punctuate correctly, connect ideas and choose precise words. Classroom research papers are where the style manual itself is assessed.
Which edition of MLA and Turabian should my class use?
Use the edition your teacher or school names; at the time of writing, these are the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook (2021) and the ninth edition of Turabian (2018).
Both publishers keep online guides. Rules change between editions, so check the edition before editing a paper to it.
How does L.9-10.3 lead into grades 11 and 12?
In grades 11 and 12, L.11-12.3 shifts from following a manual to varying syntax for effect, consulting references such as Tufte's Artful Sentences.
Students who can already apply a manual confidently can focus on style, and the research-paper skills carry into W.11-12.8, which asks them to follow a standard format for citation in longer research.
07
Related Standards
5 standards
These standards connect to L.9-10.3: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
W.8.8Prerequisite
Gather credible sources, quote or paraphrase, and follow a standard citation format
Lesson coming soon
Alongside
W.9-10.8Parallel
Gather and integrate sources, avoid plagiarism, and follow a standard format for citation
Lesson coming soon
WHST.9-10.8Parallel
Gather and integrate sources in history, science and technical writing, with citations
Lesson coming soon
L.9-10.2Parallel
Use semicolons, colons and correct spelling when writing
Lesson coming soon
After this lesson
L.11-12.3Next step
Vary syntax for effect, consulting references, and apply syntax to complex texts
