The Research Virtuoso: How to Find Anything You Need to Know: Toronto Public Library

Okay, it’s time to take stock of what you’ve gathered so far in your research assignment. On the journey to becoming a research virtuoso, evaluating what you have and starting to put it together (in a research paper or another format) is just as necessary as developing a research focus and gathering sources!

To start evaluating the sources you’ve located, you’ll first need to look them over and determine which are the most useful. Skimming and scanning for relevant information will not only save you time but will also help you determine how certain information and ideas can fit into the format for communicating your research.

Skimming gives you a general sense of the text and an overview of its contents. Skimming is quickly reading across a text to understand its main ideas. Here are some common approaches to skimming:

• reading the title page to locate information such as the date of publication, the publisher, the author’s credentials, etc.

• skimming the back cover or dust jacket for summary information or for biographical information about the author

• reading the opening or closing paragraphs of selected chapters, where the main ideas are usually introduced and repeated

• consulting the index and the table of contents for specific references to the research topic

• skimming through the entire document to get a general impression of its length and organization

Scanning helps you locate a specific piece of information before reading the entire source. Scanning involves quickly reading down a page to find a specific word, detail, or fact. Before scanning a text, refer to your bank of key words (Grab & Go) to remind yourself what exactly you are searching for.

Your research assignment will be judged largely on the basis of the quality of your information. As you find potential sources, it’s important to consider whether each one is reliable and appropriate for your topic. This book uses the ABC structure to discuss evaluating sources—judging a source by its author and authority, its body, and its currency.

A – Author and Authority: Can you trust the author? What makes him or her an authority?

On the following pages, you will see tips for evaluating websites, databases, and print sources with the ABCs and key questions.

Evaluating all of your sources is important, but perhaps this is most difficult (and most critical) for online resources because the Internet is like the Wild West of the information universe. Anyone accessing an Internet connection can post something online—whether that person is an expert sitting in an ivory tower or an oddball sitting in a basement—so there is a lot of inaccurate, out-of-date, biased, and even offensive information on the Web.

However, even if a source is not the best one for your research, it may still prove useful to you. For example, it might give background information, lead you to a more promising source, or provide key words you haven’t already thought of.

Author and Authority

• Is an author identified? If so, who is the author? The author could be a person, group of people, or organization. This information is usually found on the home page or in the About Us page. (If you can’t find a link to the site’s home page, retype the URL (Web address) up to the first forward slash (/) to bring you there.)

• What credentials are noted for the author(s)?

• What contact information (e-mail, phone, or postal address) is provided for the author(s)? Are comments or other types of feedback solicited? When a source provides contact information and solicits feedback, that indicates a willingness to be held accountable for the contents.

• Can you check the author and contact information through other sources to confirm they exist—e.g., through a directory?

• Does the URL give any indication of who runs the site and its authority? (For example, a URL ending with .gov for a U.S. government site; see URL Clues: What’s in a Name? for a listing.)

• Have links been made to the website or web page from credible sources? To check this, perform a link search using a web search engine. To do this, type in link: followed by the Web address of the site in question. For example, enter link:http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/ into a search engine and it will retrieve a number of different websites that link to Duke University’s Digital Collections website.

Body

Objectivity	• Does the author clearly distinguish fact from theory, conclusions, or opinions? • Part of evaluating a website is evaluating its focus, perspective, and bias. For example, if you were doing research on the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, you would expect to see substantiated facts and balanced perspectives in an online news report, an opinion in a news columnist’s editorial, a certain perspective on the website for the oil giant BP (British Petroleum), and a different perspective on the website of Greenpeace. An individual writing a personal blog about cleaning beaches during the spill would present another perspective and a narrow focus. • Consider what the purpose of the website might be. For instance, a commercial site with a lot of ads and banners is trying to sell you products. Go to the home page to get a better idea of the goals of the overall site.
Accuracy	• On initial review, does the site appear well researched? What leads you to that conclusion? • Does the site or page provide documented support for information presented as fact? (Check the bottom of the web page to see if there are footnotes to other publications; this is usually an indication of a well-researched website. Just because the information appears on the Internet doesn’t mean it shouldn’t include citations to other works.) • Is the information on the site accurate? You can verify the accuracy of the information by consulting other print or electronic resources. • Are there misspellings? Misspellings are a possible indicator of poor-quality publications for both online and print sources.
Relevancy	• Does the website have a site map on which you can check where relevant information might be found? (A link to a site map page can usually be found at the very bottom of a website’s home page.) • Does the site have a built-in search engine? If so, search for key words within the site for relevant pages. If not, scan the site for relevant words and information.

Currency

Dates	• When was the information created, and when was it last updated? The date of the last update can usually be found at the bottom of a web page. Avoid using information from a web page that doesn’t mention this information.
Links	• Are the links working or dead (broken)? On a website, always test the links to other websites. Links that no longer work can indicate that the source is not maintained, and this suggests that it may be unreliable.

Evaluating Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a popular, free-to-use, online encyclopedia that is freely created and maintained. Using a particular software tool called a wiki (the Hawaiian word for quick), this unique collaborative project was launched in 2001. Wikipedia encourages anyone with an Internet connection to contribute posts freely and to edit entries posted by other writers; Wikipedia is controversial in part because of this fact. Because individuals don’t need any credentials to participate in writing the encyclopedia, most professors believe Wikipedia entries should not be accepted as authoritative.

Although there have been many successes for Wikipedia, it has also been plagued by vandalism. For example, pranksters altering Wikipedia entries have been particularly unkind to former British prime minister Tony Blair. The entry for Blair was changed to give his middle name as “Whoop-de-Doo,” and it asserted that he had a collection of Hitler posters as a teenager—among other misinformation.

Despite these risks, Wikipedia does have its uses:

• Its entries are a great place to pick up key words about your topic.

• Its entries can lead you to authoritative information someplace else.

• The citations in Wikipedia entries can help familiarize you with the types of sources out there.

• Wikipedia’s discussion tabs can alert you to contentious issues surrounding your subject. (For a good example of this, check out the discussion page for Wikipedia’s entry on Adolf Hitler.) These tabs allow the content of an encyclopedia article to be separated from communal discussions of the subject.

Use the FIND Function

Does learning a new keyboard shortcut make your day?

If so, you’ll love this one: hold down the CTRL or Control key while you press the F key to find a word or a phrase in an electronic document. This is a perfect function to use when browsing a website for key words.

When it comes to doing research, databases trump Web search engines most of the time due to authority and credibility. One advantage of databases is that the articles, reports, and other documents in them have already been published elsewhere, so their original publishers have already evaluated the contents for quality. This is especially true of journal articles, which are often refereed, or peer-reviewed; in other words, experts in a particular field have vetted the articles. In addition, database vendors have filtered the items for reliability when opting to include them in their products.

So why should you care about evaluating the information in these sources? Well, because not all databases are created equal! The following ABCs are for evaluating databases and they direct you further to evaluate each source you find on a database.

Author and Authority

• Does the database appear in a librarian-authored research guide? If so, this is a good sign! (Remember: these guides can be found on academic library websites.)

• Once you evaluate a database with the ABCs and decide it deserves another look, you can evaluate a possible source found on that database using the ABCs for evaluating print sources (see Author and Authority).

Body

Completeness	• How searchable is the database? • Does it offer a controlled vocabulary to focus your search? • Which fields are searchable? • Can you search by article type—e.g., book review, scholarly publication? • Does the database have an online help function or an online tutorial?
Relevancy	• What topical areas does the database cover? • Does it have a subject emphasis or is it multidisciplinary? (If you can’t find this information on your own, just ask a librarian.) • For what audience were the documents in the database chosen? Is the intended audience for the database students up to grade 12, undergraduates, graduate students, or the lay public? Once again, consult a librarian if you’re unsure. • Consider the type of material included in the database. Some databases might include the following: popular sources—newspapers and general magazines trade journals scholarly publications articles with images theses and dissertations conference proceedings government documents
Format	• In what formats do the documents in the database appear? full text PDF HTML • How much information is provided by the database? citations only citations and article abstracts citations and full-text articles

Currency

• Does the database have current or retrospective coverage of materials?

• How far back does its indexing of documents go?

Reference books in print form and found in libraries are generally reliable in themselves, and you can use them to evaluate other library materials. For example, you could use a reference book in a library to spot-check the accuracy of an author’s facts and figures in another print source. Here are more ways to evaluate print sources:

Author and Authority

• What makes the author an expert in his or her field?

• What in his or her biographical information, credentials, or affiliations indicates authority?

• Is this a peer-reviewed source? Peer-reviewed journals review the credentials and expertise of contributing authors before accepting articles for publication, so if the article is found in one of these periodicals, you can take that as a sign of its reliability.

• Does the material appear in a source edited by a well-known authority? (Authors who don’t yet have strong credentials can build a reputation by having their work published in anthologies or journals that are edited by well-known authorities.)

• Who is the publisher of the work, and what is the publisher’s reputation in this field? Consider the difference between academic presses (i.e., at a university) and commercial publishers. Most university presses can be considered reliable, especially if you recognize the name of the university.

• Has the source been reviewed? If so, where? Does the review note the work as authoritative? The following can direct you to reputable reviews in print: Book Review Digest, Book Review Index, and Ulrich’s Periodical Directory. For online reviews see Booklist, Library Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly.

Body

Objectivity	• Does the author clearly distinguish fact from theory, conclusions, or opinions? • What form is the source, and what are the expectations of that form? For example, a news report is expected to include verifiable facts and possibly some quoted opinions, but an editorial is expected to present an opinion with or without support. • Is the author’s purpose clearly stated? Is the author’s intent to survey current findings and thinking on a topic, to promote his or her beliefs, or to comment from a personal perspective on the subject? Consider the difference between information and propaganda, for example: information simply communicates knowledge, while propaganda tries to instill a particular attitude or response and is promoted by an interested party.
Accuracy	• On initial review, does the site appear well researched? What leads you to that conclusion? • Is the information accurate? To verify the information, use other sources. Some common elements to verify include statistical data, dates, and any statements that contradict what you have learned from other sources. • Are there misspellings? Misspellings are a possible indicator of poor-quality publications for both online and print sources.
Completeness	• Does the source include documentation—a reference list or works cited list? • If not, are the author’s sources acknowledged in some other credible way? • Has the author used sources that are respected and authoritative?
Relevancy	• Does the source contain the type of information you need? • Is it aimed at readers like you? For example: Is the language very academic or technical? Too basic? Do visuals such as maps and scientific diagrams provide the right amount of detail for your needs?
Format	• Does the work include the type of material you need? For example, you might be looking for the following: statistics original research summarized information from other, documented sources primary sources or quotations from primary sources opinion pieces or editorials visuals such as maps, diagrams, or photographs

Currency

• When was the source published? (If you need the most recent publications on a subject, database collections may have more articles to choose from than the print periodical collections in your library.)

• Consider when the source was last revised. Textbooks, research guides, and reference works are often revised and updated several times. Be sure you’re using the most recent edition if you need current information.

Now that you’ve evaluated the sources and information you’ve found, it’s time to read and take notes. Note-taking is when you’ll start to organize the information you’ve discovered so far, laying the groundwork for a strong research paper (or whatever format your communication will take).

Note-taking is crucial to the research process. The activity itself demonstrates your understanding of the material. By choosing what to summarize, quote, and paraphrase, and by putting information into your own words, you’re implementing the higher-order thinking skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy. So make Bloom proud and take good notes!

Taking notes is not just about evaluating someone else’s work—it’s at this stage of the game when you’ll also be evaluating your own ideas. To do this, you must revisit the research focus you started with and tweak it in light of the information you’ve come across. For example, ask yourself:

Plagiarism and How Sloppy Notes Led to One Sorry Writer

In a research article for Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly, Norman P. Lewis presented findings that problematic techniques, including sloppy note-taking, often lead to acts of plagiarism. Lewis cited the example of a New York Times writer whose sloppy note-taking caused him to mistake two paragraphs from a magazine as his own interview observations. After publishing this faulty story, the Times had to issue a public apology clarifying the situation and acknowledging the mistakenly uncredited material from the magazine. Imagine the embarrassment and implications for that journalist!

Different schools define plagiarism and its consequences differently. Look at your school’s definition of plagiarism. Regulations, guidelines, and procedures regarding plagiarism can be found on your school’s website. Further information is also included in course handbooks and handouts from professors, librarians, and academic departments. And we look at plagiarism again in Staying Honest: Crediting Your Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism.

There are three main purposes to taking notes: summarizing, quoting, and paraphrasing. These purposes correspond with different types of notes.

The purpose of summary notes is to understand the main points of an article or a book.

• These are the types of notes in which you lay out ideas, details, and arguments in point form.

• If you have printed out an article, making notes in the margins might also help you to summarize the main points.

Shorthand’s the Way 2 Go

Because summary notes are supposed to be brief, knowing and using certain symbols and abbreviations can save time and space. Consider using the following:

Symbol or Abbreviation	To Mean …
+ or &	and or plus
=	equals
>	greater than, more, or larger
<	less than, fewer than, or smaller
w/	with
w/in	within
w/o	without
b/c	because
2	to
	leads to, produces, or results in
	comes from

Jot down exact quotes in some distinctive way (e.g., between quotation marks, enclosed in parentheses). The index-card technique described below is a fantastic way to keep track of direct quotes that you intend to use in your research paper. Take care to identify quotations as such (see How to Take Notes).

These types of notes help you put someone else’s ideas into your own words. Hop on over to this section for more about paraphrasing. Paraphrasing (and properly crediting sources) can help steer you away from using too many direct quotations in a research paper. After all, it is your paper—so use your own words!

Following are some ideas on how to keep your notes organized throughout the research process—and by extension, how to keep you organized.

Index cards: Index cards are a great way to keep your notes short and sweet. Because the size of these cards limits how much information they can contain, they force you to be concise. Here is a sample with suggestions on what to include:

Note template: You can use the template Taking Notes (Grab & Go) to write notes. Here’s a sample with notes on one source:

Sticky notes: Jot down one main idea (key event, organization, etc.) per sticky note and sort each one underneath a main column. Below is an illustration of where a session with sticky notes can lead you. You can stick these notes to a wall or on a table and arrange and rearrange them as necessary.

Note-taking software and applications: The following electronic tools can help you gather facts and manage your sources. Both tools have free and paid account options.

• Mindola SuperNotecard: If you like the idea of using index cards but want to transfer the technique to a digital environment, try SuperNotecard. These virtual note cards can be organized on the screen, placed in decks, or grouped and categorized just like physical note cards.

• Evernote: This cloud-based note-taking application allows you to add multiple searchable and sortable tags to each note you create.

Saving Your Work—in the Clouds?

For any given assignment, once you start making notes, organizing them, and drafting on a computer, you must also start saving the results. As you know, there are many ways to save your work digitally. Here are some examples:

• move files onto a USB (universal serial bus) key

• e-mail files to yourself

• save files in the cloud

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Cloud computing is computing on the Internet and a way of using the Internet for your computing needs. In this case, saving work to the cloud means saving digital files online and away from your physical location.

Online storage is a great way to ensure that your work is backed up and accessible from anywhere. So, if your computer breaks down—and if you’ve saved your work using a cloud computing application such as Dropbox, Box.net, or Google Docs—then don’t worry about your saved work; it will still be accessible through the cloud.

Properly giving credit where it is due is a key principle in research, and universities and colleges have very strong policies about crediting sources and against plagiarism.

Although the specifics of how to cite sources varies (see Dueling Citation Styles), the purposes of citing sources remain the same. The main reasons include the following:

1. Staying honest: By citing your sources, you give credit where it belongs and ward off accusations of plagiarism. Avoid taking the credit for someone else’s words, original ideas, and original expressions by being honest about what you’ve borrowed.

2. Building trust: As you’ve already learned from the ABCs approach to evaluating sources, your readers will look to your citations to decide how much they can trust your work.

3. Creating a path: Responsible researchers provide their readers with a way of accessing the earlier research that has informed the work being read. By citing these sources, you’re showing your reader how your work connects with that of other researchers, leading to the final purpose of citation . . .

4. Building community: Part of being a research virtuoso is establishing yourself in a community of researchers. When you cite sources fully and accurately, you are helping to build both the scholarly and the social value of the research community.

Properly giving credit may seem simple at first, but it gets tricky from time to time.

The information you need to record to credit your sources is called bibliographic data. The template Bibliographic Data Tracker (Grab & Go) can help you record this information.

• For printed books the data you need includes author(s), full title (including any subtitle), editor(s), publisher, location of the publisher (always choose the first one that appears), and date of publication.

• For articles this data includes the page numbers of the article, author(s), article title, title of the journal/magazine/newspaper, volume and issue number for that publication, and publication date.

• For online sources this data includes website address (URL), date you accessed it, and name of the database (if applicable).

If you find it too tedious to record these details, consider photocopying a book’s title page and its reverse side, which is where copyright information is listed. Similarly, for a journal article, you could photocopy the masthead of the publication. Be sure to write down the page numbers of any quotations you are using. (You could add page numbers to the photocopy or write them in your notes.) While you’re at it, why not jot down the location information (call number, shelving area, etc.) somewhere on this photocopy so you can track down the source later on.

Turnitin.com: What’s Your View?

Turnitin.com is an anti-plagiarism service used by many North American universities. Professors use it to compare students’ assignments with billions of pages of assignment papers and other documents in a database. This service then reports back on sections in a student’s assignment that may have been plagiarized.

Some students disagree with the widespread use of this service. Their criticisms stem from a belief that the tool promotes and institutionalizes a presumption that some students will plagiarize. Some critics also consider the use of the service an invasion of privacy. Turnitin.com and the controversy around it certainly provide food for thought.

Creative Commons

According to the organization’s website, Creative Commons is a way to balance the reality of the Internet with the reality of copyright laws. This nonprofit organization is helping to grow a “digital commons”—a pool of content that can be copied, distributed, and built upon legally—within the boundaries of copyright law. Creative Commons (and the Creative Commons licenses, which you will read about next) relates to all sorts of copyrighted materials, including visual images. For more information, check out the Creative Commons website.

So, suppose you are looking for an image to use in a presentation. Act responsibly and seek out a Creative Commons image. Flickr (an image-hosting website), for example, allows you to browse or search through content covered by Creative Commons licensing. When you find a picture you really like, right-click on the some rights reserved link to determine which type of license applies.

Two popular forms of Creative Commons licenses are the following:

• Attribution license: You can copy, distribute, and display the image as long as you credit where it came from.

• Non-commercial license: You can do the above but for non-commercial purposes only.

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Below are some tips that can help you steer clear of plagiarizing and avoid allegations of plagiarism.

1. Understand the word: Plagiarism (Latin for kidnapper) occurs when someone uses or passes off another person’s words, original ideas, or original expressions as though they were his or her own. Plagiarizing can be an intentional or an unintentional act. As noted earlier, check your school’s definition of plagiarism and policies about it. Every university and college will have its own explanation of plagiarism; it pays to be aware in advance. Know that the penalties can be severe: anything from failure in that course to expulsion from the institution. If you are interested, scan the policies of noted institutions online to get a sense of the important standing academic honesty has in the scholarly world.

2. Manage your time: Anxiety is fertile ground for plagiarism. Many researchers have been tempted to plagiarize when they find themselves running out of time—for example, when they feel unable to come up with their own ideas or feel too rushed to properly and accurately credit the sources used in formulating their ideas. Here are some time-management tips to avoid this problem:

Break up the writing process: Nobody can write all the time. Every writer needs time away from his or her paper to gain some perspective. But these breaks don’t have to be unproductive! Take the opportunity to go over your references and tidy up any loose ends. Or work on an entirely different task to get some fresh ideas percolating on this one.

3. Stay in control: You risk plagiarizing when you lose track of which words and ideas are yours and which are not. Here’s where good note-taking techniques are crucial.

In your notes and files, carefully distinguish between direct quotations, paraphrasing, summarizing, and your own ideas from the get-go. You are more likely to stay on top of things right from the beginning.

If you are copying and pasting from electronic sources, keep track of every change to an electronic file. Clearly identify sources, place direct quotations in quotation marks, and mark your electronic notes with labels such as source, direct quotation, paraphrase, summary, and my idea.

4. Know when to paraphrase: If you think you can explain an idea better (for example, in a way that is clearer or more succinct) than the source in which you encountered that idea, then it’s time to paraphrase. To do this, take an author’s idea, select what’s most significant to your research, and restate it in your own words, but still credit the source.

Cite it right: Aside from crediting the work you’re paraphrasing in your works cited list or bibliography, you must also include in-text citations. To learn more about when and how to use these types of citations, check citation styles.

Compare the original and paraphrase: Effective paraphrasing involves more than simply replacing a word here and there or checking a thesaurus for substitutes. (Students risk being charged with plagiarism when they follow a source too closely in their paraphrase.) To avoid poor paraphrasing, consider the following:

Double-check your wording against the original passage. Mark with a highlighter what remains the same.

Read your paraphrase aloud. Note where the expression sounds natural to how you normally write and where it doesn’t.

Consider using quotation marks in your paraphrasing notes to identify particular phrases or words that you’ve borrowed directly from the source and that must remain for sense or clarity.

5. Know when to quote: You should record exact quotations from a source in the following instances:

if the original words of the author express the idea that you are trying to communicate clearly and succinctly, and you’re worried that paraphrasing will only muddle the message

when the author states a view you disagree with; it’s only fair to record that view exactly as it was written before you pull it apart.

when you can’t yet decide whether to quote directly or paraphrase because your research is not far enough along; if you quote directly while noting sources, you can always turn the direct quotation into a paraphrase later, but changing your mind about a paraphrase will be harder!

No Word Twisting: Don’t Manipulate Those Quotes!

To be a research virtuoso, you will have to respect the quotations you use. Part of upholding your academic integrity is maintaining the integrity of each chosen quote. This means not taking a quotation out of context, not shortening it unnecessarily, and not rearranging it except for grammatical purposes.

Check your school’s policies and procedures for changing quotations.

With so many ways to cite sources out there, how do you know which is the right style to use? The short answer is to ask your professor (or instructor, etc.). Although certain citation styles are favored by particular disciplines, some professors will allow you to use whichever style you prefer as long as you use it consistently and correctly throughout the research assignment.

Citation styles are forever changing, evolving over time to adapt to different media (think URLs and YouTube videos) used for research. For the most up-to-date information on your citation style of choice, check your university or college bookstore for the latest editions of the style guides mentioned above, or access them through your school’s writing center or online. Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) is a great source for many subjects, including formatting in APA and MLA styles.

WorldCat: A Friendly Citation Feline

Remember reading about WorldCat way back in Section 2? Well, besides being the mother of all bibliographic databases, this free online resource can help you formulate proper citations. Each WorldCat entry comes with a cite/export option. If you choose this option, a pop-up box appears that allows you to copy a formatted citation for the book, DVD, CD, article, etc., in your choice of certain official styles.

Once upon a time, information was considered a scarce resource. For most of human history, information in the form of the written word was very expensive to distribute. After the invention of the printing press way back in the 15th century, costs came down. Fast-forward to the widespread use of the Internet in the late 20th century, and well, distribution costs pretty much evaporated. So, in today’s information-rich society, access to information is not so much the issue. Instead, insight into that information is becoming a scarce resource in the 21st century.

The virtuoso’s challenge is to sort through information with agility and integrity. Speed-reading strategies, the ABCs of evaluation, note-taking techniques, and citation styles are all tools in your arsenal to gain an accurate and deep understanding of the information you seek.

Generally, the following do not require citations:	However, what must be credited includes the following:
• dates • simple definitions • commonly known observations and facts	• quoted ideas and information • paraphrased ideas and information • statistics • sources that are not text-based, such as photographs, artwork, radio programs, maps, videos, and even interviews that you conduct

Chicago Style	Here, Chicago refers to University of Chicago Press publications. The Chicago Manual of Style presents two citation systems: • notes and bibliography system—often favored when writing about literature, history, and the arts • author-date system—often favored when writing about the sciences (physical, natural, social) Sometimes professors also point to another style described in University of Chicago Press publications—Turabian style. Remember to clarify with your professor, instructor, TA, etc., which specific Chicago style is required, and then refer to the latest style guide in your library.
APA Style	Commonly used in the natural and social sciences, American Psychological Association (APA) style lists the date of publication front and center. Because these academic fields change rapidly, it’s important for readers to quickly determine how old a source is. This style is also common to nursing and business studies. Refer to the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for a guide to using APA style.
MLA Style	Commonly used in the humanities, Modern Language Association (MLA) style doesn’t place as much importance on the date of publication as does APA. Generally, the emphasis in this field is not necessarily on new research. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers will bring you up to speed on the formatting requirements of MLA style.