MLA Sample Papers.pdf

Your name,

the course

number,

the

professor’s

name, and

the date of

the paper

are double-

spaced in

12-point,

Times New

Roman

font. Dates

in MLA are

written in

this order:

day, month,

and year.

Angeli 1

Elizabeth L. Angeli

Green text boxes

contain explanations

of MLA style

guidelines.

Page numbers

begin on and

with page 1.

Type your

name next to

the page

number so

that it

appears on

every page.

Professor Patricia Sullivan

English 624

Blue boxes contain

directions for writing

and citing in MLA

style.

14 December 2008

Toward a Recovery of Nineteenth Century Farming Handbooks

Titles are

centered

and written

in 12-point,

Times New

Roman

font. The

title is not

bolded,

underlined,

italicized.

While researching texts written about nineteenth century farming, I found a few

authors who published books about the literature of nineteenth century farming,

particularly agricultural journals, newspapers, pamphlets, and brochures. These authors

The

introduc-

tory

paragraph,

or introduc-

tion, should

set the

context for

the rest of

the paper.

Tell your

readers

why you

are writing

and why

your topic

important.

often placed the farming literature they were studying into an historical context by

discussing the important events in agriculture of the year in which the literature was

The thesis

statement

usually is

the last

sentence of

the

introduc-

tion.

published (see Demaree, for example). However, while these authors discuss journals,

newspapers, pamphlets, and brochures, I could not find much discussion about another

important source of farming knowledge: farming handbooks. My goal in this paper is to

bring this source into the agricultural literature discussion by connecting three

The thesis

is a clear

position

that you

will support

and

develop

throughout

your paper.

This

sentence

guides or

controls

your paper.

agricultural handbooks from the nineteenth century with nineteenth century agricultural

history.

To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into four main sections, two of

If your

paper is

long, you

may want

to write

about how

your paper

organized.

This will

help your

readers

follow your

ideas.

which have sub-sections. In the first section, I provide an account of three important

events in nineteenth century agricultural history: population and technological changes,

the distribution of scientific new knowledge, and farming’s influence on education. In the

second section, I discuss three nineteenth century farming handbooks in connection with

the important events described in the first section. I end my paper with a third section that

offers research questions that could be answered in future versions of this paper and

MLA requires

double-spacing

throughout the

document; do

not single-space

any part of the

document.

Angeli 2

conclude with a fourth section that discusses the importance of expanding this particular

Use

personal

pronouns (I,

we, us,

etc.) at

your

instructor’s

discretion.

project. I also include an appendix after the Works Cited that contains images of the three

handbooks I examined. Before I can begin the examination of the three handbooks,

however, I need to provide an historical context in which the books were written, and it is

to this that I now turn.

When using headings in

MLA, title the main

sections (B-level

headers) in a different

style font than the

paper’s title, e.g., in

small caps.

The headings used here follow an A-, B-, C-

level system to break the text into smaller

sections. The different levels help organize

the paper and maintain consistency in the

paper’s organization. You may come up with

your own headings as long as they are

consistent.

H ISTORICAL C ONTEXT

Headers,

though not

required by

MLA style,

help the

overall

structure

and

organiza-

tion of a

paper. Use

them at

your

instructor’s

discretion

to help

your reader

follow your

ideas.

The

paragraph

after the B-

level

headers

start flush

left after

the

headings.

The nineteenth century saw many changes to daily American life with an increase in

population, improved methods of transportation, developments in technology, and the

rise in the importance of science. These events impacted all aspects of nineteenth century

American life, most significantly those involved in slavery and the Civil War, but a large

part of American life was affected, a part that is quite often taken for granted: the life of

the American farmer.

Use

another

style, e.g.,

italics, to

differen-

tiate the C-

level

headers

from the B-

level

headers.

The

paragraph

continues

directly

after the

header.

Population and Technological Changes. One of the biggest changes, as seen in

nineteenth century America’s census reports, is the dramatic increase in population. The

1820 census reported that over 10 million people were living in America; of those 10

If there is a

gramma-

tical,

mechanical,

or spelling

error in the

text you

are citing,

type the

quote as it

appears.

Follow the

quote with

“[sic].”

million, over 2 million were engaged in agriculture. Ten years prior to that, the 1810

census reported over 7 million people were living in the states; there was no category for

people engaged in agriculture. In this ten-year time span, then, agriculture experienced

significant improvements and changes that enhanced its importance in American life.

One of these improvements was the developments of canals and steamboats,

which allowed farmers to “sell what has previously been unsalable [sic]” and resulted in a

“substantial increase in [a farmer’s] ability to earn income” (Danhof 5). This

Angeli 3

improvement allowed the relations between the rural and urban populations to strengthen,

resulting in an increase in trade. The urban population (defined as having over 2,500

Use

footnotes

to explain a

point in

your paper

that does

not quite

fit in with

the rest of

the

paragraph.

inhabitants) in the northern states increased rapidly after 1820. 1 This increase

accompanied the decrease in rural populations, as farmers who “preferred trade,

transportation, or ‘tinkering’” to the tasks of tending to crops and animals found great

opportunities in the city (Danhof 7). Trade and transportation thus began to influence

In-text

citations

occur after

the quote

but before

the period.

The

author’s/

authors’

name/s go

before the

page

number

with no

comma in

between.

farming life significantly. Before 1820, the rural community accounted for eighty percent

Insert the

footnote

directly

after the

phrase or

clause to

which it

refers.

of consumption of farmers’ goods (Hurt 127). With the improvements in transportation,

twenty-five percent of farmers’ products were sold for commercial gain, and by 1825,

farming “became a business rather than a way of life” (Hurt 128). This business required

farmers to specialize their production and caused most farmers to give “less attention to

the production of surplus commodities like wheat, tobacco, pork, or beef” (Hurt 128).

The increase in specialization encouraged some farmers to turn to technology to increase

their production and capitalize on commercial markets (Hurt 172).

The technology farmers used around 1820 was developed from three main

sources: Europe, coastal Indian tribes in America, and domestic modifications made from

the first two sources’ technologies. Through time, technology improved, and while some

farmers clung to their time-tested technologies, others were eager to find alternatives to

these technologies. These farmers often turned to current developments in Great Britain

Footnotes

should be

double-

spaced, in

12-point

Times New

Roman

font, and

indented

0.5” from

the margin.

and received word of their technological improvements through firsthand knowledge by

talking with immigrants and travelers. Farmers also began planning and conducting

1. Danhof includes “Delaware, Maryland, all states north of the Potomac and

Ohio rivers, Missouri, and states to its north” when referring to the northern states (11).

Angeli 4

experiments, and although they lacked a truly scientific approach, these farmers engaged

in experiments to obtain results and learn from the results. 2 Agricultural organizations

were then formed to “encourage . . . experimentation, hear reports, observe results, and

If you

delete

words from

the original

quote,

insert three

ellipses

with a

space

between

and after

each one.

exchange critical comments” (Danhof 53). Thus, new knowledge was transmitted orally

from farmer to farmer, immigrant to farmer, and traveler to farmer, which could result in

Transitions

connect

paragraphs

and unify

writing.

the miscommunication of this new scientific knowledge. Therefore, developments were

made for knowledge to be transmitted and recorded in a more permanent, credible way:

Notice how

this

paragraph

ends with a

brief

mention of

sources and

the next

paragraph

begins with

discussion

of print

informa-

tion.

by print.

The Distribution of New Knowledge. Before 1820 and prior to the new knowledge

farmers were creating, farmers who wanted print information about agriculture had their

Body

paragraphs

have these

four

elements: a

transition, a

topic

sentence,

evidence,

and a brief

wrap-up

sentence.

choice of agricultural almanacs and even local newspapers to receive information

(Danhof 54). After 1820, however, agricultural writing took more forms than almanacs

and newspapers. From 1820 to 1870, agricultural periodicals were responsible for

spreading new knowledge among farmers. In his published dissertation The American

Agricultural Press 1819-1860 , Albert Lowther Demaree presents a “description of the

Titles of

published

works

(books,

journals,

films, etc.)

are now

italicized

instead of

underlined.

Notice how

this

paragraph

begins with

a transition.

The topic

sentence

follows the

transition,

and it tells

readers

what the

paragraph

is about.

Direct

quotes are

used to

support

this topic

sentence.

general content of [agricultural journals]” (xi). These journals began in 1819 and were

written for farmers, with topics devoted to “farming, stock raising, [and] horticulture”

(12). The suggested “birthdate” of American agricultural journalism is April 2, 1819

when John S. Skinner published his periodical American Farmer in Baltimore. Demaree

writes that Skinner’s periodical was the “first continuous, successful agricultural

periodical in the United States” and “served as a model for hundreds of journals that

2. For the purposes of this paper, “science” is defined as it was in nineteenth

century agriculture: conducting experiments and engaging in research.

Angeli 5

The

paragraph

ends with a

wrap-up

sentence,

“Despite

the

lack . . .”,

while

transi-

tioning to

the next

paragraph.

succeeded it” (19). In the midst of the development of the journal, farmers began writing

handbooks. Not much has been written on the handbooks’ history, aside from the fact that

C.M. Saxton & Co. in New York was the major handbook publisher. Despite the lack of

information about handbooks, and as can be seen in my discussion below, these

handbooks played a significant role in distributing knowledge among farmers and in

educating young farmers, as I now discuss.

Farming’s Influence on Education. One result of the newly circulating print information

was the “need for acquiring scientific information upon which could be based a rational

technology” that could “be substituted for the current diverse, empirical practices”

(Danhof 69). In his 1825 book Nature and Reason Harmonized in the Practice of

Husbandry , John Lorain begins his first chapter by stating that “[v]ery erroneous theories

have been propagated” resulting in faulty farming methods (1). His words here create a

framework for the rest of his book, as he offers his readers narratives of his own trials and

errors and even dismisses foreign, time-tested techniques farmers had held on to: “The

knowledge we have of that very ancient and numerous nation the Chinese, as well as the

very located habits and costumes of this very singular people, is in itself insufficient to

teach us . . .” (75). His book captures the call and need for scientific experiments to

develop new knowledge meant to be used in/on/with American soil, which reflects some

farmers’ thinking of the day.

By the 1860s, the need for this knowledge was strong enough to affect education.

John Nicholson anticipated this effect in 1820 in the “Experiments” section of his book

The Farmer’s Assistant; Being a Digest of All That Relates to Agriculture and the

Conducting of Rural Affairs; Alphabetically Arranged and Adapted for the United States :

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