Check out our second sample paper below. It is a helpful and clearly labeled visual aid to refer to.
correctional facility firms has grown to 14 (Austin and Coventry 3). The privatization of prisons occurs in two ways. First, state government can contract out (or outsource) specific services in a correctional facility to a private company after a bidding process. Second, and more radically, private companies build their own privately-managed prisons and contract with state governments to house their inmates. This latter approach, giving private correctional facility firms wide latitude over inmates, is taken in the Texas criminal justice system. In fact, many of these privately operated facilities “have no relationship at all with the state governments in these states, other than an obligation to pay corporate income taxes” (McDonald and Patten Jr. v).
At the same time, the growth of privately operated correctional facilities has increased significantly in this country. Private prisons now hold 95,522 inmates in this country, which is 6.5 percent of total prisoners (Beck and Harrison 5). In Texas, 16,570 inmates (10 percent of its prison population) are held in private facilities, about 10,000 more than the next highest state. Furthermore, six states had at least 25 percent of their prison population housed in private prisons, led by New Mexico (44%), Alaska (31%), and Montana (29%). These current statistics show that while state governments have been forced to manage and operate overcrowded and over-capacity prisons at considerable costs, many have turned to the private sector to operate prisons (McDonald and Patten Jr.). According to the General Accounting Office, prison operating costs have grown steadily since 1980, increasing almost 550 percent since 1980 based on inflation-adjusted dollars (Austin and Coventry 1).
If you’ve been wondering how to produce a research paper that is strong in both formatting and writing, you’ve come to the right place.
MLA Sample Paper #1
The MLA header should be one inch from the top and left margins. The heading and the entire paper should be double spaced.
The privatization of governmental services has increased dramatically in the past decade as local, state, and federal agencies have searched for ways to cut costs while still meeting their mandated responsibility to provide various public services. This privatizing trend has particularly affected the criminal justice system. Since the early 1990s, privatized correctional facilities have increased significantly, nationally and statewide. This policy has far-ranging consequences not only within the criminal justice system, but as an instructive example for government officials when considering the costs and benefits of privatization as a public policy option. By 2001, thirty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico had privately-operated correctional facilities (Austin and Coventry 4). This movement has incited considerable debate and controversy, mainly because prison privatization calls for giving the private sector direct control over the lives of a captive human population.
See below for an example paper or click below to download it as a Word Document.
MLA is a type of research essay that is usually written in colleges. MLA stands for Modern Language Association and has strict rules not only for the context, but also for the technical organization of the essay.
In its essence the MLA essay is just like any other research paper. So follow the rules you already know, research the thesis thoroughly, make the draft and start writing.
The body of the MLA essay consists of transition, topic sentence, evidence and brief summary of everything written in the body so far. In order to write a good essay you should research the thesis well and draft your essay in advance. You can use quotes to support your thesis and when you use quotes in the MLA essay format do follow the rules for proper quotation. Use transition between paragraphs in order for the essay to sound organized and well written.
The technical requirements for writing an MLA essay format are the following:
How to write an essay in MLA format
Writing an essay in MLA format is similar to writing any other type of essay. The basic structure of the MLA essay is: introduction, body of the essay and conclusion.
The introduction is the first paragraph of the essay. In it you introduce to the audience the topic you are going to write about. The tone and the thesis given in the introduction should set the context of the whole essay. You should explain to the audience why you are going to write on that specific thesis, what makes it interesting for you and what is your overall opinion and attitude on it. The length of the introductory paragraph will depend on your instructor’s notes. Usually the last sentence in the introduction is the thesis of the essay. It is precisely the thesis that you have to support through the whole essay.
- The pages must have 1-inch margins.
- The text should be double spaced with 12-point font usually Times New Roman including quotations and notes.
- Different paragraphs must be separated with half an inch.
- The first page (the header) is slightly different from the rest of the paper.
- The name of the student is placed in the upper left corner.
- Below there is the instructor/professor’s name, followed by the name of the specific course and the date.
- The title of the MLA essay is located on top and centered. A separate title page is not required.
- The page numbers are placed on top, in the upper right hand side.
- An outline is optional.
Let’s say that you used books only as your sources of information. You will want to list the sources in alphabetical order by the authors' last name. For example, if you had two sources you would list them as follows:
The MLA essay format meets the standard layout guidelines as set out by the Modern Language Association.
- Johnson, James. U.S. Trade Relations. Hummingbird Press, 1989.
- Main, Jerry. Campside Sounds. Rice Press, 1992.
- Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.
Titles, Citations, Page Numbers
MLA style references a bibliography as a works cited page. When typing up your works cited page there are a few things that you should do.
MLA 8 uses a new method to create citation entries. This container system allows flexibility by creating nine core elements within a container. Use this basic works cited format:
Depending on how many sources you have and the type of sources that you used (whether a book, article, or internet-based source), you will want to pay special attention to the author’s name, title of the book, publication date, publisher and place of publication.
If you’re including sources with no known author, place the title as the first element and alphabetize accordingly.
The introduction is the first paragraph of the essay. In it you introduce to the audience the topic you are going to write about. The tone and the thesis given in the introduction should set the context of the whole essay. You should explain to the audience why you are going to write on that specific thesis, what makes it interesting for you and what is your overall opinion and attitude on it. The length of the introductory paragraph will depend on your instructor’s notes. Usually the last sentence in the introduction is the thesis of the essay. It is precisely the thesis that you have to support through the whole essay.
The technical requirements for writing an MLA essay format are the following:
The body of the MLA essay consists of transition, topic sentence, evidence and brief summary of everything written in the body so far. In order to write a good essay you should research the thesis well and draft your essay in advance. You can use quotes to support your thesis and when you use quotes in the MLA essay format do follow the rules for proper quotation. Use transition between paragraphs in order for the essay to sound organized and well written.
Writing an essay in MLA format is similar to writing any other type of essay. The basic structure of the MLA essay is: introduction, body of the essay and conclusion.
Introduction of MLA essay
- The pages must have 1-inch margins.
- The text should be double spaced with 12-point font usually Times New Roman including quotations and notes.
- Different paragraphs must be separated with half an inch.
- The first page (the header) is slightly different from the rest of the paper.
- The name of the student is placed in the upper left corner.
- Below there is the instructor/professor’s name, followed by the name of the specific course and the date.
- The title of the MLA essay is located on top and centered. A separate title page is not required.
- The page numbers are placed on top, in the upper right hand side.
- An outline is optional.
In its essence the MLA essay is just like any other research paper. So follow the rules you already know, research the thesis thoroughly, make the draft and start writing.
MLA is a type of research essay that is usually written in colleges. MLA stands for Modern Language Association and has strict rules not only for the context, but also for the technical organization of the essay.
It is a general rule for the conclusions of the essays to be strong and convincing. The conclusion usually sums up everything you have written so far for one last time. The sentences of the conclusion should be strong and clear. You should leave an impression that everything said so far is reasonable and trustworthy and the subject is coming to a closure. Always proofread your essays at least once in order to remove any grammatical and contextual mistakes that you may have made. You can also ask a friend for his/ her opinion by giving him or her the essay to read in advance prior to submitting it to your instructor.
As a rule, in the course of writing, you may face certain pitfalls. One of the most common ones is getting stuck on a specific section, trying to formulate your thoughts appropriately. Here is a tip: at this stage, there is no need to worry about the flawless grammar and word choices. After all, now, you are just writing your first draft. Later, you will have enough time to polish your text and bring it to perfection.
One of the most effective methods of proofreading is the following idea. As a rule of thumb, the idea is to re-read your draft every few days to see if it reads naturally. This way, you will have a few days to distract yourself and pull back from the content of your research to look at it with a fresh perspective later on. Consequently, you should be able to notice flaws that were previously invisible to you.
The most common topics are relevant social, political, cultural or technological issues. If you want to see more of those, we have a separate research paper topics post.
Finally, you have to group your sources and organize them. One of the best ways to do this is to order them from most to least critical. Also, you can organize sources based on the order of your arguments.
Proofreading and Editing
- Definition of measles
- Rise in cases of recent years in places the disease was previously eliminated or had very low rates of infection
- Figures — the number of cases per year on average, and number in recent years. Relate to immunization
As you can see, a good thesis should be impersonal, definitive, clear, and straight to the point. Also, it should be arguable – meaning that someone could disagree with it. This is the formula for a strong statement.
Once you think you have formed a good thesis, don’t hesitate to check in with your professor to get feedback.
While writing, it makes sense to form your paper in the same sequence, gradually moving from the abstract all the way to your conclusion section. That’s when following your outline should come in handy. By now, you should already have a detailed plan, so all that is left to do is to add more words to it and fill in the information.
A research paper, on the contrary, is a detailed paper that describes your research. It is much longer than a research proposal. Unlike a proposal, it also includes a detailed description of the results of your research.
Last name, First name. “Title of Essay.” Title of Collection, edited by Editor’s Name(s),Publisher, Year, Page range of entry.
3. Next we need to insert a page number header. Click on document elements tab and find Header & Footer. Under Header & Footer, you choose page number, top of page (header) and right alignment. Now type in your last name and put a space after to give room for the page number.
- Step 1: Materials
- Step 2: Creating Proper Formatting in Microsoft Word
- Step 3: Creating a Citation for a Book
- Step 4: Creating a Citation for an Anthology
- Step 5: Creating a Citation for a Scholarly Journal
- Step 6: Creating a Citation for an Online Source
- Step 7: Formatting the Works Cited Page in Microsoft Word
- Step 8: Adding In-text Citations
1. Text needs to be set to Times New Roman and 12-point font for MLA formatting.
Step 4: Creating a Citation for an Anthology
Hays, Mary. “Appeal to the Men of Great Britain on Behalf of Women.” British Literature 1780-1830. Mellor, Anne K., Richard E. Matlak. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 1996. 38-41.
When citing online sources you should try to locate the following information. Some of the sites will not offer all this information.
Borjas, George. “The Immigration Debate We Need.” The New York Times. 27 February 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/opinion/the-immigration. Accessed 2 March 2017.