Works Cited, Bibliography, and Reference page samples of sources: MLA, Turabian, & APA

A works cited page is the ending page of a research paper. It does NOT follow in paragraph closure at the end of the paper itself: it is a SEPARATE page that is attached in the back. 

Note the following samples: 
(1) an English class research paper (done in MLA), 
(2) a bibliography for a graduate history class done in Turabian style for history; it has a "bibiography" page), 
and below it, 
(3) an APA format reference page (for a medical paper). Note that each source is double-spaced, and that the follow-up line of each source is indented:

 

Indenting a large quote with citation format

Here's an example of how to "block and indent" an extended quote. But note the following format: it has completely been indented two (2) tab spaces in its entirety. It's also SINGLE-spaced, not double-spaced, the page number or source goes OUTSIDE the quote, AND there are no quotation marks around it--or a set of parenthesis marks.

This book contains over 150 recipes based on wild plants utilized by Indians in the southwestern United States. Fifty desert plants are described and illustrated with line drawings and listed alphabetically with information on habitat, historical significance, and use in tribal cooking. The book is well-researched and detailed, with much useful ethnobotanical information accompanying the recipes. A bibliography and an index are included. (121)

Malcolm X learns to read and write by copying a dictionary

In my junior year of high school in New York in 1972, The Autobiography of Malcolm X was required reading. There was a portion of the book that stood out in my mind for years, and later, when I became a college composition instructor, I found it in several textbooks of essays. In particular, it was used as a sample for a narrative.

What made an impression on me years ago was the way that Malcolm explained his endeavor to be educated. I wasn't interested in his politics and I disagree with his early philosophies, even though he recanted much of it before his death; what stood out to me was the way he described his effort in improving his reading and writing.

Now, I wish for a way that I could bring Malcolm X to life for just one day: to speak to my students and have him critique their work. I want HIM to say, "Is this the best you've learned to do? Is THIS what you have to show with a high school education--AND the ability to enroll in college?!" (For the record, I think Malcolm X wrote better than me when I was in college--at least, until I got to graduate school.)

I want this chance for him to address my students because Malcolm X became an outstanding writer and speaker.

Malcolm X copied the dictionary word-for-word starting with the letter "A" in order to improve his ability to communicate.
I wish I had students with that kind of motivation, not just for my sake as a professor, but for their future.

I look back at Malcolm's words in this essay--and I wonder how his attitude would be toward their effort while knowing how much time he had lost. I wonder how he would tell them how precious it was when he found the courage and conviction in his own life to undertake the effort he did to learn to read and write. My students wouldn't even begin to understand that in the years when Malcolm was a young man, he wasn't allowed to attend a school where fellow students were not the same race.
===============================

  "Coming to an Awareness of Language"

Malcolm X

I've never been one for inaction. Everything I've ever felt strongly about, I've done something about. I guess that's why, unable to do anything else, I soon began writing to people I had known in the hustling world, such as Sammy the Pimp, John Hughes, the gambling house owner, the thief Jumpsteady, and several dope peddlers. I wrote them all about Allah and Islam and Mr. Elijah Muhammad. I had no idea where most of them lived. I addressed their letters in care of the Harlem or Roxbury bars and clubs where I'd known them.

I never got a single reply. The average hustler and criminal was too uneducated to write a letter. I have known many slick, sharp-looking hustlers, who would have you think they had an interest in Wall Street; privately, they would get someone else to read a letter if they received one. Besides, neither would I have replied to anyone writing me something as wild as “the white man is the devil.”

What certainly went on the Harlem and Roxbury wires was that Detroit Red was going crazy in stir, or else he was trying some hype to shake up the warden's office.

During the years that I stayed in the Norfolk Prison Colony, never did any official directly say anything to me about those letters, although, of course, they all passed through the prison censorship. I'm sure, however, they monitored what I wrote to add to the files which every state and federal prison keeps on the conversion of Negro inmates by the teachings of Mr. Elijah Muhammad.

But at that time, I felt that the real reason was that the white man knew that he was the devil.

Later on, I even wrote to the Mayor of Boston, to the Governor of Massachusetts, and to Harry S. Truman. They never answered; they probably never even saw my letters. I handscratched to them how the white man's society was responsible for the black man's condition in this wilderness of North America.

It was because of my letters that I happened to stumble upon starting to acquire some kind of a homemade education.

I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there—I had commanded attention when I said something. But now, trying to write simple English, I not only wasn't articulate, I wasn't even functional. How would I sound writing in slang, the way I would say it, something such as, “Look, daddy, let me pull your coat about a cat. Elijah Muhammad—”.

Many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I've said, will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade. This impression is due entirely to my prison studies.

It had really begun back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in, and I had tried to emulate him. But every book I picked up had few sentences which didn't contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese. When I just skipped those words, of course, I really ended up with little idea of what the book said. So I had come to the Norfolk Prison Colony still going through only book-reading motions. Pretty soon, I would have quit even these motions, unless I had received the motivation that I did.

I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary—to study, to learn some words. I was lucky enough to reason also that I should try to improve my penmanship. It was sad. I couldn't even write in a straight line. It was both ideas together that moved me to request a dictionary along with some tablets and pencils from the Norfolk Prison Colony school.

I spent two days just riffling uncertainly through the dictionary's pages. I'd never realized so many words existed! I didn't know which words I needed to learn. Finally, just to start some kind of action, I began copying.

In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks.

I believe it took me a day. Then, aloud, I read back, to myself, everything I'd written on the tablet. Over and over, aloud, to myself, I read my own handwriting.

I woke up the next morning, thinking about those words—immensely proud to realize that not only had I written so much at one time, but I'd written words that I never knew were in the world.

Moreover, with a little effort, I also could remember what many of these words meant. I reviewed the words whose meanings I didn't remember. Funny thing, from the dictionary first page right now, that “aardvark” springs to my mind. The dictionary had a picture of it, a long-tailed, long-eared, burrowing African mammal, which lives off termites caught by sticking out its tongue as an anteater does for ants.

I was so fascinated that I went on—I copied the dictionary's next page. And the same experience came when I studied that. With every succeeding page, I also learned of people and places and events from history. Actually the dictionary is like a miniature encyclopedia. Finally the dictionary's A section had filled a whole tablet—and I went on into the B's. That was the way I started copying what eventually became the entire dictionary. It went a lot faster after so much practice helped me to pick up handwriting speed. Between what I wrote in my tablet, and writing letters, during the rest of my time in prison I would guess I wrote a million words.

I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying. Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened. Let me tell you something: from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn't have gotten me out of books with a wedge. Between Mr. Muhammad's teachings, my correspondence, my visitors...and my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life.

"The Lady or the Tiger?" asks YOU to decide Life or Death

Oh dear. This is a story without an ending. Some people don't like those sort of things--they prefer that conclusions are wrapped up neatly, for better or worse. Well, that's the ending of this story: for better or worse. And no, it's not about marriage--but rather, one of the key components upon which SOME marriages are made: that silly little thing called "love." 


This story came out in 1882, and it REALLY upset a lot of people--partially because of the insinuation (the cause-and-effect) that the author, Frank R. Stockton, was hinting at regarding human nature. We ARE a violent species, you know--but we are ALSO a very enlightened and spiritual creature too--at times. This also takes into account the same lessons that have been spoken of for SO many centuries: when we stop wanting everything OUR way, we may find happiness. I said we MAY find happiness. Some people can't stop wanting it THEIR way for happiness fulfilled as you may have noted in the short story on this site, "The Necklace." 

So: just as the man said in the end of the story, "Who came out? The lady or the tiger?" Please explain to me in paragraph format (oh, I'd say four) your answer--and please use references or direct quotes (sentences) from the story to back up your point. By the way, if you have any need for research, look up the name "Medea" and see what she did when things didn't go her way. You may also look up the phrase "Hell knoweth no fury...."  Meanwhile: "Knock-knock, who's there?" I hope your choice is the right one. Your life--or the person you are sponsoring in this "contest"--depends on it.

The Lady Or The Tiger? By Frank Stockton

   In the very olden time there lived a semi-barbaric king, whose ideas, though somewhat polished and sharpened by the progressiveness of distant neighbors, were still large, florid, and untrammeled, as became the half of him which was barbaric. He was a man of exuberant fancy, and, withal, of an authority so irresistible that, at his will, he turned his varied fancies into facts. He was greatly given to self-communing, and, when he and himself agreed upon anything, the thing was done. When every member of his domestic and political systems moved smoothly in its appointed course, his nature was bland and genial; but, whenever there was a little hitch, and some of his orbs got out of their orbits, he was blander and more genial still, for nothing pleased him so much as to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places.

* * *
     Among the borrowed notions by which his barbarism had become semified was that of the public arena, in which, by exhibitions of manly and beastly valor, the minds of his subjects were refined and cultured.    But even here the exuberant and barbaric fancy asserted itself. The arena of the king was built, not to give the people an opportunity of hearing the rhapsodies of dying gladiators, nor to enable them to view the inevitable conclusion of a conflict between religious opinions and hungry jaws, but for purposes far better adapted to widen and develop the mental energies of the people. This vast amphitheater, with its encircling galleries, its mysterious vaults, and its unseen passages, was an agent of poetic justice, in which crime was punished, or virtue rewarded, by the decrees of an impartial and incorruptible chance.

* * *

     When a subject was accused of a crime of sufficient importance to interest the king, public notice was given that on an appointed day the fate of the accused person would be decided in the king's arena, a structure which well deserved its name, for, although its form and plan were borrowed from afar, its purpose emanated solely from the brain of this man, who, every barleycorn a king, knew no tradition to which he owed more allegiance than pleased his fancy, and who ingrafted on every adopted form of human thought and action the rich growth of his barbaric idealism.

* * *

     When all the people had assembled in the galleries, and the king, surrounded by his court, sat high up on his throne of royal state on one side of the arena, he gave a signal, a door beneath him opened, and the accused subject stepped out into the amphitheater. Directly opposite him, on the other side of the enclosed space, were two doors, exactly alike and side by side. It was the duty and the privilege of the person on trial to walk directly to these doors and open one of them. He could open either door he pleased; he was subject to no guidance or influence but that of the aforementioned impartial and incorruptible chance. If he opened the one, there came out of it a hungry tiger, the fiercest and most cruel that could be procured, which immediately sprang upon him and tore him to pieces as a punishment for his guilt. The moment that the case of the criminal was thus decided, doleful iron bells were clanged, great wails went up from the hired mourners posted on the outer rim of the arena, and the vast audience, with bowed heads and downcast hearts, wended slowly their homeward way, mourning greatly that one so young and fair, or so old and respected, should have merited so dire a fate.

* * *

     But, if the accused person opened the other door, there came forth from it a lady, the most suitable to his years and station that his majesty could select among his fair subjects, and to this lady he was immediately married, as a reward of his innocence. It mattered not that he might already possess a wife and family, or that his affections might be engaged upon an object of his own selection; the king allowed no such subordinate arrangements to interfere with his great scheme of retribution and reward. The exercises, as in the other instance, took place immediately, and in the arena. Another door opened beneath the king, and a priest, followed by a band of choristers, and dancing maidens blowing joyous airs on golden horns and treading an epithalamic measure, advanced to where the pair stood, side by side, and the wedding was promptly and cheerily solemnized. Then the gay brass bells rang forth their merry peals, the people shouted glad hurrahs, and the innocent man, preceded by children strewing flowers on his path, led his bride to his home.

* * *

     This was the king's semi-barbaric method of administering justice. Its perfect fairness is obvious. The criminal could not know out of which door would come the lady; he opened either he pleased, without having the slightest idea whether, in the next instant, he was to be devoured or married. On some occasions the tiger came out of one door, and on some out of the other. The decisions of this tribunal were not only fair, they were positively determinate: the accused person was instantly punished if he found himself guilty, and, if innocent, he was rewarded on the spot, whether he liked it or not. There was no escape from the judgments of the king's arena.

* * *

     The institution was a very popular one. When the people gathered together on one of the great trial days, they never knew whether they were to witness a bloody slaughter or a hilarious wedding. This element of uncertainty lent an interest to the occasion which it could not otherwise have attained. Thus, the masses were entertained and pleased, and the thinking part of the community could bring no charge of unfairness against this plan, for did not the accused person have the whole matter in his own hands?

* * *

     This semi-barbaric king had a daughter as blooming as his most florid fancies, and with a soul as fervent and imperious as his own. As is usual in such cases, she was the apple of his eye, and was loved by him above all humanity. Among his courtiers was a young man of that fineness of blood and lowness of station common to the conventional heroes of romance who love royal maidens. This royal maiden was well satisfied with her lover, for he was handsome and brave to a degree unsurpassed in all this kingdom, and she loved him with an ardor that had enough of barbarism in it to make it exceedingly warm and strong. This love affair moved on happily for many months, until one day the king happened to discover its existence. He did not hesitate nor waver in regard to his duty in the premises. The youth was immediately cast into prison, and a day was appointed for his trial in the king's arena. This, of course, was an especially important occasion, and his majesty, as well as all the people, was greatly interested in the workings and development of this trial. Never before had such a case occurred; never before had a subject dared to love the daughter of the king. In after years such things became commonplace enough, but then they were in no slight degree novel and startling.

* * *

     The tiger cages of the kingdom were searched for the most savage and relentless beasts, from which the fiercest monster might be selected for the arena; and the ranks of maiden youth and beauty throughout the land were carefully surveyed by competent judges in order that the young man might have a fitting bride in case fate did not determine for him a different destiny. Of course, everybody knew that the deed with which the accused was charged had been done. He had loved the princess, and neither he, she, nor any one else, thought of denying the fact; but the king would not think of allowing any fact of this kind to interfere with the workings of the tribunal, in which he took such great delight and satisfaction. No matter how the affair turned out, the youth would be disposed of, and the king would take an aesthetic pleasure in watching the course of events, which would determine whether or not the young man had done wrong in allowing himself to love the princess.

* * *

     The appointed day arrived. From far and near the people gathered, and thronged the great galleries of the arena, and crowds, unable to gain admittance, massed themselves against its outside walls. The king and his court were in their places, opposite the twin doors, those fateful portals, so terrible in their similarity.  All was ready. The signal was given. A door beneath the royal party opened, and the lover of the princess walked into the arena. Tall, beautiful, fair, his appearance was greeted with a low hum of admiration and anxiety. Half the audience had not known so grand a youth had lived among them. No wonder the princess loved him! What a terrible thing for him to be there!

* * *

     As the youth advanced into the arena he turned, as the custom was, to bow to the king, but he did not think at all of that royal personage. His eyes were fixed upon the princess, who sat to the right of her father. Had it not been for the moiety of barbarism in her nature it is probable that lady would not have been there, but her intense and fervid soul would not allow her to be absent on an occasion in which she was so terribly interested. From the moment that the decree had gone forth that her lover should decide his fate in the king's arena, she had thought of nothing, night or day, but this great event and the various subjects connected with it. Possessed of more power, influence, and force of character than any one who had ever before been interested in such a case, she had done what no other person had done - she had possessed herself of the secret of the doors. She knew in which of the two rooms, that lay behind those doors, stood the cage of the tiger, with its open front, and in which waited the lady. Through these thick doors, heavily curtained with skins on the inside, it was impossible that any noise or suggestion should come from within to the person who should approach to raise the latch of one of them. But gold, and the power of a woman's will, had brought the secret to the princess.

* * *

     And not only did she know in which room stood the lady ready to emerge, all blushing and radiant, should her door be opened, but she knew who the lady was. It was one of the fairest and loveliest of the damsels of the court who had been selected as the reward of the accused youth, should he be proved innocent of the crime of aspiring to one so far above him; and the princess hated her. Often had she seen, or imagined that she had seen, this fair creature throwing glances of admiration upon the person of her lover, and sometimes she thought these glances were perceived, and even returned. Now and then she had seen them talking together; it was but for a moment or two, but much can be said in a brief space; it may have been on most unimportant topics, but how could she know that? The girl was lovely, but she had dared to raise her eyes to the loved one of the princess; and, with all the intensity of the savage blood transmitted to her through long lines of wholly barbaric ancestors, she hated the woman who blushed and trembled behind that silent door.

* * *

     When her lover turned and looked at her, and his eye met hers as she sat there, paler and whiter than any one in the vast ocean of anxious faces about her, he saw, by that power of quick perception which is given to those whose souls are one, that she knew behind which door crouched the tiger, and behind which stood the lady. He had expected her to know it. He understood her nature, and his soul was assured that she would never rest until she had made plain to herself this thing, hidden to all other lookers-on, even to the king. The only hope for the youth in which there was any element of certainty was based upon the success of the princess in discovering this mystery; and the moment he looked upon her, he saw she had succeeded, as in his soul he knew she would succeed.  Then it was that his quick and anxious glance asked the question: "Which?" It was as plain to her as if he shouted it from where he stood. There was not an instant to be lost. The question was asked in a flash; it must be answered in another.

* * *

     Her right arm lay on the cushioned parapet before her. She raised her hand, and made a slight, quick movement toward the right. No one but her lover saw her. Every eye but his was fixed on the man in the arena.  He turned, and with a firm and rapid step he walked across the empty space. Every heart stopped beating, every breath was held, every eye was fixed immovably upon that man. Without the slightest hesitation, he went to the door on the right, and opened it.

     Now, the point of the story is this: Did the tiger come out of that door, or did the lady ?

* * *

     The more we reflect upon this question, the harder it is to answer. It involves a study of the human heart which leads us through devious mazes of passion, out of which it is difficult to find our way. Think of it, fair reader, not as if the decision of the question depended upon yourself, but upon that hot-blooded, semi-barbaric princess, her soul at a white heat beneath the combined fires of despair and jealousy. She had lost him, but who should have him?

* * *

     How often, in her waking hours and in her dreams, had she started in wild horror, and covered her face with her hands as she thought of her lover opening the door on the other side of which waited the cruel fangs of the tiger!
     But how much oftener had she seen him at the other door! How in her grievous reveries had she gnashed her teeth, and torn her hair, when she saw his start of rapturous delight as he opened the door of the lady! How her soul had burned in agony when she had seen him rush to meet that woman, with her flushing cheek and sparkling eye of triumph; when she had seen him lead her forth, his whole frame kindled with the joy of recovered life; when she had heard the glad shouts from the multitude, and the wild ringing of the happy bells; when she had seen the priest, with his joyous followers, advance to the couple, and make them man and wife before her very eyes; and when she had seen them walk away together upon their path of flowers, followed by the tremendous shouts of the hilarious multitude, in which her one despairing shriek was lost and drowned!

* * *

     Would it not be better for him to die at once, and go to wait for her in the blessed regions of semi-barbaric futurity?  And yet, that awful tiger, those shrieks, that blood!  Her decision had been indicated in an instant, but it had been made after days and nights of anguished deliberation. She had known she would be asked, she had decided what she would answer, and, without the slightest hesitation, she had moved her hand to the right.

     The question of her decision is one not to be lightly considered, and it is not for me to presume to set myself up as the one person able to answer it. And so I leave it with all of you: Which came out of the opened door - the lady, or the tiger**?

                                           The End

Research sources need credibility when "they" are quoted

The value of credibility is a factor when writing a research paper or using a reliable source. But more so, when quoting directly or indirectly (paraphrasing), it's more important to consider "who" said so by merit of their occupational title, place of employment and its relevance as a reliable source, and what credentials the individual brings. This is one of the inherent flaws of Wikepedia: ANYONE can write something and be a source. 

For this reason, it's an excellent idea to see "who" is being referenced--and what degree of reliability they carry for the information you've decided will back up or challenge your reason for including it in a paper. Let's look at a sample from an article on changing conditions in the salinity (salt level) of today's oceans--and notice "WHO" said so. I've placed the specific sources and their employment in highlight format:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/020401/archive_020473_2.htm

Perilous Waters

A climate surprise may be brewing in the North Atlantic

By Charles W. Petit

4/1/02

Straight west from Paris, the City of Light, is the raw, sub-Arctic town of Gander in Newfoundland, whose tourist board boasts of icebergs and caribou herds. Parisian winters run nearly 20 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than Gander's, at the same latitude. The reason is 2,500 churning, intervening miles of radiator called the Atlantic Ocean, its warmth carried to Europe by prevailing winds. But an unsettling change reported at a recent oceanography meeting could mean a shorter sidewalk cafe season on the Champs-Elysees.

Nearly the whole North Atlantic from Canada to Scandinavia and the British Isles, to depths of more than a mile, has received a vast influx of fresh water since the 1960s, perhaps from rivers, rain, or melting ice. Some experts say the influx could disrupt ocean currents vital not only to Europe's relatively mild weather, but also to world climate patterns. And while gradual global warming may be what has unleashed the burst of fresh water, its effects could come suddenly--in decades--and chill Europe while most of the world keeps warming.

Debate is already underway about whether the finding is bad news, good news, or merely fascinating. But one thing seems clear. "It is the biggest oceanographic change ever seen, anywhere, in the modern instrumental era," says the oceanographer who led the analysis, Robert Dickson, who works at a British government lab in Lowestoft, England.

The shift in salt content--well under a part per thousand--may seem at first blush an arcane item only of academic interest. The water wouldn't taste different. But researchers worry that it takes little to alter the forces that drive ocean currents.

The North Atlantic is the headwaters of an interlinked system of currents sometimes called the oceanic conveyor belt, which ferries vast quantities of heat from the tropics to the poles. In the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream and other warm currents at the surface carry a volume of 75 Amazon rivers northward. Meandering near Greenland, these currents shed heat at a rate of half a million nuclear reactors. The waters are already unusually salty, which makes them dense, and the heat loss makes them denser still--so dense that they sink and flow back south along the ocean bottom, drawing additional southerly waters north at the surface. This powerful "overturning" feeds energy into other currents that lace the Pacific, Indian, and polar oceans and help determine the locations of deserts, rainy regions, and typical storm tracks around the world. As fresh water dilutes the salt in the North Atlantic, the water becomes less dense. And if the water arriving from the south can't sink even after it cools off, it won't make room for the next batch. By putting the brakes on this circulation, "fresher water in the North Atlantic could be real trouble," says Dan Seidov of Pennsylvania State University.

Dickson and colleagues from Britain, Canada, and Germany broke the news at a mid-February ocean science conference in Honolulu, citing data from scientists who have been dropping instruments into the North Atlantic for decades. "This is the first time it's all been put together," notes Terrence Joyce of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "It is amazing and, in terms of oceanography, exciting."

Igor Yashayaev, a Canada-based researcher working with Dickson, figures the lowered salinity is equivalent to adding a layer of fresh water 12 feet deep to the North Atlantic. Experts are unsure whether it is coming from heavier rain and river runoff or melting of Arctic glaciers and sea ice. Nor do they know whether the cause is a natural climate cycle, global warming due to human activity, or some mix of the two. And they don't know exactly how much additional fresh water it would take to push the Atlantic over the edge and cause its circulation to collapse.

Still, "the density is already very close to the critical point," says Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. If the oceanic conveyor belt does shut down, impacts could come fast. "It's like a light switch, not a dimmer," says Arnold Gordon of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The world has gone through at least two dozen drastic climate shifts in the past 100,000 years, when regional temperatures dropped or soared 10 degrees or more in a matter of decades. Ominously, a shutdown or start-up of the North Atlantic circulation was a key factor in most of them. The latest, the so-called Younger Dryas 13,000 years ago, struck as the world was slowly emerging from the last ice age, and abruptly plunged Europe and parts of North America back into glacial conditions.

No one expects an oceanic shutdown to bring the ice age back to London and Paris. But there are already hints that the North Atlantic's heat pump is faltering, while most of the rest of the planet warms. "It's curious that the only place in the world where temperate glaciers are advancing is in Scandinavia," says Weaver. In another sign of trouble in the deep, some of the bottom currents carrying cold water back south seem to have weakened by 20 percent in recent years.

It's not just the North Atlantic. "There are large-scale changes going on in all the world's oceans," says Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography near San Diego. He and other scientists reported last year that nearly all the world's oceans are warming, with human-caused global warming the most likely culprit.

The change in the Atlantic, if it comes, might not be all bad. "It might be good for Europe," says Gordon. "The rest of the Earth is going to undergo significant warming, except perhaps there." But no one wants to be taken by surprise. Great Britain intends to spend $30 million over the next six years to monitor the Atlantic for any shifts in warm surface water going north and cold bottom water returning south.

Meanwhile, says Joyce, "I'm in the dark on how close to an edge or transition to a new ocean and climate regime we might be. But I know which way we are walking. We are walking toward the cliff."

The Oxford Comma: don't leave a group of words without it

And now a few syllables about the Oxford comma. I use it--and I find most people (especially Americans) don't like it--nor do they understand its purpose. The rule in general with a group of three items is to use a comma for the first item, then use the word "and" between the second and third. For example, a popular folk group in the 1960s were Peter, Paul and Mary. (In a similar way, a progressive rock band that I liked during the '70s were Emerson, Lake and Palmer.)

Enter the Oxford comma, which puts a SECOND punctuation mark after the 2nd item: "Peter, Paul, and Mary." And that's why I use it: in the first example (without the Oxford comma), if Peter was on time for the gig but Paul didn't show, did Mary also not perform? If Emerson and Lake were onstage but Palmer was still in the dressing room, did the band get full credit? Of course not.

If you look at the image I've used as an example, it is rather horrid--but you get the point. No, I won't melt down if you don't use the Oxford comma--but if you read anything I write, you'll notice it. For example, the law firm Dewey, Cheathem, and Howe. (I'm not very fond of lawyers--sorry. But that came from the "Car Talk" radio show.)

I've been used--but I'm not going to use anyone either!

Use to/Used to (with thanks to http://www.5minuteenglish.com/mar20.htm)
 
There is a little confusion on how to use the words use to and used to. One reason for the confusion is that it is sometimes used as a verb, and sometimes used as an adjective. The other reason is because it seems like the tense changes. It's really quite simple when you look at it.

Used as an adjective. Use to be + used to. This means to be accustomed to. For example- I can study with the TV on. I am used to it. It means I am accustomed, adjusted, or don't mind having the TV play while I'm studying. 

Or another example- Tim had a hard time living in Tokyo. He wasn't used to so many people. Tim didn't have experience being with big crowds of people before.

Used as a verb. Use to + verb is a regular verb and means something that happened but doesn't happen any more. It uses -ed to show past tense. But since it always means something that happened in the past, it should always use past tense. For example- I used to go to school in Paris. (I went to school there before, but now I don't.) Or, When Joshua was a child, he used to climb trees. (Now he doesn't climb trees.)
 
Remember, we always use this word when talking about the past. So when do you use use to without the d at the end? When the base form of the verb is used. Look at these examples- She didn't use to swim before noon. (Now she does swim before noon.) Or Did your father use to ride a horse? In these cases the past tense is shown with the did and didn't.

The 4 Motivating Qualities of Life & Literature tell us Personal Values

Ever figure what motivates people?  It's easy--and it works with everyone you know (including loved ones)--and it's just as valid in literature. This is another example of why reading literature makes a difference: it teaches us values and ethics about people's choices, behaviors, and cause-and-effect:

Love, Money, Power, or Fear.  

Three of them are constants in our life (Primary), and one is not important (Secondary).  The trick is to know which are yours, and see how you match each other (in relationships), or just being aware of your personal "hot buttons." (For reference: I realize now that I'm definitely about Power (or Empowerment of myself and Others. I'm about Love: helping/sharing/giving to others to express my values and support them as a Global Family. And I'm surprised--but accept--that I have certain Fear issues of Abandonment and Security because I've had so much upheaval in my life, and a lot of it was from not understanding my own thinking processes with ADD and a learning disorder that I am still working to overcome.) Money? It's a game to me: an illusion. As the CEO said in "Margin Call", it's just paper with numbers and images on it so that we don't have to kill each other to get something to eat.

They each have a positive and negative reinforcement as motivators in our lives, depending on which ones are Primaries.  Again, the rule is that three of four are Primaries:  these are the factors which motivate and inspire each of us, and the remaining one (Secondary) are not of consideration nor consequence when it comes to decision-making processes.  Our relationships that succeed or fail, whether personal or professional, can depend heavily on how well matched we are with a Significant Other who mirrors back a similar Primary.

 Love as a Positive Primary brings someone a warm feeling of appreciation for living things, human or otherwise; they are very attuned to the flow of energy that sustains all that exists.  Some of these people are healers or work with support systems that enhance or encourage people, animals, plants, or other creatures to be maintained or thrive.  Love as a Positive Primary can be very spiritual; it is a natural part of this type to be affectionate and seek out others who enjoy receiving and giving this energy.

As a Negative Primary, these people can be overcome by jealousy and possessiveness.  They may be envious of others who receive or give affection or displays of love.  Some people who use Love as a Negative Primary force do not let other people find fulfillment in romantic situations:  a parent or partner who deliberately uses control of Love is such a person.

Money as a Positive Primary can be seen through people who are resourceful, inventive, generous, and philanthropic; they are willing to share with others who are in need.  Possessions and property are not theirs exclusively; they are aware of being supportive and encouraging in motivating others to reach their goals or just keep trying and not quit.  Professor Muhammad Yunus and his efforts to provide micro-loans to women who needed financial assistance to break the cycle of poverty is one example.  This is more than just giving to charities too:  this is realizing that Manifestation is a gift that everyone can create and use.  

Something  as simple as the "pay it forward" method of giving to someone who needs assistance and then letting them extend the same opportunity to someone else in need would be such a method.  The Native American tradition of potlatch is an example:  The potlatch is a festival or ceremony  practiced among Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. At these gatherings a family or hereditary leader hosts guests in their family's house and holds a feast for their guests. The main purpose of the potlatch is the re-distribution and reciprocity of wealth.

Different events take place during a potlatch, like either singing and dances, sometimes with masks or regalia, such as Chilkat blankets, the barter of wealth through gifts, such as dried foods, sugar, flour, or other material things, and sometimes money. For many potlatches, spiritual ceremonies take place for different occasions. This is either through material wealth such as foods and goods or non-material things such as songs and dances. 

As a Negative Primary, Money can be a crippling need for wealth at the cost of others' lives:  slavery is one example.  Greed, miserliness, and the abuse of others at any price is another.  The monetary system in general (not barter) has many examples of how financial means can become an abusive method of controlling people.

Power as a Positive Primary brings out the best in creative visualization and faith in one's values if they are used to help and assist others and life in general.  This is the realm of believing in one's goals, as well as helping others to reach theirs.  It is more than physical strength; this is spiritual strength and empowerment, and the purpose of having a dream to pursue.  Some people go into various methods of Life Coaching, including sports, in order to help others fulfill their destinies.  The late college basketball coach, John Wooden of UCLA, is a great example.  Jaime Escalante, the high school math teacher who encouraged his students to break free of the poverty mentality of their East Los Angeles upbringing and go on to college, is another.  

As a Negative Primary, Power can certainly be seen as a control factor.  The use and abuse of Love, Money, and Fear to frighten and weaken others can be seen throughout the history of Mankind through the works of literature and other means of expressing and recording the stories of people and their efforts.  Domination, tyranny, and competitiveness that overwhelms others at the price of their freedom (again, slavery and conquest being two examples) finds justification in the eyes and minds of people who believe that "Might Makes Right."

Fear as a Positive Primary is often misunderstood as a weakness, but it has a proper place.  Caution, security, and deliberate, proper planning are excellent ways of being sure and confident of one's plans or position in life.  Such people are often slow to respond, but are determined and successful.  I would place investor Warren Buffet here because of the rules he follows regarding his strategies about money:  don't lose it, and don't take unnecessary risks.

As a Negative Primary, Fear is used by people who are afraid; the word "afraid" itself often appears in their language.  They can be intimidated easily and reduced to positions of self-doubt and worry.  I consider such people to "drive with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake"; they often are hesitant to take control of opportunities for themselves, and can be overwhelmed by emotional factors and insecurities.  Death as a topic and the fear of the unknown after death is another part of a Fear-based Negative Primary; it has been used for centuries as a means of controlling people's values and resources. Rejection and struggles with society can also be a Fear-factor. I realize after 65 years of life that I'm on the autism spectrum as a high-functioning adult; yet I still struggle to overcome matters when dealing with the public-at-large and in personal encounters.

I personally respond to Love and Power--and to my dismay, Fear. A lifetime of loss has left a mark on me.  I know I'm someone who has sought Love throughout my life; it's brought me many broken hearts and much growth.  I also have issues with Power; I realize that my inferiority complex as a child was the result of being too smart and unable to find a comfortable place with my family's position (they were very motivated by Power and Money).  I never related well to Money; it's a false entity to me, and one that has been used for centuries to control and manipulate people. I can be very brave, but Fear still sounds like a plucked bowstring in my soul that leaves a note I feel with anguish. Such is Life, even though I am grateful for the challenges I've faced because it's brought me Wisdom.  

"Sex, society, marketing, and psychology"

“Sex, society, and psychology is the assignment,” he proclaimed. 

Mmmph. 
That got everyone’s attention. You DID notice that first picture was a pair of feet, right?  You thought what?  

I guess now when I say, “Read the assignment," it’ll get done! Okay, today’s guest speaker is Havelock Ellis, and we’re going to use his Studies in the Psychology of Sex as our platform. We’ll peruse a short sample from a biographical essay and look for a thesis statement wrapped inside of an assertion, as well as topic sentences, transitional phrases, action or signal verbs, and a summarizing conclusion.

Yes, those were feet!
No, that's your own fault for having a vivid imagination.
And no: the man in the tub didn't have twisted legs.  
 

No, you may not go back and look!
Now pay attention!!
  

     When, as a young man in Australia, Havelock Ellis resolved to become a physician and devote himself to a lifetime study of sexual phenomena, the subject was surrounded by social taboos. Ellis became the first notable English writer to discuss sex openly and with detachment. Starting with Ellis and Sigmund Freud, late in the 19^th century, human physiology began to be seriously investigated and sex to be studied not as if it were a disgraceful function, but as something normally common to the human race. That everything related to sex could be freely discussed in the mid-20^th century is owing largely to the work of these two trail-blazing scientists.
===================
(Got that? You either say Yes right now and get a chance to help keep the human race going, or just say No and stop here. Literally.)
--------------------------------------
(Ok. Continue)
  

     While Ellis undertook a certain amount of original investigation for Studies in the Psychology of Sex, his writings are based chiefly upon already published work scattered through hundreds of learned journals and innumerable books, many of them exceedingly obscure. To the study of sex, Ellis proposed to apply the same objective research methods followed by other scholars in anthropology, politics, and the social sciences. His seven-volume work was directed primarily at the education of normal people--the general public--to persuade them that a rational attitude toward sex is essential to human happiness. Only incidentally was Ellis concerned with the problems of medical practitioners and with sexual abnormalities.
   
(Key points here:)

Summing up Ellis's achievements, the American psychiatrist Karl Menninger concludes: Substantially, he did three things. In the first place, he made a careful, thorough, and honest collection of data relating to a phase of biology which the hypocrisy and prudery of medical science had, until Ellis, caused to be ignored for the most part. In the second place, he evolved and advocated a hedonistic philosophy of life tempered if not determined by the sane, scientific attitude toward sex which his studies engendered. 

In the third place, he presented his scientific findings and philosophical beliefs to the world with that artistic combination of directness and delicacy which made them acceptable to non-scientific readers.  

    H. L. Mencken described Ellis as "undoubtedly the most civilized Englishman of his generation," a judgment that has won wide concurrence. Ellis has been more responsible than any other man for lifting the Puritan taboo upon sex, for bringing the subject into the clear light of science, and for preparing public opinion for objective research in the field of sex and marriage. He paved the way for the reception of Freud and Jung in psychological theory, for such literary figures as Joyce and Proust, and for such further investigation in his own chosen field as those of Alfred Kinsey.
   

Okay.
What is the heart (and thesis) of this paper? Why does the subject being "pitched" have an impact, or WHY was this person's life significant?

Havelock’s importance as a leading pioneer in the study of human sexuality and its impact on our social values.  His contributions regarding the dynamics of humanity’s primal drive to perpetuate are profound for their ground-breaking avenues of thought and research methods. His impact on the intellectual-philosophical dimensions of sexual research (breaking away from narrow-minded restrictive attitudes and values) broke open a logjam of ideas about human behavior (women are humans and not second-class creatures), and also likely influenced the Suffragette movement in America. 

(Easy answer: he made us learn about our bodies and how we function as a species.) Why does he (it) matter? Oh, THAT 3-letter word. It also has a sense of power unto itself, yes? Mighty important part of our lives; we devote a considerable amount of our economy on sex, yes?
Marketing, advertising, and movies? Clothes? Music? Automobiles? Vacations and travel? Medicine, including pediatrics and the process of being born right and unto death? Our housing boom trends and real estate? Toys, games, and entertainment?   
 

I’ll stop there.
You’d better know the rest of the details or else you’re gonna be extinct. And college won't matter.