how to write play in an essay

How to Write Play Titles in a Paper

1. determine the length of the play, 2. use quotation marks, 3. italicize the title.

It is common in literature classes to write papers about plays, such as the works of famous playwrights like Shakespeare, Ibsen and Sophocles, to name just a few. When writing about plays, as well as all works of literature, it is important to know the guidelines of how to properly write the titles when referring to them in your paper and listing them in the works cited page. Knowing how to write a play is one thing, but knowing how to mention plays in a paper is another. Since papers about literature are typically written in MLA format, ​ you should know the MLA rules ​ for writing play titles.

​ Determine the length of the play. ​ The rules for titles of literature depend on the length of the work, and a plays can vary greatly in length. A play that consists of only one act is considered a short play, while a play that has more than one act is considered a long play.

​ Place the titles of one-act plays in quotation marks. ​ MLA calls for titles of short works, such as articles and short poems, to be put in quotation marks. One-act plays fall in this category.

​ Italicize the title of longer plays. ​ MLA calls for the title of longer works, such as books and films, to be italicized. Plays longer than one act are considered long works and should be italicized.

Don't underline the title of longer plays. Underlining used to be an acceptable form of writing titles for longer works, but MLA recently changed this and now allows on italicizing.

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David Boyles is a graduate student, teacher and professional writer. He has been teaching writing since 2005, while his own work has been featured in various publications and websites, including "Vegas Seven," "ArtsVegas," "AZ on the Scene Magazine" and the "Las Vegas Review of Books." Boyles holds a master's degree in English literature.

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How to Quote and Cite a Play in an Essay Using MLA Format

Last Updated: October 12, 2023

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. This article has been viewed 395,504 times.

MLA (Modern Language Association) format is a popular citation style for papers and essays. You may be unsure how to quote and cite play using MLA format in your essay for a class. Start by following the correct formatting for a quote from one speaker or from multiple speakers in the play. Then, use the correct citation style for a prose play or a verse play.

Template and Examples

Quoting Dialogue from One Speaker

• For example, if you were quoting a character from the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, you would write, In Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , the character Honey says...

• For example, if you are quoting the character George from the play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, you would write, “George says,…” or “George states,…”.

• For example, if you are quoting from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , you would write: Martha notes, "Truth or illusion, George; you don’t know the difference."

• For example, if you were quoting from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure , you would write: Claudio states “the miserable have no other medicine / But only hope.”

Quoting Dialogue from Multiple Speakers

• You do not need to use quotation marks when you are quoting dialogue by multiple speakers from a play. The blank space will act as a marker, rather than quotation marks.

• MARTHA. Truth or illusion, George; you don’t know the difference.
• GEORGE. No, but we must carry on as though we did.
• MARTHA. Amen.

• Verse dialogue is indented 1 ¼ inch (3.17cm) from the left margin.

• RUTH. Eat your eggs, Walter.
• WALTER. (Slams the table and jumps up) --DAMN MY EGGS--DAMN ALL THE EGGS THAT EVER WAS!
• RUTH. Then go to work.
• WALTER. (Looking up at her) See--I’m trying to talk to you ‘bout myself--(Shaking his head with the repetition)--and all you can say is eat them eggs and go to work.

Citing a Quote from a Prose Play

• If you are quoting dialogue from one speaker, place the citation at the end of the quoted dialogue, in the text.
• If you are quoting dialogue from multiple speakers, place the citation at the end of the block quote.

• For example, you may write: “(Albee…)” or “(Hansberry…)”

• For example, you may write, “(Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ...).”
• If you have mentioned the title of the play once already in an earlier citation in your essay, you do not need to mention it again in the citations for the play moving forward.

• For example, you may write, “(Albee 10; act 1).
• If you are including the title of the play, you may write: “(Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 10; act 1).”

Citing a Quote from a Verse Play

• For example, if the quote appears in act 4, scene 4 of the play, you will write, “(4.4…)”.

• For example, if the quote appears on lines 33 to 35, you will write, “(33-35).”
• The completed citation would look like: “(4.4.33-35)”.

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About This Article

To quote and cite a play in your essay using MLA format, start by referencing the author and title of the play in the main body of your essay. Then, name the speaker of the quote so it’s clear who’s talking. For example, write, “In Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the character Honey says…” After introducing the quote, frame the dialogue with quotation marks to make it clear that it’s a direct quote from a text. If your dialogue is written in verse, use forward slashes to indicate each line break. For more tips from our English co-author, including how to quote dialogue between multiple speakers in your essay, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Review a Play

Preparing to write a play review.

Below are some tips to help you prepare to write a play review:

The Nature of the Assignment

Because the performance of any play is such an ephemeral experience, writing a play review can be an exciting, though difficult, task. You have to be both spectator taking in and enjoying the performance and critical analyst of the production itself. You have to be able to provide a very brief summary of the play, a close objective analysis of the performance you attend, and an interpretation and evaluation of the entire ensemble of staging, acting, directing, and so on.

The review assignment asks you to analyze in an objective manner the relative success or failure of a given production. Note that you are not asked simply to summarize the plot or give an opinion regarding the text of the play being mounted; your review must be grounded in the production itself. Your job is to describe the production accurately, and then to render a value judgment of it based upon what you have seen and what you expected. The assignment will test your skill as a reader of the play and as an observer and critic of the production.

In addition to grounding your review on the production you witness, you must be careful to limit your review to a few essential observations in support of your thesis (which will be discussed below). You must concentrate on a few important ideas and aspects of the production and focus your attention on only what you consider the most significant parts of the production itself. Unlike a newspaper review, which can be loosely structured and superficial, your assignment is quite definite. You are not asked to cover a wide variety of production elements (i.e. performance of every actor, every costume change, every set change, every directorial decision, and so on); instead, the assignment demands that you develop a few key ideas in thoughtful detail.

Remember, too, that your stance is to be objective and critical, not impressionistic and merely nasty. A critic is not someone who simply “criticizes,” but a person who studies, analyzes, and then renders a rational judgment of what he/she has seen. Your tone will be very important in making your review reliable and intelligent.

Before You Attend the Production

Read the play before going to the production. (It is important to be prepared for the production you plan to attend; otherwise, you run the risk of having to see it several times.)

• In your mind, have a good sense of how a “standard” production might look, complete with a sense of what the characters might look like, the type of costuming that might be used, a suitable set design, and an appropriate rendering of the theme and tone of the work.
• Pick out, as you read, several critical or problematic points within the play that may be of particular interest to watch for in the production you are about to attend. If your instructor has asked you to pay particular attention to certain elements, make sure that you are prepared to recognize them in performance.

Attending the Production

Attend the play with an open mind, a willingness to accept the play as the director has presented it in production.

• Note any deviations from your concept of a “standard” production and try to find a good explanation for that deviation. (Is the director trying to “say” something new or different? Was your sense of the play somehow inaccurate, or were you shown new insights by the director’s production?)
• Why the choice of costumes, and why the set design?
• How did the actors deliver their lines (seriously, comically, realistically, formally)? Were there any significant actions or gestures that contributed to the play’s meaning?
• Were any “special effects” utilized (consider lighting, sound, audience participation, machinery)?
• Were any significant cuts made in the script?

After the performance, jot down the details you recall and talk about the performance with friends. You’ll need these details for your paper in order to substantiate your argument.

Evaluate the performance.

• Did the director miss any important opportunities to convey something you were able to see in your reading of the play?
• Would you have liked to have seen more attention paid to what you perceived as critical passages, passages the director seemed less interested in?
• Why would you have preferred this attention, and why do you think the director avoided giving the passage such attention?

Consider the following practical aspects:

• What kind of stage does the director have at his disposal? What kinds of restrictions does the stage impose on the director concerning movement and set design?
• Are the actors professionals, amateurs, or students? What restrictions does this impose on the director? Are the actors capable of dealing with the script’s requirements? (Be fair to the actors in your assessment of their talents and the level of their “craftsmanship.”)

Writing the Review

Below are some tips for writing play reviews:

Writing the Introduction

The introduction should include the following:

• The title of the play, the name of the playwright, and any pertinent historical information regarding them (other similar works from this period? by this writer?).
• The name of the director, the place and date of the production you attended, and the name of the production company (again, do you know of any previous work by this company? this director?).
• (Note that even if the production did not exactly coincide with your own conception of the play, you should not feel obliged to condemn the performance outright. Be open-minded and willing to weigh pros and cons.)
• (Note that this thesis asserts that Papp captured the essence of what is in the text itself — the expectations set up by the thesis are that the reviewer will then analyze the methods by which the director achieved this effect.)
• (This thesis suggests that “sympathy” was the director’s intention. Note also that the reviewer gives a strong indication of what he/she expected to find in the production.)
• Example: In You Can’t Take It With You, the acting by the family members on the open, exposed stage displayed an innocent and vigorous freedom, as well as a proud independence in their confrontation with accepted norms of behavior.

Writing the Statement and Summary

Include a brief thematic summary (but not a plot summary) of the play, and support that summary with concrete evidence from the text.

You can include this summary in the introduction; or, if you wish to expand the summary, include it in a separate paragraph following the introduction.

Writing the Body of the Paper: The Review

Remember that in the body of the paper you are obliged to deal specifically with each element of the production that you mentioned in the introduction and thesis.

In order to give your review a tight internal logic and cohesiveness, you should also discuss these elements in the order that you outlined in the introduction. Such points of discussion might include the non-technical (acting, directing) and/or the technical (lighting, scenery, costumes) aspects of the production.

For each element that you discuss:

• (Note the vivid description of what was seen, and the use of detail to convey that vividness. The passage will work nicely as evidence for an overall, positive evaluation of the production.)
• Interpret, Analyze, Evaluate : This part of the paper requires the most thought and organization and consequently receives the most attention from your reader. After you have finished describing important elements of the production, proceed to evaluate them.

For example, you would need to answer the following questions regarding the last description of Lear :

• Why were the lights dimmed at the beginning of the scene? (shock effect? slow unfolding of horror?)
• Why was the backdrop painted black? (contrast? mood?)
• Why was there no order to the skulls? Why seven? (emblem of disorder or chaos? significance in number?)

In other words, assume that everything used in production has significance, but don’t panic if you cannot find “answers” for all the questions raised by what you see in the production.

In the evaluation, you are given the opportunity to attack as well as commend the performance; if the production fails to answer questions that you feel need answers, then say so. If the question or problems are relatively minor, ignore them. Don’t quibble at the expense of missing the more important concerns.

Writing the Summary and Conclusion

Your conclusion should not merely recapitulate your thesis in a mechanical way.

Rather, you should try to show why your response to the play is valid and significant, based on what you have described in the body of the paper.

Do not add any significant new material, but don’t be afraid to leave your reader with something to think about.

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Writing with ai, quoting plays and poetry in mla.

• © 2023 by Angela Eward-Mangione - Hillsborough Community College

Table of Contents

The rules for quoting drama and/or poetry in Modern Language Association (MLA) Style differ from those for quoting the genre of prose. This article discusses rules for using MLA style to format quotes from drama and poetry. Consult the MLA Handbook to learn more.

Quoting Poetry

The MLA Handbook offers specific guidelines for quoting poetry.

In addition to the amount quoted and line breaks, other factors that matter include stanza breaks, and unusual layouts.

Special Issues: Stanza Breaks, Unusual Layouts

Stanza Breaks: Mark stanza breaks that occur in a quotation with two forward slashes, with a space before and after them ( / / ) (78).

William Carlos Williams depicts a vivid image in “The Red Wheelbarrow”: “so much depends / / upon / / a red wheel / / barrow / / glazed with rain / / water / / beside the white / / chickens” (“Williams”).

Unusual Layouts: If the layout of the lines in the original text is unusual, reproduce it as accurately as you can (79).

The English metaphysical John Donne uses indentation in some of his poems to create unusual layouts, as the first stanza of including “A Valediction: of Weeping” demonstrates:

Let me pour forth My tears before they face, whilst I stay here, For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear, And by this mintage they are something worth, For thus they be Pregnant of thee; Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more, When a tear falls, that thou falls which it bore, So thou and I are nothing then, when on a divers shore. (lines 1-9)

Quoting Plays

When you must quote dialogue from a play, adhere to these rules:

• Set the quotation off from your text.
• Indent each name half an inch from the left margin and write it in all capital letters.
• Follow the name with a period and then start the quotation.
• Indent all other lines in the character’s speech an additional amount.
• When the dialogue shifts to another character, start a new line indented half an inch.
• Maintain this pattern throughout the quotation (80).

Example: One of the flashbacks in Margaret Edson’s Wit suggests Vivian Bearing’s illness causes her to question some of her previous interactions with students:

STUDENT 1. Professor Bearing? Can I talk to you for a minute?

VIVIAN: You may.

STUDENT 1: I need to ask for an extension on my paper. I’m really sorry, and I know your policy, but see—

VIVIAN: Don’t tell me. Your grandmother died.

STUDENT 1: You knew.

VIVIAN: It was a guess.

STUDENT 1: I have to go home.

VIVIAN: Do what you will, but the paper is due when it is due. (63)

Special Issues

Omissions: Follow the rules for omissions in quotations of prose (83).

Although some of the rules for quoting plays and poetry in MLA differ than those for quoting prose, understanding the guidelines will help you apply them in any scenario.

Donne, John. “The Bait.” The Complete English Poems . Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 43-4.

—. “The Break of Day.” The Complete English Poems . Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 45-6. Edson, Margaret. Wit. Faber and Faber, 1993.

Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 39. The Pelican Shakespeare: The Sonnets . Penguin Books, 1970, p. 59.

Williams, William Carlos: “The Red Wheelbarrow.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/45502 .

Yeats, William. “A Prayer for My Daughter.” The Collected Poems . Ed. Richard Finneran. Scribner, 1983, pp. 188-190.

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Brevity - Say More with Less

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• Citing a Play

When you refer to lines from a play in-text, you need to cite these lines according to MLA. There are several ways to do in-text citations for plays. Depending on what information you have about your play will determine how you do your citations.

• Citing a Play (MLA Works Cited)
• In-Text Citations for Plays
• Help Resources

Citing a Play from Textbook

Format:  Author.  Title of Play in Italics .  Title of Textbook,  edited by Editor Name, edition, vol. #, Publisher, Year, Page Numbers.

Example:  Hansberry, Lorraine.  A Raisin in the Sun. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature , edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Valerie Smith, 3rd ed. vol. 2, W.W. Norton and Company, 2014, pp. 470-532.

Citing a Play in a Book 

*Note:  this citation should be used if you find your play in a book where the play is the entire book

Format:  Author.  Title of Play in Italics.  Edition, Publisher, Year. Database Name in Italics (if electronic), URL.

Example:  Sophocles.  Antigone.  Translated by David Mulroy,   University of Wisconsin Press, 2013.  ProQuest Ebook Central,  ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sccsc/detail.action?docID=3445283.

How you cite in-text depends on whether you are using line numbers or page numbers. 

Using Line Numbers

Example:  (Hansberry, 4.5. lines 171-9)

*Note:  If the text of your play includes line numbers on the side of the page, then replace the page number with the act, scene, and line numbers.

*Notes:  Once you establish you are using line numbers for your in-text citations, you no longer need to use the word "line" in your parenthetical citation.

*Note:  If you have used the author's name or the play's title in the signal phrase before introducing a quote, you do not need to include it in your in-text citation.

Using Page Numbers

Example : (Wilson 200)

*Note:  If lines in your play are not numbered, you can use the page number in your citation.

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How to Quote and Cite a Play in an Essay Using MLA Format

MLA style provides guidelines for citing both small and large passages of plays in the body of your text. In addition, MLA requires you to note any plays you reference on a separate works cited list. How you include quotes from a play in your text will depend on how whether you're quoting a single character or dialogue between multiple characters.

Quoting a Play in Your Essay

Whenever you quote a play in your essay, MLA style requires you to include an in-text citation showing where the quote came from. For a play, this will include the abbreviated title of the play, and the section of the play in which the quote is found.

If you are quoting a single character's dialogue, or stage directions, in your paper, you can simply include the quote within quotation marks as part of your sentence.

If quoting a verse play, lines are separated by a slash /. Take the following from Shakepeare's "Measure for Measure":

In asking for his pardon, Claudio states "the miserable have no other medicine/But only hope" ( Measure , 3.1.2-3).

In the in-text citation, " Measure " show's the play's title, "3" is the act number, "1" the scene number, and "2-3" the lines on which the quote appears. Note that each item in the play's division is separated by periods. '},{'content':'If you're quoting a play that does not have scenes or lines, include the act, and note it as such, so it is not confused with a page number.

For example, Caryl Churchill's "Cloud 9" has no scenes, so you might cite it as follows:

Betty's anxiety is shown by her worry toward Tommy. "He's going to fall in. Make Martin make him move back" ( Cloud , act 2).

Quoting Dialogue From Multiple Characters

One of the features of plays is that multiple characters speak to each other in dramatic form. If you quote two characters speaking to each other this way in your paper, it is formatted as a block quote. Include a blank line between the body of your paper and the first line of your quote.

When dialogue switches characters, include a blank line between each character's lines. Each line in the block quote must be indented 1 inch from your the rest of your paper's text, and if a character's speech runs more than one line, each additional line is indented an additional 1/4-inch. The names of characters are written in full caps -- don't forget to include an in-text citation after the quote.

This quote is from Aristophanes's "The Birds":

PISTHETAIROS: I never saw so many birds! They make me nervous.

EUELPIDES: You said it. When they lift their wings you can't see where you're going. ("Birds", párodos)

Greek plays are divided into named subsections, such as episodes and strophes -- the name of each subsection should be included when citing a Greek play. In this case "párodos" is the choral section including the quote.

Including a Play on Your Works Cited List

In MLA style, an additional page is added after the last page of your paper to include all items that were cited in your essay.

When you quote or reference a play in your writing, you place a reference on this page to give the information of the book or anthology in which you found the play. Your reference will include the name of the author, the play title, the publication information, and the format in which it was found. MLA arranges this information in the following order:

Author Lastname, Firstname. Title of Play . Publication Location: Publisher, Year of Publication. Format.

For example:

Churchill, Caryl. Cloud 9 . New York: Theater Communications Group, 1985. Print.

If you are referencing a play that has been translated and/or edited, include the translator's and/or editor's name after the title of the play:

Pirandello, Luigi. Six Characters in Search of an Author . Trans. Edward Storer. Ed. Adam Frost. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998. Print.

Plays in Anthologies

Plays will often be included in a multivolume work or anthology. If you are citing a specific play that is included in an anthology, the anthology name should be included in italics after the play title.

In addition, the pages the play appears on within the anthology should be included after the year of publication. Here's an example of an anthology citation:

Aristophanes. The Frogs . Four Comedies . Trans. and Ed. Dudley Fitts. New York: Harcourt, 1962. 69-156. Print.

Note that if the translator and editor are the same person, you list "Trans." first.

Plays Found Online

To include a play found online your reference list, you will replace the publisher information with the name and date of the Web page on which you found the play. Also note the source format as "Web." You do not need a URL to cite a Web source in MLA, but you need to indicate the date you last accessed the Web page. Format your citation as follows:

Author Lastname, Firstname. Title of Play . Name of Web page . Name of website, last date Web page was updated. Web. Date you accessed Web page.

Here is an example:

Shakespeare, William. Measure for Measure . The Complete Works of William Shakespeare . Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d. Web. 16 March 2015.

Note that "n.d." means "no date." You can use this in place of the update date for a webpage, or publication date for a book, if no date is available.

Need help with a citation? Try our citation generator .

• Pellissippi State Community College Library: MLA Style Guide - Drama
• Purdue University Online Writing Lab: MLA Works Cited -- Electronic Sources

Jon Zamboni began writing professionally in 2010. He has previously written for The Spiritual Herald, an urban health care and religious issues newspaper based in New York City, and online music magazine eBurban. Zamboni has a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Wesleyan University.

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources / How to Cite a Play in APA, MLA, or Chicago

How to Cite a Play in APA, MLA, or Chicago

You can cite a play as either a live performance or script.

Citing a Live Performance

EasyBib has a form to cite a performance that has been viewed live. For instructions on how to cite a live performance, visit this guide on citing Hamilton  the musical in MLA, APA, and Chicago .

Citing a Play Script

If you are citing a play found as an entire source, cite it as a book (and use our book citation form ).

MLA Format (9 th edition)

STRUCTURES:

(Playwright last name page#)

Works Cited:

Playwright last name, First name. Play Title. Publisher, edition (if applicable), publication year.

Hwang, David Henry. M Butterfly . Plume, 1989.

APA 7 Format

If you’re merely paraphrasing or discussing a play in general terms, you’re not required to use a page number or other locator. But if you directly quote a play script, you must include a location for the relevant passage. For plays, this often means including a page number(s).

However, some plays use books, chapters, verses, lines, or cantos to distinguish specific parts of a play. The examples below include citations for both a modern play script with a page number and a play by Shakespeare with an act, scene, and line number.

(Since Shakespeare’s works appear in republications, there are two years in the source citations: the original publication year/the republication year).

(Playwright last name, year, p. page#)

           (Playwright last name, year, Act#.Scene#.Line#)

References:

Playwright last name, First initials. (Year published). Play Title . Publisher.

           Playwright last name, First initial. (Year of republished play). Classic Play Title. (First initials. Last Name, Ed.). Publisher. (Original work published Year)

(Hwang, 1989, p. 22)

Hwang, D. H. (1989).  M butterfly . Plume.

          (Shakespeare, 1603/2008, 1.4.5)

Shakespeare, W. (2008). Hamlet (S. Greenblatt, Ed.). W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. (Original work published 1603)

Chicago Format

Author-Date Format In-text:

(Playwright Last Name Publication Year, page#)

         (Playwright Last Name Publication Year, Act#.Scene#.Line#)

Author-Date Format Reference:

Playwright Last Name, First Name. Publication Year. Play Title. City: Publisher.

Playwright last name, First Name. Publication Year. Classic Play Title , edited by First Name Last Name. City: Publisher.

Note Format:

• Playwright First Name Last Name, Play Title (City: Publisher, Year), page #.
• Classic Play Title , ed. Editor First Name Last Name. (City: Publisher, Year), Act#.Scene#.Line#. References are to act, scene, and line.

Bibliography Format:

Playwright Last Name, First name. Play Title . City: Publisher, Year.

          Classic Play Title . Edited by First Name Last Name. Edition Details. City: Publisher, Year.

Author-Date:

(Hwang 1989, 22)

           (Shakespeare 1603, 1.4.5)

Hwang, David Henry. 1989.  M Butterfly . New York: Plume.

           Shakespeare, William. 2004. Hamlet,  edited by Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House.

• David Henry Hwang, M Butterfly  (New York: Plume, 1989), 22.
• Hamlet , ed. Harold Bloom. (Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2004), 1.4.5. References are to act, scene, and line.

Bibliography:

Hwang, David Henry. M Butterfly . New York: Plume, 1989.

         Hamlet . Edited by Harold Bloom. Major Literary Characters, 1st ser. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2004.

Updated July 10, 2022.

Citation Guides

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• Block Quotes
• Citation Examples
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Page Numbers
• Reference Page
• Sample Paper
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• View APA Guide
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• Works Cited
• MLA 8 Updates
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Referencing a Play in an MLA paper

I've gone through several different resources that appeared in the Google search bar when I asked this question, but the sources give different answers to this question:

When referencing a play name in an MLA-formatted essay, should I underline it, put it in quotes, or italicize it?

I have a final draft of an essay due in a few days, but I can't figure out which one I should use. Most sources point to underlining or italicizing; not quotes. However, that's still two different answers I'm receiving. If any of you know for sure what is expected in an MLA paper, your response is greatly appreciated.

Edit : The most reliable and sensible answer I found so far mentioned that back in the age of typewriters, it was underlined, but nowadays it is italicized. If any of you can confirm this notion, please feel free to do so.

2 Answers 2

Italicized:

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet . Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square-Pocket, 1992.

I just searched for examples. I found this site: http://www.mystfx.ca/resources/writingcentre/MLA_Citing%20Sources.pdf , and I used that info. I think that most scripts of plays are republished in books or collections (which are books). You can always add more info after the date, in parentheses, if you think it's useful. I would probably add "play" at the end, so I could jump to it using a find feature in a text editor. The safer bet would be to add the info at the end, but my preference would be to add it after the title. I doubt I would receive any complaints, either way.

Also, most of the names of works in the works cited section are italicized, articles and sections being the big exception. I also remember finding some works-cited example pages at .edu websites doing a keyword search for +hamlet site: .edu or something similar. I found a site that told how to cite a "live play" .

This is a quote from that site:

Hamlet . By William Shakespeare. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Perf. Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacoby, and Julia Christie. The Globe Theatre, London. 27 Dec. 1991. Performance.

• Given that the questioner has already found numerous non-authoritative sources, this doesn't seem like a very useful answer without a link to the authoritative source where you found this. –  Peter Taylor Commented Oct 11, 2011 at 6:15
• As long as you are sure of it, then it is accepted. –  Mxyk Commented Oct 11, 2011 at 12:06
• @MikeGates and PeterTaylor My bad. I'll edit. –  Wolfpack'08 Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 1:56

I agree with Wolfpack. For future reference, the general rule is that if the work comes in multiple parts, (chapters, acts, scenes... whatever) then the title is italicized. If it comes in only one part (short story, article, etc.) then it gets quotation marks. Of course, there are articles that have multiple parts, and plays that have only one scene, so it's not an absolute rule.

Maybe better to say that if the form of literature, in its most typical form, has more than one part, then italics.

Might also be better to say long gets italics, short gets quotations, but apparently somebody wanted to make the rule a little more complicated than that!

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How do I cite the script and performance of a play?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook . For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook .

The script of a play and each performance of it are different works and should be cited separately. Apply the MLA format template to the work to create your works-cited-list entry.

Published Script 

  Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.

Unpublished Script

Although the title of a published play is styled with italics, use quotation marks to indicate that a work is unpublished. You may use the optional-element slot at the end of the entry to provide supplemental information about the work:

Marino, Alex. “Ramona’s Umbrella.” 2015. Theatrical script.

Performance

To cite a performance of the same work, start with the title and then follow the template of core elements to list the other contributors (author, director, performers), the publisher (the production company), the date of the performance, and the location of the performance:

“Ramona’s Umbrella.” By Alex Marino, directed by Jeannine Overstreet, performance by Tania Milena, Tiny Plays Production Company, 15 Aug. 2017, Second Street Theater, Sacramento, CA.

If you see the play on more than one date, you’re effectively seeing different versions of the work; thus, a new entry is required:

“Ramona’s Umbrella.” By Alex Marino, directed by Jeannine Overstreet, performance by Tania Milena, Tiny Plays Production Company, 17 Aug. 2017, Second Street Theater, Sacramento, CA.

References in the Text

If you refer to both the script and the performance in your writing, be sure to distinguish them in context. For example, you could write:

In the closing scene of “Ramona’s Umbrella,” Marino has Ramona confess to her boyfriend that she’s lost the umbrella (45). In the Tiny Plays production, Tania Milena delivers these lines in an anguished whisper.

For in-text references, cite the script by the author’s last name and cite the performance by the performance name, in accordance with the works-cited-list entries.

This principle applies to other types of works that appear in written form and also are performed, like screenplays and films as well as musical compositions and performances.

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

MLA Formatting and Style Guide

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The following overview should help you better understand how to cite sources using MLA  9 th edition, including how to format the Works Cited page and in-text citations.

Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in MLA. See also our MLA vidcast series on the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel .

Creating a Works Cited list using the ninth edition

MLA is a style of documentation that may be applied to many different types of writing. Since texts have become increasingly digital, and the same document may often be found in several different sources, following a set of rigid rules no longer suffices.

Thus, the current system is based on a few guiding principles, rather than an extensive list of specific rules. While the handbook still describes how to cite sources, it is organized according to the process of documentation, rather than by the sources themselves. This gives writers a flexible method that is near-universally applicable.

Once you are familiar with the method, you can use it to document any type of source, for any type of paper, in any field.

Here is an overview of the process:

When deciding how to cite your source, start by consulting the list of core elements. These are the general pieces of information that MLA suggests including in each Works Cited entry. In your citation, the elements should be listed in the following order:

• Title of source.
• Title of container,
• Other contributors,
• Publication date,

Each element should be followed by the corresponding punctuation mark shown above. Earlier editions of the handbook included the place of publication and required different punctuation (such as journal editions in parentheses and colons after issue numbers) depending on the type of source. In the current version, punctuation is simpler (only commas and periods separate the elements), and information about the source is kept to the basics.

Begin the entry with the author’s last name, followed by a comma and the rest of the name, as presented in the work. End this element with a period.

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. Routledge, 1994.

Title of source

The title of the source should follow the author’s name. Depending upon the type of source, it should be listed in italics or quotation marks.

A book should be in italics:

Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House . MacMurray, 1999.

An individual webpage should be in quotation marks. The name of the parent website, which MLA treats as a "container," should follow in italics:

Lundman, Susan. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow, www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html.*

A periodical (journal, magazine, newspaper) article should be in quotation marks:

Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature , vol. 15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 41-50.

A song or piece of music on an album should be in quotation marks. The name of the album should then follow in italics:

Beyoncé. "Pray You Catch Me." Lemonade, Parkwood Entertainment, 2016, www.beyonce.com/album/lemonade-visual-album/.

*The MLA handbook recommends including URLs when citing online sources. For more information, see the “Optional Elements” section below.

Title of container

The eighth edition of the MLA handbook introduced what are referred to as "containers," which are the larger wholes in which the source is located. For example, if you want to cite a poem that is listed in a collection of poems, the individual poem is the source, while the larger collection is the container. The title of the container is usually italicized and followed by a comma, since the information that follows next describes the container.

Kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl." The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by Tobias Wolff, Vintage, 1994, pp. 306-07.

The container may also be a television series, which is made up of episodes.

“94 Meetings.” Parks and Recreation, created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, performance by Amy Poehler, season 2, episode 21, Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, 2010.

The container may also be a website, which contains articles, postings, and other works.

Wise, DeWanda. “Why TV Shows Make Me Feel Less Alone.”  NAMI,  31 May 2019,  www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/May-2019/How-TV-Shows-Make-Me-Feel-Less-Alone . Accessed 3 June 2019.

In some cases, a container might be within a larger container. You might have read a book of short stories on Google Books , or watched a television series on Netflix . You might have found the electronic version of a journal on JSTOR. It is important to cite these containers within containers so that your readers can find the exact source that you used.

“94 Meetings.” Parks and Recreation , season 2, episode 21, NBC , 29 Apr. 2010. Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/70152031?trackId=200256157&tctx=0%2C20%2C0974d361-27cd-44de-9c2a-2d9d868b9f64-12120962.

Langhamer, Claire. “Love and Courtship in Mid-Twentieth-Century England.” Historical Journal , vol. 50, no. 1, 2007, pp. 173-96. ProQuest, doi:10.1017/S0018246X06005966. Accessed 27 May 2009.

Other contributors

In addition to the author, there may be other contributors to the source who should be credited, such as editors, illustrators, translators, etc. If their contributions are relevant to your research, or necessary to identify the source, include their names in your documentation.

Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Translated by Richard Howard , Vintage-Random House, 1988.

Woolf, Virginia. Jacob’s Room . Annotated and with an introduction by Vara Neverow, Harcourt, Inc., 2008.

If a source is listed as an edition or version of a work, include it in your citation.

The Bible . Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. 3rd ed., Pearson, 2004.

If a source is part of a numbered sequence, such as a multi-volume book or journal with both volume and issue numbers, those numbers must be listed in your citation.

Dolby, Nadine. “Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Future Directions.” Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, 2008, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/60/362. Accessed 20 May 2009.

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. Translated by H. E. Butler, vol. 2, Loeb-Harvard UP, 1980.

The publisher produces or distributes the source to the public. If there is more than one publisher, and they are all are relevant to your research, list them in your citation, separated by a forward slash (/).

Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine. 1922. Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Artchive, www.artchive.com/artchive/K/klee/twittering_machine.jpg.html. Accessed May 2006.

Women's Health: Problems of the Digestive System . American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2006.

Daniels, Greg and Michael Schur, creators. Parks and Recreation . Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, 2015.

Note : The publisher’s name need not be included in the following sources: periodicals, works published by their author or editor, websites whose titles are the same name as their publisher, websites that make works available but do not actually publish them (such as  YouTube ,  WordPress , or  JSTOR ).

Publication date

The same source may have been published on more than one date, such as an online version of an original source. For example, a television series might have aired on a broadcast network on one date, but released on  Netflix  on a different date. When the source has more than one date, it is sufficient to use the date that is most relevant to your writing. If you’re unsure about which date to use, go with the date of the source’s original publication.

In the following example, Mutant Enemy is the primary production company, and “Hush” was released in 1999. Below is a general citation for this television episode:

“Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer , created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 4, Mutant Enemy, 1999 .

However, if you are discussing, for example, the historical context in which the episode originally aired, you should cite the full date. Because you are specifying the date of airing, you would then use WB Television Network (rather than Mutant Enemy), because it was the network (rather than the production company) that aired the episode on the date you’re citing.

“Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 4, episode 10, WB Television Network, 14 Dec. 1999 .

You should be as specific as possible in identifying a work’s location.

An essay in a book or an article in a journal should include page numbers.

Adiche, Chimamanda Ngozi. “On Monday of Last Week.” The Thing around Your Neck, Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, pp. 74-94 .

The location of an online work should include a URL.  Remove any "http://" or "https://" tag from the beginning of the URL.

Wheelis, Mark. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases , vol. 6, no. 6, 2000, pp. 595-600, wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/6/00-0607_article. Accessed 8 Feb. 2009.

When citing a physical object that you experienced firsthand, identify the place of location.

Matisse, Henri. The Swimming Pool. 1952, Museum of Modern Art, New York .

Optional elements

The ninth edition is designed to be as streamlined as possible. The author should include any information that helps readers easily identify the source, without including unnecessary information that may be distracting. The following is a list of optional elements that can be included in a documented source at the writer’s discretion.

Date of original publication:

If a source has been published on more than one date, the writer may want to include both dates if it will provide the reader with necessary or helpful information.

Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. 1984. Perennial-Harper, 1993.

City of publication:

The seventh edition handbook required the city in which a publisher is located, but the eighth edition states that this is only necessary in particular instances, such as in a work published before 1900. Since pre-1900 works were usually associated with the city in which they were published, your documentation may substitute the city name for the publisher’s name.

Thoreau, Henry David. Excursions . Boston, 1863.

Date of access:

When you cite an online source, the MLA Handbook recommends including a date of access on which you accessed the material, since an online work may change or move at any time.

Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 16 Aug. 2002, alistapart.com/article/writeliving. Accessed 4 May 2009.

As mentioned above, while the MLA handbook recommends including URLs when you cite online sources, you should always check with your instructor or editor and include URLs at their discretion.

A DOI, or digital object identifier, is a series of digits and letters that leads to the location of an online source. Articles in journals are often assigned DOIs to ensure that the source is locatable, even if the URL changes. If your source is listed with a DOI, use that instead of a URL.

Alonso, Alvaro, and Julio A. Camargo. "Toxicity of Nitrite to Three Species of Freshwater Invertebrates." Environmental Toxicology , vol. 21, no. 1, 3 Feb. 2006, pp. 90-94. Wiley Online Library, doi: 10.1002/tox.20155.

Creating in-text citations using the previous (eighth) edition

Although the MLA handbook is currently in its ninth edition, some information about citing in the text using the older (eighth) edition is being retained. The in-text citation is a brief reference within your text that indicates the source you consulted. It should properly attribute any ideas, paraphrases, or direct quotations to your source, and should direct readers to the entry in the Works Cited list. For the most part, an in-text citation is the  author’s name and the page number (or just the page number, if the author is named in the sentence) in parentheses :

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

Again, your goal is to attribute your source and provide a reference without interrupting your text. Your readers should be able to follow the flow of your argument without becoming distracted by extra information.

How to Cite the Purdue OWL in MLA

Entire Website

The Purdue OWL . Purdue U Writing Lab, 2019.

Individual Resources

Contributors' names. "Title of Resource." The Purdue OWL , Purdue U Writing Lab, Last edited date.

The new OWL no longer lists most pages' authors or publication dates. Thus, in most cases, citations will begin with the title of the resource, rather than the developer's name.

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL, Purdue U Writing Lab. Accessed 18 Jun. 2018.

Artificial Intelligence

Building mental muscles in the age of ai, the importance of writing to understand..

Posted October 12, 2024 | Reviewed by Margaret Foley

• The advent of AI has introduced tempting shortcuts along the at times strenuous road to knowledge.
• Writing authentically resonates with moral undertones in this era of bot-generated falsehood.
• Writers build mental muscle as they write to understand.

In a recent post, “The Prose and Cons of AI Writing,” I told the story of acceding to a friend’s mischievous experiment. He asked one of the robot writing tools to compose an essay, in my style, about the naughty adult game Cards Against Humanity, keeping my preoccupation with play in mind. (An editor once told me, not entirely uncritically, that I “didn’t so much write sentences as I punch and pound at them.” So maybe I do have a “style.”)

Would the machine simulate believably and persuasively? Could it be witty and direct? Would the device find insights I’d missed? Could it craft an aphorism? “John Henry Steel Drivin’ Man,” the Luddite ballad about the legendary folk hero, rang in my ears as I accepted the robot challenge. I wanted to know: Should I shelve the keyboard and leave writing about play to the machine? Should I lay my hammer down?

To cut a short story shorter, to my ear the AI writing proved pretentious, ponderous, and pompous, and it missed profundity by a mile. I felt not so much parodied as conned. The approximation gave us a good laugh.

Writer vs. Machine

As it happens, this wasn’t the only such vindication. Soon after, “sincere curiosity” prompted the popular novelist Curtis Sittenfeld to accept a similar trial-by-machine from an editor of the New York Times Opinion pages. Could the chatbot manufacture a “lusty, summer beach-read” in Ms. Sittenfeld’s manner? For this experiment, the two asked if readers could tell the difference between machine writing and the writer’s writing by comparing two texts, authorship left unattributed.

The contest began by supplying the machine with elements that included “lust, kissing, flip-flops, regret, and middle age.” Promising starts. No? In just 17 seconds, the robot manufactured a 1,000-word story. The writer took longer to write hers. It took me less than 17 seconds to discern real from robot .

Distinguishing Art From Artiface

The first story, Sittenfeld’s it turns out, starts grabbily: “You can probably see where this is going,” she began. Hmmm. No, we probably can’t. Nor do we know what the “this” is. We readers don’t know where or what. But we wish we did . With that first sentence’s little trick, she has us.

Compare the robot’s opening: “The flip-flop moment. Lydia had always been practical. It was her hallmark…” Discerning readers will note the initial non sequitur and the confusingly weak pronoun reference. Evasive passive voice follows. (Three big mistakes in 12 words, yikes. ) The worst part, a fourth fumble: The beginning lacks an invitation. Who cares what comes next? I mean. Why keep reading?

Writer Mops the Floor With Machine

We might stop here with a simple headline: “Writer Mops the Floor With Machine.” But there is more at stake intellectually and morally. With so much information available now and with so little room to maneuver toward originality, recourse to the machine entices fledgling writers. The technology can deliver blindingly fast prose about myriad hot term-paper topics—think cross-border sex trafficking, wars of religion, climate catastrophe, and election subversion. You name it. With this temptation and deadlines looming, drawing the border between assistance and plagiarism proves troublesome.

Professors Freak Out

Lisa Graumlich, a pioneering scientist who charted the effects of global warming and a dean emerita of Environmental Sciences at the University of Washington, wrote me with a capsule history of the way the moral and pedagogical issue of AI impacted the college classroom.

AI “freaked” administrators and professors at first, Graumlich concluded. When academic policies issued dire warnings about deception and unreliable citations, the students “yawned and rolled their eyes.” Teachers freaked some more, predictably. But not so predictably, she writes, “we went from FREAKED OUT to creatively thinking about the future.”

The university formulated a new institution-wide determination to more carefully and personally encourage and nurture how students wrestled with “canonical texts.” The point of education is to grapple with new ideas, to follow facts where they lead, and to coherently synthesize the new knowledge. If AI could help professors pursue these delicate and demanding tasks, help them avoid posing “routine compare-and-contrast questions,” and more carefully integrate lecture, class discussion, and assigned texts,” the new technology would force “faculty to interact with students at a deeper level.”

The Deeper Level

Carolyn Korsmeyer, a novelist who recently retired as chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Buffalo, follows this basic, “absolutely crucial” deeper question, addressing the “changes in how we use our own minds” that AI writing provokes. The world will be better off as AI sorts giant data sets and manages information to deliver stunning advances in fields as diverse as molecular biology and traffic control. But, Korsmeyer notes that learning is more than collecting information. She writes, “if learning includes developing and refining one’s own cognitive and expressive capacities, [AI] can’t possibly be a real learning tool.”

“The effort of crafting ideas into words is of “utmost importance,” Korsmeyer observes, because composition is a process of both recognizing meaning and content and generating meaning and content. Setting down thoughts and strengthening them gives writers a workout. Writers build mental muscle as they write to understand.

Striving to Find the Right Word

To shortcut the route toward discovery is like painting by numbers. I’ll take nothing away from the wry exercise in dexterity and care. Also, it’s useful for decorating wastebaskets. But painting by numbers can lay no claim to originality. The century-old original advertisements for paint-by-numbers sets promised “A beautiful painting the first time you try!" These hobbyists skip struggling to climb the several steps that build insight and visual understanding. They skip art. Real painters explore the relationships between form, color, shading, gesture, material, and subject much the way writers strive to find what we mean and what we think by choosing the right word.

This search is more than a pleasurable word game because discovering what we mean to say and saying it with nuance and consequence resonates with moral undertones in this era of bot-generated falsehood.

The French novelist Gustave Flaubert put it this way: Writing, he observed, is a search for “ les mots justes ,” the exact words, the right words. Or should we say pointedly now, the just words.

Tamar Chansky, PhD, “Rethinking Plagiarism: Conversation in Light of ChatGPT,” Psychology Today (June 29, 2023).

Carolyn Korsmeyer, Riddle of Spirit and Bone (2025).

Scott G. Eberle, Ph.D. , is the vice president for play studies at The Strong, editor of its American Journal of Play , and lead contributor to its re:Play Blog .

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• How to write an essay introduction | 4 steps & examples

How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on February 4, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A good introduction paragraph is an essential part of any academic essay . It sets up your argument and tells the reader what to expect.

The main goals of an introduction are to:

• Catch your reader’s attention.
• Give background on your topic.
• Present your thesis statement —the central point of your essay.

This introduction example is taken from our interactive essay example on the history of Braille.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

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Table of contents

Step 1: hook your reader, step 2: give background information, step 3: present your thesis statement, step 4: map your essay’s structure, step 5: check and revise, more examples of essay introductions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.

Your first sentence sets the tone for the whole essay, so spend some time on writing an effective hook.

Avoid long, dense sentences—start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

The hook should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of the topic you’re writing about and why it’s interesting. Avoid overly broad claims or plain statements of fact.

Examples: Writing a good hook

Take a look at these examples of weak hooks and learn how to improve them.

• Braille was an extremely important invention.
• The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

The first sentence is a dry fact; the second sentence is more interesting, making a bold claim about exactly  why the topic is important.

• The internet is defined as “a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities.”
• The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education.

Avoid using a dictionary definition as your hook, especially if it’s an obvious term that everyone knows. The improved example here is still broad, but it gives us a much clearer sense of what the essay will be about.

• Mary Shelley’s  Frankenstein is a famous book from the nineteenth century.
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement.

Instead of just stating a fact that the reader already knows, the improved hook here tells us about the mainstream interpretation of the book, implying that this essay will offer a different interpretation.

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Next, give your reader the context they need to understand your topic and argument. Depending on the subject of your essay, this might include:

• Historical, geographical, or social context
• An outline of the debate you’re addressing
• A summary of relevant theories or research about the topic
• Definitions of key terms

The information here should be broad but clearly focused and relevant to your argument. Don’t give too much detail—you can mention points that you will return to later, but save your evidence and interpretation for the main body of the essay.

How much space you need for background depends on your topic and the scope of your essay. In our Braille example, we take a few sentences to introduce the topic and sketch the social context that the essay will address:

Now it’s time to narrow your focus and show exactly what you want to say about the topic. This is your thesis statement —a sentence or two that sums up your overall argument.

This is the most important part of your introduction. A  good thesis isn’t just a statement of fact, but a claim that requires evidence and explanation.

The goal is to clearly convey your own position in a debate or your central point about a topic.

Particularly in longer essays, it’s helpful to end the introduction by signposting what will be covered in each part. Keep it concise and give your reader a clear sense of the direction your argument will take.

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As you research and write, your argument might change focus or direction as you learn more.

For this reason, it’s often a good idea to wait until later in the writing process before you write the introduction paragraph—it can even be the very last thing you write.

When you’ve finished writing the essay body and conclusion , you should return to the introduction and check that it matches the content of the essay.

It’s especially important to make sure your thesis statement accurately represents what you do in the essay. If your argument has gone in a different direction than planned, tweak your thesis statement to match what you actually say.

To polish your writing, you can use something like a paraphrasing tool .

You can use the checklist below to make sure your introduction does everything it’s supposed to.

Checklist: Essay introduction

My first sentence is engaging and relevant.

I have introduced the topic with necessary background information.

I have defined any important terms.

My thesis statement clearly presents my main point or argument.

Everything in the introduction is relevant to the main body of the essay.

You have a strong introduction - now make sure the rest of your essay is just as good.

• Argumentative
• Literary analysis

This introduction to an argumentative essay sets up the debate about the internet and education, and then clearly states the position the essay will argue for.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

This introduction to a short expository essay leads into the topic (the invention of the printing press) and states the main point the essay will explain (the effect of this invention on European society).

In many ways, the invention of the printing press marked the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval period in Europe is often remembered as a time of intellectual and political stagnation. Prior to the Renaissance, the average person had very limited access to books and was unlikely to be literate. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed for much less restricted circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.

This introduction to a literary analysis essay , about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , starts by describing a simplistic popular view of the story, and then states how the author will give a more complex analysis of the text’s literary devices.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale. Arguably the first science fiction novel, its plot can be read as a warning about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, and in popular culture representations of the character as a “mad scientist”, Victor Frankenstein represents the callous, arrogant ambition of modern science. However, far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to gradually transform our impression of Frankenstein, portraying him in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

The “hook” is the first sentence of your essay introduction . It should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of why it’s interesting.

To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

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McCombes, S. (2023, July 23). How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved October 14, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/introduction/

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I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is

What’s happening in America today is something darker than a misinformation crisis.

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

Updated at 9:43 a.m. ET on October 11, 2024

The truth is, it’s getting harder to describe the extent to which a meaningful percentage of Americans have dissociated from reality. As Hurricane Milton churned across the Gulf of Mexico last night, I saw an onslaught of outright conspiracy theorizing and utter nonsense racking up millions of views across the internet. The posts would be laughable if they weren’t taken by many people as gospel. Among them: Infowars’ Alex Jones, who claimed that Hurricanes Milton and Helene were “weather weapons” unleashed on the East Coast by the U.S. government, and “truth seeker” accounts on X that posted photos of condensation trails in the sky to baselessly allege that the government was “spraying Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton” in order to ensure maximum rainfall, “just like they did over Asheville!”

As Milton made landfall, causing a series of tornados, a verified account on X reposted a TikTok video of a massive funnel cloud with the caption “WHAT IS HAPPENING TO FLORIDA?!” The clip, which was eventually removed but had been viewed 662,000 times as of yesterday evening, turned out to be from a video of a CGI tornado that was originally published months ago. Scrolling through these platforms, watching them fill with false information, harebrained theories , and doctored images—all while panicked residents boarded up their houses, struggled to evacuate, and prayed that their worldly possessions wouldn’t be obliterated overnight—offered a portrait of American discourse almost too bleak to reckon with head-on.

Even in a decade marred by online grifters, shameless politicians, and an alternative right-wing-media complex pushing anti-science fringe theories, the events of the past few weeks stand out for their depravity and nihilism. As two catastrophic storms upended American cities, a patchwork network of influencers and fake-news peddlers have done their best to sow distrust, stoke resentment, and interfere with relief efforts. But this is more than just a misinformation crisis. To watch as real information is overwhelmed by crank theories and public servants battle death threats is to confront two alarming facts: first, that a durable ecosystem exists to ensconce citizens in an alternate reality, and second, that the people consuming and amplifying those lies are not helpless dupes but willing participants.

Read: November will be worse

Some of the lies and obfuscation are politically motivated, such as the claim that FEMA is offering only $750 in total to hurricane victims who have lost their home. (In reality , FEMA offers $750 as immediate “Serious Needs Assistance” to help people get basic supplies such as food and water.) Donald Trump , J. D. Vance , and Fox News have all repeated that lie. Trump also posted (and later deleted) on Truth Social that FEMA money was given to undocumented migrants, which is untrue. Elon Musk, who owns X, claimed —without evidence—that FEMA was “actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally and locking them away to state they are their own. It’s very real and scary how much they have taken control to stop people helping.” That post has been viewed more than 40 million times. Other influencers, such as the Trump sycophant Laura Loomer, have urged their followers to disrupt the disaster agency’s efforts to help hurricane victims. “Do not comply with FEMA,” she posted on X. “This is a matter of survival.”

The result of this fearmongering is what you might expect. Angry, embittered citizens have been harassing government officials in North Carolina, as well as FEMA employees. According to an analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an extremism-research group, “Falsehoods around hurricane response have spawned credible threats and incitement to violence directed at the federal government,” including “calls to send militias to face down FEMA.” The study also found that 30 percent of the X posts analyzed by ISD “contained overt antisemitic hate, including abuse directed at public officials such as the Mayor of Asheville, North Carolina; the FEMA Director of Public Affairs; and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.” The posts received a collective 17.1 million views as of October 7.

Online, first responders are pleading with residents, asking for their help to combat the flood of lies and conspiracy theories. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said that the volume of misinformation could hamper relief efforts. “If it creates so much fear that my staff doesn’t want to go out in the field, then we’re not going to be in a position where we can help people,” she said in a news conference on Tuesday. In Pensacola, North Carolina, Assistant Fire Chief Bradley Boone vented his frustrations on Facebook: “I’m trying to rescue my community,” he said in a livestream. “I ain’t got time. I ain’t got time to chase down every Facebook rumor … We’ve been through enough.”

It is difficult to capture the nihilism of the current moment. The pandemic saw Americans, distrustful of authority, trying to discredit effective vaccines, spreading conspiracy theories, and attacking public-health officials. But what feels novel in the aftermath of this month’s hurricanes is how the people doing the lying aren’t even trying to hide the provenance of their bullshit. Similarly, those sharing the lies are happy to admit that they do not care whether what they’re pushing is real or not. Such was the case last week, when Republican politicians shared an AI-generated viral image of a little girl holding a puppy while supposedly fleeing Helene. Though the image was clearly fake and quickly debunked, some politicians remained defiant. “Y’all, I don’t know where this photo came from and honestly, it doesn’t matter,” Amy Kremer , who represents Georgia on the Republican National Committee, wrote after sharing the fake image. “I’m leaving it because it is emblematic of the trauma and pain people are living through right now.”

Kremer wasn’t alone. The journalist Parker Molloy compiled screenshots of people “acknowledging that this image is AI but still insisting that it’s real on some deeper level”—proof, Molloy noted, that we’re “living in the post-reality.” The technology writer Jason Koebler argued that we’ve entered the “‘Fuck It’ Era” of AI slop and political messaging, with AI-generated images being used to convey whatever partisan message suits the moment, regardless of truth.

This has all been building for more than a decade. On The Colbert Report , back in 2005, Stephen Colbert coined the word truthiness , which he defined as “the belief in what you feel to be true rather than what the facts will support.” This reality-fracturing is the result of an information ecosystem that is dominated by platforms that offer financial and attentional incentives to lie and enrage, and to turn every tragedy and large event into a shameless content-creation opportunity . This collides with a swath of people who would rather live in an alternate reality built on distrust and grievance than change their fundamental beliefs about the world. But the misinformation crisis is not always what we think it is.

Read: Florida’s risky bet

So much of the conversation around misinformation suggests that its primary job is to persuade. But as Michael Caulfield, an information researcher at the University of Washington, has argued , “The primary use of ‘misinformation’ is not to change the beliefs of other people at all. Instead, the vast majority of misinformation is offered as a service for people to maintain their beliefs in face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.” This distinction is important, in part because it assigns agency to those who consume and share obviously fake information. What is clear from comments such as Kremer’s is that she is not a dupe; although she may come off as deeply incurious and shameless, she is publicly admitting to being an active participant in the far right’s world-building project, where feel is always greater than real.

What we’re witnessing online during and in the aftermath of these hurricanes is a group of people desperate to protect the dark, fictitious world they’ve built. Rather than deal with the realities of a warming planet hurling once-in-a-generation storms at them every few weeks, they’d rather malign and threaten meteorologists, who, in their minds, are “nothing but a trained subversive liar programmed to spew stupid shit to support the global warming bullshit,” as one X user put it. It is a strategy designed to silence voices of reason, because those voices threaten to expose the cracks in their current worldview. But their efforts are doomed, futile. As one dispirited meteorologist wrote on X this week, “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes.” She followed with: “I can’t believe I just had to type that.”

What is clear is that a new framework is needed to describe this fracturing. Misinformation is too technical, too freighted, and, after almost a decade of Trump, too political. Nor does it explain what is really happening, which is nothing less than a cultural assault on any person or institution that operates in reality. If you are a weatherperson, you’re a target. The same goes for journalists, election workers, scientists, doctors, and first responders. These jobs are different, but the thing they share is that they all must attend to and describe the world as it is. This makes them dangerous to people who cannot abide by the agonizing constraints of reality, as well as those who have financial and political interests in keeping up the charade.

In one sense, these attacks—and their increased desperation—make sense. The world feels dark; for many people, it’s tempting to meet that with a retreat into the delusion that they’ve got everything figured out, that the powers that be have conspired against them directly. But in turning away, they exacerbate a crisis that has characterized the Trump era, one that will reverberate to Election Day and beyond. Americans are divided not just by political beliefs but by whether they believe in a shared reality—or desire one at all.

This article previously stated that Bradley Boone is the assistant fire chief in Pensacola, Florida. In fact, he is based in Pensacola, North Carolina.

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US$10,000 scholarship up for grabs in Guyana Energy Conference essay competition

Oct 15, 2024 News

The competition is divided into three categories, each tailored to different educational levels. Students in Grades 7 and 8 (Category 1) are invited to write on topics such as how they would manage Guyana’s oil revenues for a sustainable future, the role of youth in building a better Guyana, and what makes the country an ideal tourism destination.

Meanwhile, students in Grades 9 and 10 (Category 2) will address topics like the importance of community engagement in energy projects, how oil wealth can be used to foster sustainability, and investments necessary to protect Guyana from the impacts of climate change. For the more senior students in Grades 11, 12 and 13 – [CSEC & CAPE students] (Category 3), topics focus on deeper exploration of energy development, including the involvement of local communities in energy projects, the economic transformation driven by oil discoveries, and the future role of young people in shaping Guyana’s energy landscape.

The competition offers attractive prizes. First-place winners in each category will receive US$1,000, while second and third-place winners will receive US$500 and an iPad, and US$250 and a cellular phone, respectively. Notably, the top prize for Category 3 also includes a US$10,000 scholarship.

All prizes will be awarded during the opening day of the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo on February 18, 2025. Students interested in participating must submit their essays by December 31, 2024. Each submission must be the original work of the student and must address the assigned topic without straying into unrelated areas.

Additionally, the competition organizers have implemented strict guidelines to ensure originality, stating that any entry found to have been written with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools will be disqualified. For essays in Category One, the word count should be between 600 to 700 words; for Category Two, 800 to 1,000 words; and for Category Three, 1,000 to 1,200 words. Type-written submissions can be sent to [email protected] . The subject of the email should be titled ‘Energy Essay’ OR submit your hand-written essay to Lot 97 Chandranagar Street, Prashad Nagar, Georgetown, Guyana.

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