Citation Search!

A WebQuest for 9th Grade (English Language Arts)

Designed by: Ms. Simmons
Samantha Simmons
ss2669@stu.armstrong.edu

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Teacher

Page

Introduction
Today you are going to learn how to properly cite texts into your papers! Citations are
critical to writing good papers. By citing quotes from the piece of literature you are
discussing, you support your claims. Citing texts gives you credibility as the author of
your paper and draws your audience into your main ideas. However, to add quotes
without properly citing them is known as plagiarism. By completing this WebQuest, you
will know what resources to use to cite papers and how to navigate these resources.
SO, what is the big question?? The big Question is: How do you properly cite texts into
my paper and what resources can I use to do this?

The Task
Today you are going to write a one page on To Kill a Mockingbird. For the paper, you

must use four quotes. Two of the quotes need to be from the text To Kill a Mockingbird.
The other two quotes need to be from two different online articles. Also, you must include a works
cited page. Each quote you use must be properly embedded with correct capitalization and
punctuation and the Works Cited page must have correct citations. Use the resources provided to
ensure your citations are correct!

The Process
To accomplish this task, you should complete the following steps:
1. Visit the following website: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/
2. Click on the Grades-7-12 Instructors and Students Tab.
3. Click on the Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing tab. Read through this page and make sure
you understand the difference between these three terms.
4. Next, you will visit the following website:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
5. Click on the MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics tab. Read through this page and make sure you
understand all of the rules for in-text citations.
6. Now you will click on the MLA Formatting Quotations tab and read through this page.
7. After reading through all of these resources, you will begin your paper. Write your
paper over any topic of your choosing from the first half of To Kill a Mockingbird. It can
be a character analysis, explanation of a theme, or discussion of how the setting is important to the
overall theme, etc. Once you have picked your topic, you need to find two quotations from the book
so support your claim.
8. Include your two quotations from the book, using the resources you used above to properly include
the in-text citations.
9. Now you are going to research your topic on the internet. Find two valid websites to pull two quotes
from that support your claim. Use the resources above to properly include the texts from the
internet.
10. After you finish writing your paper with the four quotations, you need to start your
Works Cited page. Visit the following web address:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/
11. Read through this page to begin your Works Cited Page set up the format.
12. Go to the following website: http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-book
13. Click on the MLA tab.
14. Click on the Website tab.
15. Copy and paste the web address from the websites you used to find your quotes. Paste it into the
web adress and click Search Websites.
16. Click Select.
17. Click Final Step.
18. Add in any missing information and click Create Citation.
19. Finally, you will copy and paste the citation into your Works Cited page.

Evaluation
You will be graded on your work based on the following Rubric:
Beginning
1
Content of
Essay

Proper
Citations

Works Cited
Page

Grammar and
Spelling

Completion of
Assignment

Developing
2

Accomplished
3

Exemplary
4

Content of
Essay displays
a beginner's
understanding
of To Kill a
Mockingbird.
Needs
improvement.

Content of
Essay displays
a movement
towards
mastery
understanding
of To Kill a
Mockingbird.
Needs
improvement.

Content of
Essay displays
a mastery
understanding
of To Kill a
Mockingbird..

Content of
Essay displays
the highest
level of
performance
of
understanding
To Kill a
Mockingbird.

The citations
presented
display a
beginners
understanding of
in-text citations.
Needs
improvement.

The citations
presented display
a development
toward mastery on
the understanding
of in-text citations.
Needs
improvement.

The citations
presented display
a mastery of
understanding intext citations.

The citations
presented
display the
highest level of
understanding
in-text citations.

Works Cited
page reflects a
beginning level
of performance.
Needs
improvement.

Works Cited page

reflects a
movement toward
mastery of
performance.
Needs
improvement.

Works Cited page

reflects a mastery
of performance.

Works Cited
page reflects the
highest level of
performance.

Grammar and
spelling reflects
a beginning level
of performance.
Needs
improvement.

Grammar and
spelling reflects a
movement
towards mastery
of performance.
Needs
improvement.

Grammar and
spelling reflect
mastery of
performance.

Grammar and
spelling reflect
the highest level
of performance.

The assignment
was not
completed in a
timely manner or
was not
completed in
whole.

Completion of
assignment was
close to complete,
but missing a few
pieces.

Assignment was
completed on time
and completely.

Assignment was
completed early
and completely.

Score

Conclusion
Once you have finished this assignment, you will know how to properly add in-text citations to your
essays! You will know how to cite citations from books as well as websites. You have also learned
how to make a Works Cited page in MLA format. Finally, you have learned to use and navigate the
resources, Owl Purdue and Citation Machine. You will be able to use these resources for our essays
throughout the rest of the year.

Credits & References

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/
http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-book
https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/c/citation.asp