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Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers

Read the student passage and determine if the student needs to cite the source of the information. If the material does not need citation because it is common knowledge, click on Common knowledge. If the material is not common knowledge and the student should cite the source, click on Needs citation.

For help with this exercise, see Avoiding plagiarism.

Example

1 of 10

Question

undefined. Many of William Faulkner’s novels are set in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional part of Mississippi.

◯	Common knowledge
◯	Needs citation

Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers – 1

2 of 10

Question

undefined. William Faulkner may have gotten the word Yoknapatawpha from a 1915 dictionary of the Choctaw language.

◯	Common knowledge
◯	Needs citation

Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers – 2

3 of 10

Question

undefined. The writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston died in poverty in 1960.

◯	Common knowledge
◯	Needs citation

Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers – 3

4 of 10

Question

undefined. William Shakespeare was the only playwright of his generation known to have a long-standing relationship with a single theater company.

◯	Common knowledge
◯	Needs citation

Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers – 4

5 of 10

Question

undefined. Walt Disney fired and blacklisted all of his animators who went on strike in 1941.

◯	Common knowledge
◯	Needs citation

Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers – 5

6 of 10

Question

undefined. William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley were poets of the Romantic era.

◯	Common knowledge
◯	Needs citation

Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers – 6

7 of 10

Question

undefined. As of 2012, the film Titanic had earned more than two billion dollars in box office revenue worldwide.

◯	Common knowledge
◯	Needs citation

Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers – 7

8 of 10

Question

undefined. Heroic couplets are rhyming pairs of lines written in iambic pentameter.

◯	Common knowledge
◯	Needs citation

Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers – 8

9 of 10

Question

undefined. Iris Murdoch wrote many sophisticated and complex novels before she succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease.

◯	Common knowledge
◯	Needs citation

Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers – 9

10 of 10

Question

undefined. George Lucas made a larger fortune by selling Star Wars toys than he made by selling tickets to Star Wars.

◯	Common knowledge
◯	Needs citation

Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers – 10