This document provides examples of how words can function as different parts of speech depending on their meaning and use in a sentence. Specifically, it discusses how the same word can be used as both a noun and an adjective, or as both a noun and a verb. Determining a word's part of speech depends on the sense in which it is used rather than the word itself. The document then provides examples of words functioning as both nouns and adjectives, and nouns and verbs, to illustrate this concept of words having multiple grammatical functions.

1. Versatile Parts of
Speech
The following examples show that the same word
may have more than one kind of grammatical
office (or function). It is the meaning which we
give to a word in the sentence that determines its
classification as a part of speech.
The chief classes of words thus variously used are:
1) Nouns and adjectives
2) Nouns and verbs
3) Adjectives and adverbs
4) Adjectives and pronouns
5) Adverbs and prepositions

2. Nouns and
Adjectives
The same word can be used as a
noun as well as an adjective. Here are
two examples that show how words
that are commonly nouns may be
used as adjectives.
Noun: Rubber comes from South
America.
Adjective: This wheel has a rubber
tire.
Noun: That brick is yellow.
Adjective: Here is a brick house.

3. Nouns and
Adjectives
This example shows how
words that are commonly
adjectives may be used as
nouns.
Noun: The rich have a
grave responsibility.
Adjective: A rich merchant
lives here.

4. THE DIFFERENT STYLES
Modern Language Association Style
American Psychological Association Style
Associated Press Style
The University of Chicago Press Style

5. MLA CITATION
THE BASICS

6. Works Cited Page
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:
◦ Author.
◦ Title of source.
◦ Title of container,
◦ Other contributors,
◦ Version,
◦ Number,
◦ Publisher,
◦ Publication date,
◦ Location.
Book:
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. Penguin, 1987.
Film:
Speed Racer. Directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski, Warner
Brothers, 2008.
Song:
Nirvana. "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Nevermind, Geffen, 1991.
TV Show:
"The Blessing Way." The X-Files. Fox, WXIA, Atlanta, 19 Jul. 1998.
YouTube:
McGonigal, Jane. “Gaming and Productivity.” YouTube, uploaded by Big
Think, 3 July 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdzy9bWW3E.

7. Works Cited Page
Online articles:
Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. “Title of source.” Title of container,
Other contributor’s First Name and Last Name, Version, Number,
Publication date, Page Numbers, Location. Date of Access.
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.
doi: 10.1002/tox.20155. Accessed 2 Oct. 2020.

8. Works Cited Page
Hard copies of Books or Magazines:
Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. “Title of source.” Title of container,
Other contributor’s First Name, Other contributor’s Last Name,
Version, Number, Publisher Name, Publication date, Page Numbers.
Cadogan, Garnette. “Black and Blue.” The Fire This Time, Ed. Jesmyn Ward, Scribner, 2017, pp.
129-144.

9. DOIA 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.

10. Hanging Indents

11. APA STYLE
And how it
differs from
MLA

12. Capitalize all major words in journal titles.
When referring to the titles of books, chapters,
articles, or webpages, capitalize only the first
letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the
first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and
proper nouns. Note that the distinction here is
based on the type of source being cited.
Academic journal titles have all major words
capitalized, while other sources' titles do not.
APA

13. Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes
around the titles of shorter works such as
journal articles or essays in edited
collections.
APA

14. Authors
Last name first, followed by author initials.
Two Authors
List by their last names and initials. Use the ampersand instead of "and."
Three to Seven Authors
List by last names and initials; commas separate author names, while the last
author name is preceded again by ampersand.
More Than Seven Authors
List by last names and initials; commas separate author names. After the sixth
author's name, use an ellipsis in place of the author names. Then provide the
final author name.

15. Hillstrom, L. C. (2018). Black Lives Matter: from a moment
to a movement. Greenwood. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true
&AuthType=ip&db=cat02286a&AN=kent.b5682865&
site=eds-live&scope=site

16. Journal citation
in APA
Uecker, J., & Froese, P. (2019). Religious individualism and moral
progressivism: How source of religious authority is related to
attitudes about abortion, same-sex marriage, divorce, and
premarital sex. Politics and Religion, 12(2), 283–316.
https://doi.org/10.1017/s1755048318000792

17. Fodor, É., Glass, C., & Nagy, B. (2019). Transnational
business feminism: Exporting feminism in the global
economy. Gender, Work & Organization, 26(8),
1117–1137. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12302

18. Book Format
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of
work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location:
Publisher.
(the year of publication follows in this manner
for all entries)
Note: For "Location," you should always list
the city and the state using the two letter
postal abbreviation without periods (New
York, NY).

19. Book Citation in APA
Burns, K. (2006). Gay rights. Farmington Hills, MI:
Greenhaven Press/Thomson Gale.

20. Webpage
ContentAuthor, A. A. & Author B. B. (Date of publication). Title of page
[Format description when necessary]. Retrieved
from https://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
You only need to include a date of access when the page's content
is likely to change over time.
Purdue University Writing Lab [Facebook page]. (n.d.). Retrieved
January 22, 2019, from
https://www.facebook.com/PurdueUniversityWritingLab/

21. Newspaper Articles
Note that the APA recommends using the homepage
address for the online newspaper, rather than the full
URL for the article itself.
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of
Newspaper. Retrieved from
https://www.homeaddress.com/

22. Newspaper Articles in APA
Corkery, M. (2019, September 9). Retailers walk thin
line by asking, not telling, shoppers to not carry
guns. New York Times. Retrieved from
http://nytimes.com

23. Online videos are cited similarly to other types of digital media. However,
because the creators of digital videos often go by pseudonymous screen
names, this information is included after the author's name.
The general format is as follows:
Author, A. A. [Screen name]. (year, month day). Title of video [Video
file]. Retrieved from https://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
YouTube Video or
Video Blog Entry

24. YouTube Videos in APA
Brown, M. [ASKDrBrown]. (2017, January 8). Why
leftists won’t call a black-on-white hate crime
a hate crime [video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjqXAj0
HFsU

25. TV Series Episodes
Writer, W. W. (Writer), & Director, D. D. (Director). (Date of
publication). Title of episode [Television series episode].
In P. Producer (Producer), Series title. City, state of origin:
Studio or distributor.
Wendy, S. W. (Writer), & Martian, I. R. (Director). (1986). The
rising angel and the falling ape [Television series episode].
In D. Dude (Producer), Creatures and monsters. Los
Angeles, CA: Belarus Studios.

26. In-Text Citations (APA)
When referencing information from a source, an in-text citation is
the author’s name, followed by a comma, and the year of publication,
in parentheses:
Imperialism is the practice, the theory, and the attitudes of a
dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory (Said, 1993).
For direct quotes, give the page number as well.
Imperialism is “the practice, the theory, and the attitudes of a
dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory” (Said, 1993, p.
8).

27. When using APA format, follow the author-date
method of in-text citation. This means that the
author's last name and the year of publication for the
source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones,
1998), and a complete reference should appear in the
reference list at the end of the paper.
If you are referring to an idea from another work
but NOT directly quoting the material, or making
reference to an entire book, article or other work, you
only have to make reference to the author and year of
publication and not the page number in your in-text
reference. All sources that are cited in the text must
appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
APA In-Text Citation Basics

28. APA In-Text
Citations
“There is no perception of the world without reduction;
there are no straight lines in nature, but our
representation of nature is full of straight lines; there
are no geographical signs in nature, but our navies and
street maps are organized around such signs”
(Elsenhans, 2019, p. 20).

29. Some have suggested that Americans no longer
look to institutions or governments for answers
to moral dilemmas (Uecker & Froese, 2019).
APA In-Text
Citations

30. BLOCK QUOTATIONS IN APA
Place direct quotations that are 40 words or longer in a free-standing block of typewritten
lines and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from
the left margin, in the same place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire
quotation on the new margin and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within
the quotation 1/2 inch from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The
parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.
Jones's (1998) study found the following:
Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time
citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to
purchase a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)

31. The Semicolon
(It’s kind of a colon.)

32. Colons vs. Semicolons
Colons:
 introduce something
 define something
 join a main clause with a noun
Semicolons:
 separate things
 link two independent clauses without
any connecting words
 or join two independent clauses with a
conjunctive adverb (such as: however,
moreover, therefore, consequently,
otherwise, nevertheless, thus, etc.)
 do not join clauses with coordinating
conjunctions such as and, or, and but.