One of the most difficult concepts taught in ELA classrooms is the essay. It’s because there are so many parts at play: formulating the research question, evaluating sources, gathering evidence, outlining ideas, and translating the outline from bullet points into a well-structured and original piece of writing. Phew. Add to all of that the idea that students have to format their paper, in-text citations, and works cited list in MLA Style, and it’s no wonder that even college students still struggle to master the essay.
To Teach Or Not to Teach: MLA Citations
There are some English teachers who throw up their hands and say, “There is only so much time in the day for this! Instead of teaching MLA citations, I will just have students use a citation generator!” Then there are the diehards who say, “Absolutely not! EasyBib and Citation Machine are for chumps. We’re doing citations the tried-and-true way: using the MLA Handbook.”
But which method yields the best results? Should we save time by teaching students to use citation generators? Or should we put in the (painstaking) effort to help them master the minutiae of MLA?
I used to be in the first camp of teachers. I’d tell students, “There’s only so much brain space we can dedicate to this. Don’t worry about the details of MLA citations; you can just plug the information into a citation generator.” Admittedly, this yielded mixed results, but I was happy that they were at least creating some semblance of a correct works cited page.
The Turning Point
My attitude changed, however, upon enrolling in a master’s program
for English literature. Suddenly I had professors who were downright draconian in their expectations that my MLA works cited list be perfect. I felt anxious and harried as I flipped through chapter five of the MLA Handbook, “The List of Works Cited,” and tried to digest what seemed like an endless list of rules and exceptions:
If there is one author, list the name as Last Name, First Name. If there are two authors, list the first author Last Name, First Name and then include the word “and” followed by the second author’s name in the normal order. If there are three authors… If there is no author but an online handle… If the author’s name is in a language that orders the surname first… If the author doesn’t have a surname… If the author uses a pseudonym sometimes… If the author is an organization or government agency…
And those were just considerations for one element! There are 14 pages dedicated to styling the author alone—and there are eight other potential elements to style. It’s a dizzying amount of information to absorb for a single entry in a citation list.
It probably goes without saying that creating my works cited pages led to more than a few headaches. However, over time I grew to enjoy the idea of mastering the elements. I started to remember the rules for styling my citations, and what’s more, I gained confidence that my styling was correct. And that was when I started to think that maybe I had done so many students a disservice by not requiring them to learn the rules of MLA. Maybe my dismissal of learning the rules was less about the headache of teaching it and more about my own ignorance. And by allowing students to use citation generators, I wasn’t holding them to a high enough standard.
Before I made up my mind, I needed to formalize my thoughts through a list of pros and cons. What’s more, I wanted the list to account not just for the knowledge gained by creating citations manually, but also the transferrable skills students acquire in the process.
Pros for Teaching MLA Citations
- Students gain practice using an industry standard for formatting citations.
- Practice with MLA introduces them to the idea of formatting citations, which will help them understand other styles, like APA and Chicago.
- Students practice careful attention to detail.
- Students persevere through a challenging task, helping them develop a strong work ethic.
- Students learn and practice word processing skills—including italicizing and indents—that they will use on resumes and in future careers.
Cons for Teaching MLA Citations
- It takes forever.
- It’s not applicable outside of the English or humanities classroom.
- Did I mention it takes forever? There are so many other things to cover!
Simplifying the Process
Still, the time it takes to teach MLA citations can’t be dismissed. So how can we shorten the teaching of citations while still retaining the essential benefits?
This thought process led me to create a simplified guide that would not only break down for students the essential elements of MLA, but also do it in a way that was not as overwhelming as flipping through the hundreds of pages of the MLA Handbook.
This six-page guide explains the function of each core element in MLA while also breaking down example citations so that students can understand the logic and structure of creating a works cited entry. Then they put what they’ve learned into practice by creating three practice citations!
Download a Preview
Download the preview of my student-friendly MLA Style Guide for formatting citations.
MLA Style Teaching Resources
Want the six-page guide with examples and practice for creating MLA citations? Or the 25-slide Google Slides presentation to integrate into your LMS for easy student access? Get both at the Super ELA! TPT Store:
