MLA Style Reviewed

Ok. So, what exactly is MLA?

from the Modern Language Association website:

"All fields of research agree on the need to document scholarly borrowings, but documentation conventions vary because of the different needs of scholarly disciplines. MLA style for documentation is widely used in the humanities, especially in writing on language and literature. Generally simpler and more concise than other styles, MLA style features brief parenthetical citations in the text keyed to an alphabetical list of works cited that appears at the end of the work.

MLA style has been widely adopted by schools, academic departments, and instructors for over half a century. The association's guidelines are also used by over 1,100 scholarly and literary journals, newsletters, and magazines and by many university and commercial presses. The MLA's guidelines are followed throughout North America and in Brazil, China, India, Japan, Taiwan, and other countries around the world.

The MLA publishes two authoritative explanations of MLA style: the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing."

It would be great if we all had copies of the style guide, but since we don't, we can avail ourselves of legitimate online explanations of the guidelines. Please use some of the links provided in the list of MLA style guidelines on the right.

Today, we are going to reinforce our knowledge of MLA citation.

The first half of the class: Editing and Revision (40 min)
1. Get with a partner--someone you have not worked with before--and read each other's last post. If your partner did not introduce her quotes, help her do so. If she did not cite all of the required articles, help her do so. Everyone should edit their blogs to make them correct rather than inserting formatting symbols.

2. Look at the website of the source your partner chose to include in her essay. What do you think about the credibility of that source? Together with your partner, write a brief analysis of the source at the end of the blog post.

3. Check your partner's bibliographic citations. Are they in the correct form? Do they accurately reflect the information used in the blog essay? Again, help each other make all necessary corrections.

The rest of class: MLA works cited practice (40 min.)

Below is a list of various sources a student plans on using for a research paper. Help him by putting the information for each source into an MLA works cited entry. Use the links to MLA style guidelines provided on the right.
NOTE: You might not need to use all the information provided.


BOOK

1.
Contemporary Theories and Practice in Education (Paperback)
by Yves Bertrand
# Paperback: 464 pages
# Publisher: Atwood Publications; Madison, WI
2 edition (March 2003)
# Language: English

2.
Making Sense of Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Theory of Education (Hardcover)
by David Carr
# Publisher: RoutledgeFalmer
(January 6, 2003)
London


ARTICLE FROM A PROFESSIONAL JOURNAL

3.
Group Projects: Student Perceptions of the Relationship between Social Tasks and a Sense of Community in Online Group Work
Author(s): Cameron, Bruce A.; Morgan, Kari; Williams, Karen C.; Kostelecky, Kyle L.
Source: American Journal of Distance Education
Volume 23 Number 1
p20-33
Jan 2009

ARTICLE FROM ONLINE JOURNAL OR MAGAZINE

4.
The New Yorker
March 30, 2009
Annals of Human Rights
Hellhole
by Atul Gawande
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande
date accessed: April 1, 2009

5.
Student-Initiated Attention to Form in Wiki-Based Collaborative Writing
Journal: Language Learning and Technology
http://llt.msu.edu/
Volume 13 Number 1
February 2009
Greg Kessler, Ohio University
pp. 79-95
Accessed April 5, 2009

6.
Jesús Nieto and Suzanne Valery
Creating a Sense of Community in the Classroom
The Journal of Pedagogy Pluralism & Practice
A Publication of Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Issue 11: Fall 2006
http://www.lesley.edu/journals/jppp/11/nieto.htm
accessed December 30, 2001


PROFESSIONAL ARTICLE FROM JOURNAL DATABASE

7.
Developing Students' Emotional Competency Using the Classroom-as-Organization Approach
Author(s):Sheehan, Beth J.; McDonald, Mark A.; Spence, Kirsty K.
Source: Journal of Management Education, v33 n1 p77-98 2009
Pub Date: 2009-00-00
Pub Type(s): Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Peer-Reviewed: Yes
ERIC database
Accessed February 5, 2007
ED454301.
.

8.
Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Vol. 8, No. 3
Will I do as well on the final exam as I expect? An examination of students’ expectations
pp. 1 – 19.
David J. Burns
October 2008
Academic Search Premier
EBSCOhost
accessed September 4, 2006
.