Lesson plan, MLA citation

Taught during the Annotated Bibliography unit

Goals:
• Learn to apply MLA citation rules
• Evaluate accuracy of citation tools against MLA standards

Before class:
Students have read Norton, Chapter 53, “Documentation,” which introduces different citation
styles and the reasoning behind them.

DAY ONE:
(5 mins) We discuss citation styles used by each discipline. I ask students to tell me where the
ultimate authority on citations lies. If you go to the dictionary to know if you’re spelling a word
correctly, where do you go to know if a citation is correct? (The organization that sets the
standards – in this case, the Modern Language Association).

[here I did not, but it would be helpful to, do one or two group examples of how to use the
Norton textbook to write a citation]

(most of class) I divide students into 5 groups, with ~4 members each. Students gain access to a
Google Doc that includes links to 8-10 sources of various types (journal article, blog page,
newspaper article, Amazon review, YouTube video, podcast, etc.)

Students use the Norton textbook, Ch 54, “MLA Style” to write citations for these sources. It is
helpful to have extra copies on hand. They consult each other when necessary, and type their
answers collaboratively straight into the Google doc.

(end of class, or beginning of next) Students report any struggles/anomalies to the large group.
They check their citations against an “answer key” and report back any kinds of mistakes they
made.

DAY TWO:
Students have previously indicated which tools they use to generate their citations. We begin
class by reviewing the tools we’ll be evaluating, some guidelines and some citation generators:
BibMe; Citation Machine; EasyBib; PurdueOWL; and the MLA’s own practice template.

[here I did not, but would like to, ask students to predict the likely accuracy, easy of use of
these tools!]

(20 mins) Students return to their small groups. Each small group cites the same set of sources,
but using a different tool. (Each group has an assigned tool.)

Near the end of the class, students compare their new citations to the old ones. They note any
patterns of error that their citation tool produces, and report to the class.
(last 10 minutes) Large group discussion: students rate the textbook with 5 stars in two
categories: accuracy, and ease of use. Then, each small group rates, and reports on, the tool they
were evaluating: 1 to 5 stars for ease of use, and accuracy.

We end class with a concrete list of errors each citation tool produces; a sense of which are
easiest and most accurate; the clear takeaway that for any of these tools, one still needs to be
cautious and review the answers produced, regulating for both human and machine errors.