Kelly in Kansas

The Chronicles of Dr. Crazy: "
I think that the most important part of how I teach MLA style is how I begin. I begin with explaining why we use specific citation styles. This begins with discussion. I ask them why we can't just cite things any old way. I ask them why it matters that we use a particular style based on the discipline in which we write. I take about 10 minutes just talking about what the point is of citing things. Because the thing is, they know that you have to cite or you can get busted for plagiarism. They understand that it's a rule. What they don't seem to understand is that there are practical reasons for citing things in a particular way - like letting your reader know how to find what you are citing. I know. This is a radical notion. But I realized somewhere along the way that this is the problem that I had with citing when I started college, and once I learned the why of citing I suddenly was able to be detail-oriented enough to do it properly. "

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I should think about how to do this with Turabian. . .and how to apply it to my online classes . . . .