MLA Woes

I have to say, I don’t think I was ever taught anything severely wrong about MLA citation. Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that I was never really taught about MLA at all. My first semester as a freaked-out little freshman landed me in my English 2010 class. I don’t know why, but this English class was and is still one of the worst classes I have ever had. We had vague assignment descriptions that, when we asked our professor to explain just a little more in depth, were repeated nearly word-for-word. It was sort of the same way with MLA. When we asked our professor to go over MLA citation, he briefly mentioned the first couple of listed items (author, title, etc.) and something about hanging indents, but told us to look up the rest ourselves. We had been required to get a sort of pocket dictionary of different citation styles. This spiral-bound notebook became my only known source of MLA help. I tried to follow it as best I could, but most of it confused me. I’d never had to look for a publication city, year, edition, or anything else while writing. Luckily, the handbook was a very clear one, though my mind was a little jumbled.
Through much frustration and clouding of mind, I finally figured out something that I thought should sort of kind of look like a paper in MLA format…if you looked at it sideways…and squinted…
Since then I’ve never had a straight lecture on MLA format in any of my classes. It was usually just assumed that we knew what we were talking about or had been taught by another proficient professor. I’m fine with it now, especially when I have a reference to look at (though apparently they differ on some important points depending on the year they were published…that may be problematic in the future…). I don’t think I’ve ever been taught anything particularly wacky. At least, I’ve never questioned what to put in a Works Cited page depending on my geographic location at the time…especially since I usually stay in one relative area while writing papers.
This class is actually refreshing because it’s the first one that has ever spelled out what needs to be in a citation bit by bit (Authors last name, first name. Single space! Etc.). Plus we got to look at Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! I think I need to go find that book now…I can’t stop thinking about its potential awesomeness. And then I’ll be on to Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.
Wow! Random tangent! Anyway, I now know something a little bit more about how MLA works and I’m totally jazzed (well…more like Armstrong jazzed than Coltrane jazzed…but close enough).