Step one: Get a manual. Step two: Open the manual. Step three: Look up citations. Step four: Go to designated page number. Step Five:.......

My initial experience with MLA was in 8th grade Honors English. On the first day, my teacher, Mrs. Smith, announced the first assignment of the year, a 10 page paper on The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (our summer reading assignment), using at least 5 non-internet sources. She was very careful to tell us that we needed to use MLA format, but wasn't forthcoming about how we should go about that.

In hindsight, I realize that she was probably trying to weed out all of the little children who didn't belong in the class. At the time, I didn't know that this was an unusually large assignment for an 8th grade class. I'd been homeschooled up to that point, so I thought it was a normal workload. As I was conditioned to figure things out on my own, I went to the school library and asked the librarian if she had any books on MLA. She looked at me strangely, and said no, but suggested that I could find one at the public library. I went there that afternoon (since I only had five days to finish this assignment) and found my first MLA Style manual. I used it to figure out how to format my paper, how to do my "Works Cited" page and how to do in-text citations. Of the papers that she'd received, Mrs. Smith said that mine was the only one that had the MLA formatting correctly, high praise from the woman affectionately (or not so affectionately) known as the "English Nazi" within my Junior High.

I've never really had any problems with MLA or even with APA formatting. When I have an assignment, I break out my handbook (2007 edition, so it's mostly correct). The old habit of figuring things out on my own still kicks in whenever the teacher doesn't give me enough information (YES, that comment was also referring to the bibliographic essay that I'd like to start but don't know anything about yet, Dr. Smith). Whenever I cite something, or whenever I'm asked to help a student with formatting and citing, I crack open my trusty citation manual. Even if I know the rule off the top of my head, the student sees me (the tutor, the one who's good at this sort of stuff) looking up the rules in the textbook. I have the student look some of the citations up so that they become a little more familiar with the process of finding the correct model for their particular source. Hopefully, when the student leaves the session, they think, "Gee, well she had to look up her citations too. I guess I'm not stupid for not remembering the rules," or something like that.

I don't know the rules off of the top of my head. I do have a general idea, but when it comes to the specifics of where the comma goes while citing an essay from an anthology with multiple editors and perhaps a translator or two, I look it up. Even when I cite a simple novel, I double-check. I figure there's nothing wrong with being cautious. Remember, I'm the one who likes preparation :-)