Wed. Sept. 2, 2015: Creating Text Critiques: MLA Citation for Books

Today, I gave you a handout entitled "Understanding Text Critiques." We read it over as a class. I then read you a children's story in order to determine the "So What" of it (part of a text critique). We determined that, for this particular text, the "So What" that the author most likely wanted the audience to learn/understand is that it is okay to make mistakes as that is an important part of succeeding.

I then gave a brief overview of MLA formatting. I handed out the print information for this text (also in your portfolio) and explained that the purpose of citing is so that someone else can find the same book that you are referring to. We discussed how the 5Ws are the key items:

Author (last name [comma] and then first name[period])
Title (underlined when writing by hand [period])
City of publication (no need for province/state or country [semicolon])
Name of publisher [comma]
year of this publication (the most recent date [period]
medium of publication (usually just a matter of putting down whether the student got it from print or from the web [period]).

We then took this story and organized it so it is a continuous line, double spaced (blog will not allow for this), and then indented on the second line and on any additional lines if there are any:

Mayer, Mercer. All by Myself. Racine: Western

          Publishing Company, 1983. Print.

 

The students were then given books and instructed to create a citation. Part of this was also to ensure they know how to hand in assignments (first and last name, date, and class in upper right hand corner). These were then submitted. If a student misses a step, the student can meet with me and do a make-up to demonstrate understanding. Students who are absent can also meet with me to do this assignment. The goal is to ensure understanding and proficiency.