Continuing with my research and sources theme from the last post, citing sources has become so much easier than when I started researching. I remember pouring over my MLA handbook to figure out each underline, period, and item. I taught my middle school students the process by hand: “Author’s last name. Comma. Author’s first name. Title, underlined.” While I still believe you should learn the elements needed for proper citations, the MLA formatting guide should be a reference like math formulas. There are very few people who have a knowledge bank of math procedures in their head. The rest of us may need to look up the proper formula when needed.
Digital tools have made creating citations so much easier. Tools are available to help create virtaully any citation. This is especially important as our teachers and students come across a wide variety of information mediums in print and on the web.
My favorite citation tools are listed below.
First, Office 2007 has some pretty powerful citation tools. The program collects and stores the information you will need for citations. It allows you to choose the form: MLA, APA or others! It assists in creating in work citations, footnotes, etc. This was an exciting addition to the Office suite. For more information on the tools in Office, click here.
On the web, easybib.comis my favorite tool. At one time, a person needed to
(Image from easybib.com)
imput all of the relavant information, and easybib did the formatting. Now, it is even more automated. You can autocite by web URL, USBN number and more. You get MLA format for free, which most of the high school English teachers I work with require.
A new feature on easybib.com is their Research beta. We teach students took review sources bibliographies- both for accuracy and for other points of research. Easybib has now made the massive collection of citations they receive searchable. Why not use sources that others have already vetted, rather than going straight to a search engine? For example, when searching for my standard Charles Lindbergh, I get 495 results, sorted by type. This seems like a much more managable place to start than Google’s 2,950,000 links!
Other citaition sites include Citation Machine and BibMe.
All of these digital tools are great for helping- once students have a basic understanding of the elements needed when citing sources. I will keep teaching the patterns: “Author’s last name. Comma. Author’s first name…”
Question for you…
Which bibliography format is most relalavent to you? As an English teacher, basically every paper I wrote was in MLA. But, my Speech and other classes required APA. What is your discipline and what type of format are you most familiar with?