# MPA style papers in Middle school? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 23, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274 "2015-09-23T05:24:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/1 "2015-09-23T05:24:07Z")
My 8th grade son is having to write a 5 page paper on WW1 and his teacher is insisting on strict MPA format. Here is a [LINK](https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/) to what this style is. I didnt have to do this till college. So I’d like to ask, when was the earliest you had to write a school paper using a strict writing format like MPA or maybe APA? ---
**Author:** ![brovolone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@brovolone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brovolone)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/2 "2015-09-23T05:28:21Z")
MLA I didn’t encounter until college. I personally think it’s a great idea he’s being exposed to it sooner than later. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/3 "2015-09-23T05:50:04Z")
My son, currently a senior, had to start writing MLA style papers starting in 6th grade (first year of middle school). I didn’t have to use MLA formatting until junior year of high school. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/4 "2015-09-23T05:59:00Z")
Middle school sounds about right. English classes at that point were very much about grammar, research, and citations, rather than enjoying good books. That happened in high school, after we were supposed to have mastered the basics of the essay. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/5 "2015-09-23T06:57:11Z")
Eighth grade seems about right to be honest. I first had to use MLA as a freshman in high school, so that’s only a year difference. My own personal problem is that MLA is pretty uncommon outside school assignments. I’m an official card-carrying _member_ of the MLA, and I’ve never used it in anything that I’ve published. It’s pretty much all Chicago, with a bit of APA thrown in. ---
**Author:** ![Nefario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/59ef9b/32.png) [@Nefario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nefario)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/6 "2015-09-23T11:06:11Z")
I would have found this liberating by knowing exactly what my teacher wanted. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/7 "2015-09-23T11:39:01Z")
I think I started it in high school, so 8th grade does not seem too much earlier, and still better than college. One thing is that, if you do eventually move on up from undergrad, or even if you do publishable research, most journals have their own little variances and nitpicks about MLA or APA. You end up not using one specific way, but more whatever the journal you’re interested in says it wants. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/8 "2015-09-23T12:49:47Z")
It’s not all that difficult to follow MLA style, and it’s good training for when it’s required in college. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/9 "2015-09-23T13:07:06Z")
I had to do a research paper, with footnotes, bibliography, etc. in 6th grade. I’m pretty sure I was told how to do them. I don’t recall ever in my academic career learning about any specific format _by name_, though (MPA, etc.). ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/10 "2015-09-23T16:01:27Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I had to do a research paper, with footnotes, bibliography, etc. in 6th grade. I’m pretty sure I was told how to do them. > > I don’t recall ever in my academic career learning about any specific format _by name_, though (MPA, etc.). That was my experience, too. I had been taught all the style elements while in what was then called junior high, but didn’t have a name for it until I reached college and Eng Comp I. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/11 "2015-09-23T17:18:02Z")
I would have much preferred MLA in middle school to the bullshit with “cards” we had to do in 7th and 8th grade. I think we started in 9th grade. I do remember it was not fun doing those papers on a typewriter! ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/12 "2015-09-23T19:22:46Z")
Junior high (Seventh grade) ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/13 "2015-09-23T20:51:36Z")
7th Grade. I had an MLA Nazi. I am sure she knew that if she drilled it hard enough when they are young, the students would consider it as part of God’s created nature, and never question it again. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/14 "2015-09-23T23:37:52Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I don’t recall ever in my academic career learning about any specific format _by name_, though (MPA, etc.). Yep, same here although in my case not until 2nd year High School (1976). We were simply taught how to do them and what was expected, in a sort of loose multipronged effort from our Spanish, English, and advanced History teachers. Heck, no notion of those “branded” styles until after I myself was out of undergrad. It was always getting from the prof at the start of the course something to the effect of “in my classes, (or, in this Department) your papers must be done with the following requirements:”, or having that description occupying a large part of a journal’s submission guidelines page. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/15 "2015-09-23T23:39:33Z")
My kids started doing them in sixth grade. Pain in the back end. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/16 "2015-09-24T00:06:01Z")
APA in middle school. MLA and APA in high school. MLA and AMA in college. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/17 "2015-09-24T02:49:57Z")
I already came out as a dinosaur from the manual-typewriter and card-catalogue age – any temporal frame-of-reference for those of you who were doing standardized formats, and calling them that, since Middle School? I must just assume that kids growing up in the Web Age all get socked with this by Grade 6 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/18 "2015-09-24T15:05:31Z")
We had to do footnotes, not endnotes, and not any in-paragraph citations - just the numbers. It was the typewriter era, so my English teacher would haver her ruler out to make sure that there was not too much space. Pain in the ass. Then I got the first Macintosh, with MS Word 1.0 and built-in footnoting capabilities. Several classmates came over to use my computer and print on the imagewriter. The teacher called me up due to Microsoft putting too much space on one page (the combination of not having any orphan sentences from paragraphs plus the footnote made a large space she did not like). My response, “This is the future - you need to adjust.” Her patience with me (or tolerance) was remarkable. When I got to college, footnotes or endnotes were fine. The faculty didn’t care in political science or economics where I was. One son got hit with MLA in 9th grade when he transferred to a private school. The younger one started MLA in 6th grade / middle school at a private school. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/19 "2015-09-24T15:48:25Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > I would have much preferred MLA in middle school to the bullshit with “cards” we had to do in 7th and 8th grade. > > I think we started in 9th grade. I do remember it was not fun doing those papers on a typewriter! When you speak of “cards”, are you talking about the thing where you would carry around a stack of index cards and carefully fill one out for each book you looked at? Then, when you were ready to write your paper, you would have a stack of index cards with bibliographic information and important points for you to copy off of. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274/20 "2015-09-24T16:34:06Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > When you speak of “cards”, are you talking about the thing where you would carry around a stack of index cards and carefully fill one out for each book you looked at? Then, when you were ready to write your paper, you would have a stack of index cards with bibliographic information and important points for you to copy off of. I remember having to do that with index cards. What a pain! I hated trying to write on those cards. I remember asking if I could just write everything in my notebook instead and being told no, must use index cards. I’m still not really sure why. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mpa-style-papers-in-middle-school/732274.md?page=2)