# Why learn MLA or any other format? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 2, 2015, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-learn-mla-or-any-other-format/733223 "2015-10-02T10:10:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-learn-mla-or-any-other-format/733223/21 "2015-10-02T16:23:38Z")
I agree that it’s not the specific documentation style that matters, it’s the skill set involved: organization, paying attention to details, knowing how to distinguish between different types of information (e.g., the title of an article vs. the title of the journal publishing it), but above all, _being able to look up and follow instructions_. I always tell my students that if they’re trying to memorize where the commas and periods go, they’re doing it wrong. What they need to do is look it up. Every time. If the model citations in your book are doing something, you should be doing it too. (It surprises me how hard this is for students, but that’s all the more reason they should start practicing it early.) And it isn’t any more difficult, really, with Internet sources than print ones; every style guide that I know of contains _detailed_ information about how to cite online sources, with plenty of models and examples. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-learn-mla-or-any-other-format/733223/22 "2015-10-02T16:36:15Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > That was an astonishingly long-winded whine that’s ultimately about the author’s poor time management, difficulties with following instructions, and inability to use computers. I found it amusing - reminded me of people I knew back in college in the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-learn-mla-or-any-other-format/733223/23 "2015-10-02T16:52:48Z")
I found it tedious because it more than slightly reminded me of my own worst work habits and tendencies… (I got better!) ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-learn-mla-or-any-other-format/733223/24 "2015-10-02T20:44:54Z")
> [@](#): > > Is MLA the most common format used? Not to pick on MLA because it is just one of many formats. No, but that doesn’t matter. Every institution (school, publication, workplace, whatever) has a favorite. Once you know how one works, it’s not a huge deal to move between them. This is especially true today with citation management software. What’s important is that you learn the concept and understand how to fit citations into a template. > [@](#): > > It seems to me the guidelines for such formats were pre-internet and the proliferation of web based reference material makes creating references extra difficult. Ex. you might reference a websight which could be taken down at any time. Do you find referencing web based material difficult? There are formats for web-based citations, and it’s not particularly hard- you just plug the information in, the same as anything else. With that in mind, as you do more advanced research the vast majority of citations are going to be academic journals. > [@](#): > > How “exact” do publishers want a paper? I mean are they like 8th grade english teachers ready and poised with their red pens ready to pounce on you about any mistakes in proper formatting as well as grammar? Isnt it an editors job to fix such errors? Would a publication reject your paper and send it back to you because they felt your formatting didnt follow exact guidelines? If you are publishing a paper, I’d hope your goal is more ambitious than “what’s the minimum that they don’t actually laugh in my face?” Editors will fix mistakes, but it’s not their job to write the citations for you, and hopefully you want to turn something in that is as complete and polished as you can get it. Your son is learning how to write a research paper, which is a fundamental skill-- perhaps THE fundamental skill-- that he will draw on over and over again for the next 5-15 years. Of course his teachers are going to teach him how to do it right. > [@](#): > > If your submitting a paper, say a paper for your masters thesis, and assuming you’ve done a decent job with your grammar as well as referencing your sources, would the board of review throw it out if your formatting isnt totally correct? I mean isnt the content of a paper more important than proper formatting? This varies by school. My grad school was fanatical. A single formatting error would get the paper returned to you to be corrected. They want to graduate world-class academics. Making these kinds of mistakes reflects poorly on you and poorly on them. It’s like making an arithmetic error in an advanced math thesis- it may not be core to the subject, but it’s not something you want to get wrong. > [@](#): > > What jobs or careers do people need to be really good at writing using correct formats? I dont see it for say a career as a journalist, technical writer, novelist, speechwriter, game designer, scriptwriter, or most any other writing based job. I’ve used it as a policy analyst and business analyst in different capacities. It’s not always essential to the core job duties, but people who can write well are in short supply and needed everywhere. If you can write well AND produce polished work (including beautiful citations), it will make you shine in a lot of places. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-learn-mla-or-any-other-format/733223/25 "2015-10-02T21:59:45Z")
Like **even sven** mentioned, I use formatting programs (EndNote, in my case). I find the source in their databases (which I may already have acquired elsewhere), and I put it where I want to put it to cite on my paper. The program then creates a bibliography at the end with the format that I tell it to do. And like I mentioned in the previous thread, the style is going to change, there is no use in memorizing a format. They change with time, and what type of format you will need varies according to the audience. I remember that I wrote a paper one time in one format, submitted it to a journal, had it rejected, and had to rewrite it and change the formatting style (easy to do with EndNote), for the other journal I ended up submitting it. My PI was a grammar Nazi. And I followed the formatting guidelines very closely. The formatting reviewer had only minor comments on what to change, and I had time to do those before the deadline to submit it to graduate school (after it was approved by my committee). ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-learn-mla-or-any-other-format/733223/26 "2015-10-02T23:47:03Z")
Technically, no. He doesn’t need to learn MLA. What he does need is to learn how to use whatever arbitrary styleguide is required of his publisher (or, currently, his teacher). It’s not a thing you memorize, it’s a thing you look up when you write the paper. Or, if you’re my favorite Electronic Media professor, a thing that prompts you to grab the nearest book off of your shelves and check the back, because whatever method that guy used is probably close enough. 😃 Depending on what he writes, your son may discover that there _isn’t_ a way to cite what he wants. About a decade ago, I was doing some undergrad research and discovered that there was no proper way to cite a video game in MLA – there was a documented method for citing software, but the purpose of a citation is to tell the reader how to find the thing you’re referring to, and what MLA had at the time did not involve enough/the right kind of information to pinpoint a console game. Get him an MLA styleguide, show him how to look up what he needs, and then tell him he can let it all fall out of his head again until his teacher demands another paper. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-learn-mla-or-any-other-format/733223/27 "2015-10-03T01:01:23Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > … > 5. What jobs or careers do people need to be really good at writing using correct formats? I dont see it for say a career as a journalist, technical writer, novelist, speechwriter, game designer, scriptwriter, or most any other writing based job. > > Thanks. Speaking just to the excerpt above … See this [Microsoft Manual of Style - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Manual_of_Style) Absolutely everything written by anybody for any purpose at Microsoft follows this book’s rules. My ISV used to work closely with them; I still have my vendor’s Microsoft ID card in my memorabilia stash. All the docs for our product had to follow their standards; if not they weren’t going to help us sell our product that in turn helped them sell their products. Our tech writers, advertising copy people, testers, devs, etc. All of their output was per MSFT’s book all the time. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-learn-mla-or-any-other-format/733223/28 "2015-10-03T01:16:29Z")
MLA? Never you it. It’s trash. [rips open shirt] Chicago 4 lyfe! But yeah, I’ve checked up citations before. Not to catch plagiarism but to read the source for my own edification. -History grad student ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-learn-mla-or-any-other-format/733223/29 "2015-10-03T03:17:22Z")
University librarian here. College students get marked down on papers all the time for having incorrectly formatted citations. Personally I think professors focus too much on this when, based on what I’ve seen, undergraduate papers often have far more serious problems, but that’s the way things are. If your son is planning to go to college then it’s probably best he get used to it now. As for the OP’s specific questions: 1. MLA is one of the most common citation formats. MLA, APA, and sometimes Chicago/Turabian are the main ones an undergrad is likely to encounter, although they may be required to use other styles for specific classes. 2. The major citation styles were developed before the Internet era but have not remained unchanged since then. They all have rules covering how electronic sources should be cited. Here’s the [Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) page](https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/) on citing electronic sources in MLA. (I am not at Purdue, but the Purdue OWL is one of the best known sites for cites.) 3. An editor’s job is to decide whether your work is worth publishing, not to do your proofreading for you. Some journal publishers do provide copyediting services, but in my experience they are just as likely to introduce errors into your article as they are to fix them. 4. I met several times with a very distressed master’s degree candidate who’d been called out for having incomplete and improperly formatted citations in a _draft_ of his thesis. He had been told that he would be dropped from the program if he didn’t get his citations in order by a certain date. 5. With the possible exception of novelist, I believe all of the jobs that you listed require writers to stick to a standard format. I know that screenwriting has a special format that must be followed, and many screenwriters use software designed for this purpose as it can be difficult to get scripts formatted properly in standard word processing programs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-learn-mla-or-any-other-format/733223.md?page=1)