Grimsley MLA Style Guide Introduction: MLA? Like that bibliography stuff? Why are you making us do this?!?!?!?! Great question. MLA can look really foreign and difficult, but the goal is quite the opposite: MLA is intended to help prove your point and avoid accusations of plagiarism in the simplest way. It may not seem that way at first, but stick with me a moment. Take this example: (Troll Quotes) That one’s pretty obviously not a Lincoln quote, but the point is clear: the age of information is also the age of misinformation and all those quotes you see on the internet may not actually be from who they say they’re from. Attribution is more important now than ever. If you attribute your source correctly, it puts some of the responsibility on your source. i.e. if you use an inaccurate quote or inaccurate information it looks like you’re lying and making stuff up to suit your own needs, but if you attribute that information to the source where you got it, at least that part of the burden is off your shoulders. (The part about poorly selecting sources isn’t off your shoulders, but we’ll talk about that later.)
Grimsley MLA Style Guide Introduction: MLA? Like that bibliography stuff? Why are you making us do this?!?!?!?! Great question. MLA can look really foreign and difficult, but the goal is quite the opposite: MLA is intended to help prove your point and avoid accusations of plagiarism in the simplest way. It may not seem that way at first, but stick with me a moment. Take this example: (Troll Quotes) That one’s pretty obviously not a Lincoln quote, but the point is clear: the age of information is also the age of misinformation and all those quotes you see on the internet may not actually be from who they say they’re from. Attribution is more important now than ever. If you attribute your source correctly, it puts some of the responsibility on your source. i.e. if you use an inaccurate quote or inaccurate information it looks like you’re lying and making stuff up to suit your own needs, but if you attribute that information to the source where you got it, at least that part of the burden is off your shoulders. (The part about poorly selecting sources isn’t off your shoulders, but we’ll talk about that later.)