School.. ugh!

So, anyone on my facebook friends list has undoubtedly been flooded with complaints about my research paper. I may as well complain here, too.

What the hell is the deal with MLA formatting? Do they seriously need to change the rules every 5.2 seconds? Every source I've come across tells me something completely different about formatting my sources. First, I need links in my Works Cited. Then I don't. Then maybe I do. Second, my parenthetical citations look great. Then they suck. Then I need to fix a couple but everything else looks okay. Do I cite the publisher if there's no author? Do I cite the article name? Both? CAN MLA PLEASE MAKE UP THEIR MIND?

My research paper submission packet is (as of right now) 37 pages. The actual final draft of my paper is 9 pages, one page over the limit. Luckily, the professor gave me leeway with the guidelines because I chose a topic only someone with a death wish would. I have digital notes, sources, drafts, outlines, rubrics, peer responses, and god knows what else out the wazoo.

Also.. my peer review partner is either an idiot or did not actually put in the time to read my paper. Or he read my peer review responses to him and decided to be a tool and try to tear my paper apart. Either way, his responses were wildly unhelpful for actually revising my essay.

Someone remind me why I thought school was a good idea again? I forgot.

LOL

Would it be possible to ask your prof what he wants exactly? In my classes, they ask for MLA or APA, but always throw in their own twist.

Classes are officially over, and I have this week off. Next week I have an exam everyday, then the semester is OVER.

zazanomore wrote:

Would it be possible to ask your prof what he wants exactly? In my classes, they ask for MLA or APA, but always throw in their own twist.

He keeps telling me to look at the Purdue OWL website and the text, both of which say completely different things! One says sources should have URLs in the Works Cited, the other says absolutely not. One says use the article name, one says the publisher.

Research essays suck.

Maybe I'm off base here, because every instructor does have a private fiefdom to some extent, but I can't imagine anyone caring about the details of how a citation is made over the fundamental need to cite sources in a way that a reader can follow up with. The actual format, IMO, is details. What's important is to provide enough information that any reasonably literate person can find the original source, if it is publically available. The actual format, I cannot imagine taking more than a tiny fraction of points from.

My personal advice is to concentrate on delivering great content and don't stress too much about the details of the format.

YMMV.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Maybe I'm off base here, because every instructor does have a private fiefdom to some extent, but I can't imagine anyone caring about the details of how a citation is made over the fundamental need to cite sources in a way that a reader can follow up with.

Our grading rubric has "format" right at the top of the page for grading. If there are more than one or two minor errors, the grade automatically starts at a C. Minor errors would be one incorrect parenthetical citation.

Then the rules should have been made very clear. Sigh.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Then the rules should have been made very clear. Sigh.

Yes, they should have been! He has assured me multiple times that my paper looks wonderful and I shouldn't be worried, but you never know if he's going to pick apart my documentation. I'm hoping he doesn't, but there's always a chance that he does.

I can't really do anything now. I submitted it an hour ago!

I'm sure it is more than fine! Maybe he meant format in a much looser way than you are interpreting it (like do something with the references). If he thought it looked fine, you really should NOT be worried.

We had a paper assigned to us in Women's Studies class on how to properly cite in MLA or APA (we had a choice), along with a mock research paper, where we had to use a proper bibliography. Our instructions were very clear.

Could it be that you are over analyzing it?

Either way, it's handed in. Nothing you can do now but relax with a parrot.

zazanomore wrote:

Could it be that you are over analyzing it?

I over-analyze everything!

Aside from that, I'd really like to use this as a writing sample. Having it be anything less than perfect would be very, very bad.