Learning how to properly cite outside sources using MLA formatting is very important for students and professionals. Not only does it provide information to the reader of the work if she needs more information, it also allows the student to ethically include outside sources and avoid charges of plagiarism. One activity to teach students how to provide citations for all outside sources is to give the students a short academic paper or article with all citations removed. Instructors can either use a former student's work or his own. The students would then have to mark each place where a citation seems to be missing. This activity could work as either an in-class activity or as homework.
After mastering citations, students will need to learn how to correctly format the bibliography using MLA rules. One activity that helps students master the formatting is to create a group reference list. Each person in the group receives a different type of reference that may be used in a bibliography, such as a book in a series, a journal article or a biblical reference. Using either the "MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers" or a grammar and reference text (often issued to first-year college students but available in most bookstores), each student formats the proper bibliographic entry for the type of reference she has received. All of the references are then compiled into one master list, which can be copied and distributed to all members of the group to use as a reference when writing their own papers or articles.
It is important to understand why a bibliography is necessary. It enables the reader of the paper or article to find more information that may be useful to his own work. An activity to reinforce this concept is a bibliographic treasure hunt. For this activity, students are given an MLA-style bibliography and must identify where the sources are. Using the library, as well as the Internet, students must determine how they could actually find these resources---whether the item is an electronic resource or is in a nearby library. This has the additional benefit of teaching research and library skills. It works well as either a group activity or a solo project.
After completing these individual activities, it is time to put it all together. The best way to do this is to give the students part of an academic paper or article with missing, incorrect, and incomplete citations and bibliography entries. The students then make corrections where necessary. This can be done as a test, a homework assignment or an in-class activity. This allows the students to see how MLA citations and the MLA Bibliography are connected, and the importance of understanding the formatting for their own work.