Thank you all so much for your helpful and often witty responses. Comments were so
great that I copied and pasted the main ideas below (I deleted the names to protect
the innocent!).
Compilation stats: MLA = 23 APA = 2 BOTH = 6 and Chicago = 1. Most responses
stressed that it doesn't matter which format is used as much as it matters to be
consistent.
I have given your responses to our English teacher, who will then present to the
department. I am pretty confident that we will continue to teach MLA, which is
fine with me since our English department has managed to get everyone at the high
school AND middle school to "buy in" to using MLA format.
Thanks again!
Cathy
< We have had this discussion in the past... It's too confusing to
actually teach students more than one model, so we chose to stick with
one style and emphasize to students that there are other models (APA,
Turabian, etc.) that may be preferred by various instructors when they
get to college. The basic difference between MLA and APA is that MLA is
the preferred style for humanities, and APA is preferred for the
sciences (which is why all those darn science fairs insist on it). For
example, you will note that APA citations include the date near the
beginning, as currency of cited research is more of an issue in the
sciences than in the humanities. >
<We decided that MLA is what we should teach if we only teach one,
as virtually all college students will be required to take at least some
humanities and liberal arts courses, and many college students will take
virtually all liberal arts classes. Yes, you can say that every student
will take at least some science as well, and science majors may take few
humanities classes, but I think the preponderance of courses at the
college level are still using MLA, and there are more humanities
students as a whole. Obviously, if I were a feeder school for MIT, I might campaign
for APA. You need to look at your population and what you think their
future needs might be. I do think that if the scientific/techie
students are taught MLA in high school, they should not have too much
trouble making the switch in college. If they are taking science
classes and can't handle making the switch to learning to use the APA
stylebook instead of the MLA one they already know, I don't want them
doing MY brain surgery! >
<We use APA because that's what I became familiar with in grad school for my
library degree. It's what I teach in my research skills classes and I
encourage the English teachers to use also. I use it for the same reason,
it's what's being used now.>
<We have always been predominantly, if not totally, MLA. We have a couple of newer
teachers that prefer APA. My biggest concern is that teachers consistently require
citations and that students learn there is a correct method for listing resources
used. They can always look up the examples in whatever method is required. They
just must realize that there is a method and that they must use it.>
<I would advise first verifying that "most" colleges require APA now.
When I did a survey 5 years ago of Michigan colleges, the answers were
all over the place. English departments required primarily MLA, social
sciences APA, some departments used Chicago Manual of Style, and others
required styles I had never even heard of before. In some departments of
some universities it depended on the professor and there was not
department standard. As a result of this, we decided to stay with MLA and teach it
with
incredible thoroughness and introducing different styles to the upper
grade levels so that they would be aware that different styles exist.
Our rationale is that it is better to modify and accommodate a new style
if a student is well-grounded in at least one (rather than just okay in
many). The e-mails from former students that several of us receive seem
to bear out that conclusion.>
<We teach MLA because that is what the local colleges teach. APA is used
mostly for grad schools around here and we are not preparing them for grad
school but for college. Good luck.>
< We are using MLA format for everything... APA's never been mentioned
here... funny how things change every few years... and that way is the
'only' way>
<We use MLA and at a recent conference [Your Senior is my Freshman] with
local colleges the consensus was that MLA was the style to use and if
anything different was needed that the colleges would teach it.>
<As an English teacher for 24 years, I was never willing to teach another
teacher's curriculum. If a social studies teacher needed to teach research,
then I thought that teacher could teach APA style.
Meanwhile, I was going to use the style from my curriculum -- MLA. >
<We are MLA also, but we show the kids "Citation Machine" which will format
MLA, APA, Chicago and Turabian as well. We tell them they will have to
format whichever way their professors say!>
<You said an English teacher said that "most college/university papers use APA,
therefore we should be teaching what the students will use in college (also she
thinks it is easier than MLA)." Where does she get this information? I have
taught college English, I taught MLA, and I strongly prefer it. It seems more
logical to me than APA.>
<One of our English teachers has her students write their research paper in
MLA format. After it is finished & graded, the paper is redone in APA
format...just to show how to do a different style. All our high school uses
MLA except for this one project.>
<This is interesting because I just had the same discussion with my English
teachers. While it is true that most of the colleges, universities use APA, the
language arts departments usually stick with MLA. Go figure. When I asked the
head of our English dept. why we didn't then teach both, I was basically told that
the kids have trouble doing one right and now we should confuse them with another?
I still feel we are doing our students a disservice by not teaching both. Maybe
what you or whoever is promoting this needs to do is to find out from your guidance
dept. which colleges/universities most of your students attend after high school.
Then call those and find out what format they use for "most" of their papers. That
is probably the one I would go with, feeling that we should probably teach to the
majority?. Just some thoughts. I will be very interested in your responses. Oh,
bottom line is, we still teach MLA.>
<*. we are using MLA. Some of our younger teachers have
also suggested making the switch to APA, and we had a discussion
about it this morning during an inservice meeting. We haven't
decided which way to go, but it seems to me that if we teach one
method or another it isn't that hard to make the transition to the
other style. Of course Turabian is another one that is used, and it
is quite different than the other two. I have been polling students
who have gone away to school, and found that schools still use MLA
depending upon the discipline of the course. One of my daughters
went to Bowling Green, and she used predominately MLA in her
journalism major. My daughter at UK uses APA in her education
courses. A student at WSU told me recently that he used Turabian in
the history dept. I am planning to teach a semester Information
Literacy course next school year for senior English credit. I will
use MLA since that is consistent with the school, but I am going to
have them do an annotated bibliography in APA style so they at least
see another style>
<At my school we use three formats. English=MLA, science=APA, history=Chicago
humanities.
I actually kind of agree with your English teacher. More and more papers do
seem to use APA. The main difference is that in APA and Chicago science the
date is placed in parentheses after the author's name. It just makes it
easier to find a particular work without having to repeat part of the title
in the reference.
But, of course, someone is going to have to convince a lot of people that
this is a good thing. I'm not sure I'd want the task!>
<Here is what I told students when I was in a school library, and what I now
tell MLS students: Expect to use both! In Texas, Interscholastic League
Science projects require APA, and English teachers still like MLA. Have both
guides in your reference area, post good online guides as well as Citation
Machine, and tell students that in college they will need to be familiar
with both styles. Tell them that the styles are just recipes anyway, and not
things you need to memorize. Thus adapting to one or the other need not be
all that hard. Hope this helps.>
<Most colleges use APA for science and psychology but MLA for English.>
<Our entire school district made a commitment to choose one format and teach
it consistently throughout the grade levels, simplified for lower grades, of
course. The format we use is MLA.>
<we actually switched the other way a couple of years ago from APA to MLA at
the request of our English dept.>
<I did a survey of college librarians about 2 years ago and found out
that the citation format is usually up to the professor but every
librarian did say that MLA was definitely the most commonly used. This
survey was done in response to a similar debate at our school.>
<While I can't speak for every university, my experience at 3
universities tells me that there is no one style that they follow. At a
high school level, I think it is more important to stress the need for
citing what you use and following one format. I would advocate choosing
one system and following it. I would even suggest a modified system.
We cite so that others can find what we have found. >
<My children's HS use the MLA format. My daughter also takes courses at the
community college. She
uses the MLA style in her writing classes there. She's only taken two classes so I
don't know if
that is the general trend at her community college.>
<I did my graduate work at University of North Texas and I was able to use any
style I wanted, APA, MLA, Turabian, or Chicago. My son is going to a small private
college in Arkansas, Hendrix College and he uses MLA. There isn't consistency at
our local high schools but most use MLA with just a few teachers using APA.
Personally I think it would be better if they use just one style. It doesn't seem
to matter which one just be consistent for the students.>
<We use MLA because the colleges here still do. The only ones who use APA
format are graduate students...undergrads and our kids still use MLA.>
<Our high school uses strictly MLA (with one exception). Our new Spanish
teacher requires APA.>
<We use Chicago-style (Turabian) endnotes and bibliography as do most
historians.>
<We are MLA for the language arts and CBE for the sciences. Some teachers
would be happy with a list of URLs at the end of the paper.>
<Interesting! Perhaps you ought to be surveying the colleges your kids
will go to. As I understand things, they colleges and universities
aren't all that consistent. I would say that the process of citing is
more important than the details of APA vs MLA. Here at Skyline we
actually use both, but neither one is as rigorous as perhaps it could
be. We're more interested in getting the kids used to the idea of citing
ideas as well as words taken from somewhere else.>
<We are a 5-12 magnet school and we use MLA. I didn't use APA until grad school,
and it really depends on the department you are in whether or not you use APA. Try
suggesting a free citation generator such as easybib.com. That's what they need to
be doing anyway.>
<We use MLA for all classes except AP Psychology, in which they use the APA method
of citation.>
< My instructor during my master's program said that high school's should teach and
use MLA. APA is used for college and master's programs. As to why, I do not know.
I think there should be consistency, and since most high schools use MLA, then I
would stick with it. >
<I didn't use APA until graduate school and then it was only required in
one course. I think MLA is the way to go with high school students.>
<5-10 grades use MLA
11-12 gr. use APA>
<My youngest just graduated from UNT. APA was used in science classes
and MLA in liberal arts classes. That is generally the split, in my
experience.>
<It used to be that each department had their own way of doing things, but we
decided write our own research guide/format booklet for our students. We will be
updating it this summer. The important thing is not which format you choose, but
what we teach/emphasize is following a pattern, whether it be MLA, APA, etc. As I
also teach at the college level, (and the spouse is a Professor of Music). The
technical rule on format is that "liberal arts", e.g. English, World Language use
MLA, whereas social and hard sciences (library science, history, and the Dewey
500's use APA); that is what I have observed in practice. >
<Our District uses APA at the high school level. Though we have some English
teachers who want to use MLA because they think it is easier, and they think
colleges all use MLA.>
<Either system is going to prepare your students for college. Even if that
college uses a different system. With web sites like citation machine,
students can easily format their papers using MLA, APA, or even Chicago.
Teachers like to use the system they are most comfortable with, and will
argue that their system is easier.>
<I would check with the local college and university libraries in your area,
and see which system professors are using on their campuses. This will
provide you with the information needed to decide which system your school
should use in your area.>
Cathy Horn
West IMC Director
Centerville High School
500 East Franklin Street
Centerville, OH 45459
(937)439-3564
(937)439-3574 (fax)
cathy.horn@centerville.k12.oh.us
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