Citation management tools like ref works, end note, cite monkey, etc are crutches. Theyre like calculators-that can’t add.

We don’t let kids use calculators until they can add 2+2 and get 4. But somehow, some faculty think its ok to let students muck around with citation managers when they can’t tell APA from MLA.

Sure, they were supposed to learn citation in high school. They were also supposed to learn spelling, grammar and punctuation, how to do algebra, and the parts of the solar system and the periodic table. They probably didn’t. So students come to college ignorant, and have to be brought up to college level, because the profs demand college level work. And no one wants to sacrifice class time to do remedial work, I get that. I hate having to spend part of my precious 50 minutes teaching students where the address bar is , or how to navigate the library homepage. Kids should know this. But if it’s not being taught, what can you do?

You have to teach it.

And I mean teach it. Not turn to some electronic substitution. You want your students to turn in papers in MLA style, then you damn well better teach MLA style in class. Make it just as much a part of your freshman composition syllabus constructing an argument, and weigh it as heavily in your grading rubric as spelling. Don’t pawn it off on your librarian or turn to a computer program.

All the citation management software turn out something that looks like a proper citation. But they all get something subtly wrong. It could be a comma, it could be an extra space, or something could be left out. It can also be human error. If you use a tool where you have to enter your own data, or fill out forms, and you misspell something, or worse yet, you don’t know where to find something (what’s a publisher?) or enter something in the wrong field, then you’re screwed.

Using citation management software without knowing how to cite is like using a calculator without knowing how to add. You don’t know if the machine is doing it wrong. And if you have to rely on your ignorance to get a passing grade, you’re in trouble.

Teaching bibliographic citation is hard, finicky, tedious, and boring: the comma goes there. It only goes there. There’s no other place for it.
It has to be this way.
Why? Because MLA says so, that’s why.

Perhaps your best hope for a fun lesson bibliographies is to have it be a Memory type game, or a spot the differences puzzle. Fill in the blanks. Mad-Libs, only without the fun. Or the creativity.

My school subscribes to ref works. Its a fine tool, very useful for upper level students, grad students and faculty. Its overwhelming for freshmen, who only have to cite 5-10 sources per paper, as rule. Its using a cargo crane to pick up a pencil. Its a zombie apocalypse horror movie full of overkill.

And it’s not something I can include in a 50 minute “library tour” information literacy session. So please stop asking for it.

Ask me instead to explain bibliographies, or to demonstrate how to cite books, articles and websites. As me to juggle knives while riding a unicycle blindfolded. Just don’t ask me to teach citation management as a bandaid.