Activity

Spot the Differences

If a paper does not follow the rules of MLA formatting, an instructor can easily and quickly see that the formatting is off.

For instance, picture a mother asking her child to get dressed for a normal school day. The child comes-out ready to go wearing a bathrobe and slippers. The child got dressed, but did the kid follow the rules of what is appropriate to wear to school? The child did not follow the conventions of what it means to "get dressed," and the mother can easily see that.

This is the same with MLA formatting. There are certain rules that are expected to be followed when being asked to write in MLA formatting. If those are not followed exactly, instructors (like the mother) can quickly see that the paper has not been formatted correctly.

With the above information in mind, let's do an exercise based-on an activity that you might have done as a child: "Spot the Differences."

If you are unfamiliar with the activity, or have just forgotten it, here is how it works. Spot the differences between the two images. Below is an example of four differences found between the two Hello Kitty images:

Now, try this out by finding the differences between the correct and incorrect MLA formatted papers below. Scroll through the images of the correctly formatted paper and the images of the incorrectly formatted paper to compare.

Note: You are only looking at differences in formatting, not content.

Correct MLA Formatting

Incorrect MLA Formatting

The above paper was adapted from "A Short Essay on Online Learner Success."

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