I think my students have collectively decided not to learn or adhere to MLA formatting. No matter how many times I mark their citations as incorrect, doc them points, and exhaustively discuss it in class, they remain careless.
I came into class one day with a set of my own various books, anthologies, magazines, and printed electronic articles, along with several copies of the MLA handbook. I divided my students into groups, handed out the supplies, and told them to give me the Works Cited entry for each source they were given. It was a miserable failure at first, then it became a contest, and by the end of the class my students were engaged, having fun, and to my bewilderment, coming up with the correct citations.
Before I dismissed the class, feeling triumphant in my success, one student asked why they had to learn this when they just use Easy Bib. I had to then explain to the class that their Easy Bib citations were consistently incorrect, and I had been taking points off on their papers because f this. Needless to say, she was not pleased with my response and proceeded to roll her eyes at me.
Now at the close of the semester, I sit with her final essay in front of me, and I am taking points off from her paper because she is still insisting on using Easy Bib for her citations. Stubbornness, or stupidity? Perhaps both?
This is not to say that many students did not benefit from this activity. However, it still astounds me that the negativity from one students has the ability to outweigh the positivity from several.