An overworked postal worker.

A parent asking where you were when you get home late after curfew.

These are personality traits that graduate assistant Kelly Weber gave to MLA and APA citation styles during a presentation she conducted on Nov. 19 in the Cottonwood Room.

This late in the semester, nearly every Wayne State College student has been forced to utilize either MLA or APA citations when writing a paper. For some students, that paper is still in the works. It’s that ten-page, research monster due at the end of the semester.

And anyone who’s had the pleasure to cite their paper, has likely become frustrated with trying to figure out just how to go about it.

But Weber, who works with the Writing Help Desk, gave plenty of useful tips which came with a side order of candy and citation examples involving dinosaurs.

APA, which stands for the American Psychological Association, is used mainly in the fields of science, psychology and education. Weber says that this citation style is like a worried parent asking where you are when you are out late after curfew. They want to know who you are with and when you’ll be home. So, the author’s name comes first, followed by the year of publication.

MLA, which stands for the Modern Language Association, is known as the “feeling” citation style. It’s used in the humanities and the language arts. This citation style Weber refers to as an overworked postal worker who is more concerned with who and where, rather than when. Here the author still comes first, but is followed by the title of the publication and the medium that it is in.

Opportunities for candy were given to those brave souls willing to come up and volunteer to hold a piece of paper. It took some coaxing for the shy group, but the candy worked as a good incentive.

Weber praised Ebsco-Host and advised students to buy a copy of “A Pocket Style Manual” (6th edition) for a reference when dealing with citations. She also said that the Purdue OWL website is a helpful resource for citing, but to be cautious because citation format changes over time.

In these final days of the semester, remember that the Writing Help Desk is available in the Conn Library.