brocktopus

Why the MLA's Format for Citing Tweets Misses the Mark

A year ago, the Modern Language Association (MLA) announced its preferred format for citing tweets:

Lastname, Firstname (TwitterHandle). "Tweet message in its entirety." Date of tweet. Tweet. (Extrapolated from an example at http://www.mla.org/style/handbook_faq/cite_a_tweet)

Earlier this week, for whatever reason, many academics on Twitter were passing this info along as if it were brand-new. Many were excited that the option to cite a tweet as a tweet exists at all, and it is heartening that the MLA has attempted to keep up, citation-wise, with the far more rapid pace of technological experimentation.

brocktopus

Re-Regarding Tools

Recently, Ryan Trauman (@trauman) provided an introductory overview of some tools that may be of interest to instructors looking to incorporate new media into their research and teaching.

For the most part, I think this is a solid introduction to significant questions that need to be addressed by scholars engaging themselves in new media work. However, there was one section of his text that I felt was off the mark. I include it here:

It’s one thing to capture some excellent material with which you’re going to work, but you’re going to have to put it together with other elements in order to make it a text. That’s where the software comes in. If you’re an Apple person, and you want to stick with those products because of the integration, power, and simplicity, that’s fine. Do your thing. The iLife suite should be enough to help you produce pretty much anything you’d like to produce. Ho