Why Plagarism Rules are the most important part of a Research Assigment

My research drafting was tedious and overwhelming. I learned a little bit about how to write a research paper because I was drowned in busy work the whole time. Although I could not focus too much on learning how to write a research paper, I learned that I need to read over the rubric multiple times because I forgot to put my works cited page in my submitted draft. I had already put it on my document that I wrote my first draft on, and decided to put it into the properly formatted template. I accidentally didn't highlight the works cited list to paste it in and I received half credit on the whole assignment.

I also learned that MLA citations are not actually usable. I know that they are somehow the "proper" way to format citations, but it is incredibly difficult to find the source through them. I could not locate one of my sources on the database I found it, so I pasted the MLA citation that I had on Noodle Tools. The source would not pop up, and I lost an important document I could have used in my project. I have learned that you should copy the actual URL of each document so you can find it, but show your teachers the non-usable MLA citations in order to not be a "plagiarist". I understand that plagiarism is a serious problem in the world, but I do not believe that MLA citations should be the proper thing to use.