Reading citations before writing them

One of the things that I notice at the Reference Desk is that many students (both undergraduate and graduate) have difficult in reading citations that they have been given. Whether it's from a footnote, an endnote, or a works cited page, or something that an instructor has sent them, the student cannot immediately tell if they are dealing with an entire book, part of a book (such as a chapter or essay in a book with multiple authors), or an article from a periodical (journal, magazine, or newspaper).

Before students can develop their skills in writing correct citations for things that they find, it would be helpful to them if they could develop their skills in reading citations. Can a student look at a citation and determine that they are dealing with a book? If the citation is for a journal, can they distinguish the journal title from the article title? Can they identify the volume number, the issue number, and the page(s)?

Just as children are taught to read before they can write, students should be taught to read citations before they are expected to write them. Then they can more easily determine if they have all the necessary information in the citations they produce.