|
MLA Style
About the MLA
MLA is the common acronym for the Modern Language Association,
which was founded by a group of teachers and scholars in 1883 to promote
the study and teaching of language and literature. The MLA has over
30,000 members, living in over 100 countries.
The MLA publishes the MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers, by Joseph Gibaldi. The latest edition, the 6th
edition, was published in 2003. The Handbook defines MLA Style, which is
used in many English, Literature, and Humanities classes in institutions
around the world. The handbook treats every aspect of research writing,
from selecting a topic to submitting the completed paper.
About MLA Style
MLA Style is a variation of Chicago style that is
widely used in the humanities. MLA style relaxes some of the stringent
standards of Chicago/Turabian style, and brings a sensible approach to
referencing and citing source material.
The most significant change in the sixth edition of
the Handbook was the expansion of details regarding how to specify
reference entries for online and electronic sources.
MLA Style specifies details about many different
aspects of document preparation, including:
| • |
Editorial style, which specifies details of
punctuation, abbreviations, and language usage. |
| • |
How reference entries for
many different sources are cited, both in the body of the document
and in the Works Cited section. |
| • |
The appearance of
documents, including page margins, paragraph spacing, font usage,
figure and table inclusion, and related details. |
For more information about
writing documents in MLA
Style, see our MLA Style Details page.
About Software Products for MLA Style
Most students and professionals now use software to
help them prepare documents in MLA Style. There are a number of programs
you can buy to help you with creating and editing documents, and to help
in preparation of reference entries and citations.
Here at Writing Resources, we've tested and compared
all of the popular software packages for preparing MLA-style documents.
We recommend StyleEase for MLA Style (available to the general public in August,
2004) as our top choice for students writing
term papers, theses, and dissertations.
Our complete list of
comparisons and recommendations is here.
|
