The MLA Style Manual
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| MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing | |
|---|---|
 MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd ed. (2008) |
|
| Author | Modern Language Association of America (MLA); Domna C. Stanton (Fwd.), David G. Nicholls (Pref.) |
| Original title | MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Style guide |
| Publisher | Modern Language Association of America |
| Publication date | 2008 |
| Published in English |
May 2008 |
| Media type | print; large print; also listed as available as Audio book |
| Pages | xxiv & 336 |
| ISBN | 9780873522977 |
| OCLC Number | 191090459 |
| Dewey Decimal | 808/.027 22 |
| LC Classification | PN147 .G444 2008 |
| Preceded by | MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (2nd ed., by Joseph Gibaldi) |
The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (2008) is the third edition of The MLA Style Manual, first published by the Modern Language Association of America in 1985. It is an academic style guide widely used in the United States, Canada, and other countries, providing guidelines for writing and documentation of research in the humanities, especially in English studies; the study of other modern languages and literatures, including comparative literature; literary criticism; media studies; cultural studies; and related disciplines.
According to the MLA book catalogue description, since first being published in 1985, the MLA Style Manual has been "the standard guide for graduate students, scholars, and professional writers." MLA style "has been widely adopted by schools, academic departments, and instructors for over half a century"; the MLA's "guidelines are also used by over 1,100 scholarly and literary journals, newsletters, and magazines and by many university and commercial presses," and they are "followed throughout North America and in Brazil, China, India, Japan, Taiwan, and other countries around the world" ("What Is MLA Style?").
Contents |
[edit] Purpose
The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd ed. (2008), by the Modern Language Association of America (based on the work of Joseph Gibaldi with co-author Walter S. Achtert for The MLA Style Manual [1985], revised in the 2nd ed. in 1998), is addressed primarily to academic scholars, professors, graduate students, and other advanced-level writers of scholarly books and articles in humanities disciplines such as English and other modern languages and literatures. Many journals and presses in these disciplines require that manuscripts be submitted following MLA style.
[edit] Documentation format
[edit] Citation and bibliography format
[edit] Works cited
MLA style provides a bibliography of "Works Cited" listing works cited in one's text and notes (either footnotes and/or endnotes), which is placed after the main body of a term paper, article, or book.[1]
[edit] Content notes
In composing "content notes" (formatted as either footnotes or endnotes), one is directed to "avoid lengthy discussions that divert the reader's attention from the primary text" and advised: "In general, comments that you cannot fit into the text should be omitted unless they provide essential justification or clarification of what you have written" (259). "You may use a note, for example, to give full publication facts for an original source for which you cite an indirect source" (259). MLA style "content notes" use the same method of "Parenthetical Documentation and the List of Works Cited," with sources keyed to the list of "Works Cited", discussed in Section 7: "Documentation: Citing Sources in the Text" (240–60).[2] If one is using a quote from a play, the writer and act have a space between them, and a period is placed between the act and the line, but with no space, such as; "Citing a play is slightly different than citing a book." (Smith 2.42). "If the quote has multiple lines / The lines in the quote are separated by a slash / And a dash in the citation." (Smith 2.43-45). If the play has scenes, the scene number is added in-between the act and line, "and a period is put after it." (Smith 2.3.46).[3] The same is done if the quote contains multiple lines.[4]
[edit] Bibliography ("Works Cited")
[edit] Book
Author's name [last name, first name, middle initial or middle name (as given)]. Title. Place of publication: publisher, date. Print. Supplementary information (if any).
Hodgkinson, Tom. How to Be Idle. New York: Harper, 2005. Print.
[edit] Article in a periodical (magazine or journal, as well as newspapers)
Author's name [last name, first name, middle initial or middle name (as given)]. "Article title." Title of periodical Volume number ("for a scholarly journal").[period]issue number ("if available, for a scholarly journal") Date of publication within parentheses ("for a scholarly journal, the year; for other periodicals, the day, month, and year, as available"): Pages ("inclusive"). Print.[5]
Brophy, Mike. "Driving Force." Hockey News 21 Mar. 2006: 16-19. Print.
Kane, Robert. "Turing Machines and Mental Reports." Australasian Jour. of Philosophy 44.3 (1966): 334-52. Print.
If the journal uses only issue numbers, cite the issue number alone.[6]
If citing a "locally-published newspaper" whose city of publication is not in its title, the city is put in square brackets (but not italicized) after the title of the newspaper (178–79).
[edit] Internet resource
Name of author of webpage (last name, first name, middle initial or middle name [as given]). "Article Title." Title of Webpage [publication]. Sponsoring Agency, date of publication (or date page was last modified). Web. (Medium of publication) Web address (optional). Date accessed.
CNN and Reuters. "Boston Columnist Resigns Amid New Plagiarism Charges." Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., 19 Aug. 1998. Web. 6 Mar. 2009.
[edit] CD-ROM
Name of author (last name, first name, middle initial or middle name [as given]). "Article title of printed source." Periodical title of printed source, or title of printed analogue Date: inclusive pages. Title of database. CD-ROM. Name of vendor or computer service. Electronic-publication data or data for access.
Reed, William. "Whites and the Entertainment Industry." Tennessee Tribune 25 Dec. 1996: 28. Ethnic NewsWatch. CD-ROM. Data Technologies, Feb. 1997.
[edit] Personal interview
Name of person interviewed (last name, first name, middle initial or middle name [as given]). Personal interview. Date interviewed.
Pei, I. M. Personal interview. 10 July 1993.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Such notes are generally referred to as "content notes" and may include additional information about sources, other sources to consult, using common scholarly abbreviations such as Cf. ("confer") and E.g. ("for example") and introductory phrases like "See" or "See also", followed by one or a series of additional source citations, as well as other kinds of explanations, additional interpretations, or analyses.
- ^ For a full discussion of "Content Notes," see esp. 7.5.1 (259–60).
- ^ All of the quotes used that were cited as written by Smith are fake. They were never used in a play, and are included as examples
- ^ http://www.colby.edu/personal/l/leosborn/quotes.html
- ^ Issues are no longer distinguished as consecutively or separately paginated in the 3rd ed. of the MLA Style Manual. If issues are numbered, the issue numbers are required.
- ^ For details of citing "periodical print publications," including newspapers and scholarly journals, see 6.5 (174–85).
[edit] External links
- "Frequently Asked Questions about the MLA Style Manual" – "MLA Style Manual FAQs" (official MLA Webpage)
- "MLA Formatting and Style Guide" — The OWL at Purdue University. (Use information from 2009 updates for the most up to date information.)
- UC Berkeley guide on MLA citation style
- MLA Style
- Long Island University MLA Citation Site
