The MLA Style Manual
The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing
(2008), first published by the Modern Language Association of America in 1985
is an academic style.
What Is MLA Style?
The Modern Language Association publishes two guides for writing
and documenting research. The MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides guidance for high school
and undergraduate students who are preparing research papers for academic
credit. The MLA Style Manual and Guide
to Scholarly Publishing advises graduate students, scholars, and
professional writers on the protocols of advanced research writing, peer
review, and publication.
All fields of research agree on the need to document
scholarly borrowings, but documentation conventions vary because of the
different needs of scholarly disciplines. MLA style for documentation is widely
used in the humanities, especially in writing on language and literature.
Generally simpler and more concise than other styles, MLA style features brief
parenthetical citations in the text keyed to an alphabetical list of works cited
that appears at the end of the work.
The association's guidelines are also used by over 1,100
scholarly and literary journals, newsletters, and magazines and by many
university and commercial presses.
How To Format a
Research Paper (MLA Format)
Recommendations here are based on the MLA Handbook for
Writers of Research Papers.
