MLA Style Guide   Tags: citations  

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.

MLA style has been widely adopted by schools, academic departments, and instructors for over half a century. 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. The MLA's guidelines are followed throughout North America and in Brazil, China, India, Japan, Taiwan, and other countries around the world.

***NEW***

• Titles that were formerly underlined (books, periodicals, films, etc.) are now italicized.
• The type of publication must be listed for every works cited entry. Print publications were formerly recognized as the default type and were therefore not listed as such. They must now be designated as a Print publication.
• Print and Web will be the most commonly designated type. Other types may include DVD, Videocassette, Interview, etc.
• URL’s are no longer recommended. The designation Web will let your reader know that you are using an online source.
• Include a URL only when the reader cannot possibly locate the source without it, or when your instructor requires it.
• Journal citations must now include both the volume and issue numbers whether or not they use continuous pagination.

• Works cited from the Web must include the abbreviations N.p. when there is no publisher given, n.d. when the date of publication is missing and n.pag. when pagination is not used.