There is a new edition of the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, which was just published last month (May 2008). Most students are aware of the format they should use for their papers, which is usually MLA, APA, or Chicago Style. (For more information on the styles, click here). But you may not know that these style guides actually help dictate the format of your entire paper from how to create a title page, numbering your pages, the voice you should use in writing, to how to paraphrase or introduce quotations.
The MLA (Modern Language Association) actually has two different style manuals. There is the more familiar MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers which is a guide for undergraduate students. This new edition is the guide for graduate students, faculty, and other writers for scholarly publications. The new edition of the Style Manual has many new features, including (from the MLA website):
- a significant revision of MLA documentation style
- simplified citation formats for electronic sources
- detailed advice on the review process used by scholarly journals and presses
- a fully updated chapter on copyright, fair use, contracts, and other legal issues
- guidelines on preparing electronic files
- discussion of the electronic submission of a dissertation
- a foreword by Domna C. Stanton on the current state of scholarly publishing
- a preface by David G. Nicholls on what is new in the third edition
If you have any questions about using this guide, ask for help. The library has a copy in the reference section in the Schaumburg and Auditorium Building libraries. Click here for the library listing for this book.
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