MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd Edition

Provides information on stylistic aspects of research papers, theses, and dissertations, including sections on writing fundamentals, MLA documentation style, and copyright law.

"MLA's guidelines acknowledge the great changes in the way scholarship is disseminated and consumed today. . . . The most dramatic changes are to citation styles themselves our primary interest in the manual anyway. In the second edition, as in the current editions of all other academic style guides that I could find, directions for citing electronic resources are tacked on at the end of the section on citations, and the citation format looks almost exactly like that of a print resource except that it contains a URL at the end of it. In the third edition of MLA, however, citations now include a medium (like print or Web ) for all publications, putting electronic documents on a more equal footing with print ones. Furthermore, URLs themselves are no longer included in citations in most cases; instead, the title of the overall Web site and publisher or sponsor of the site are provided to help you locate the resource. This refreshing change in perspective is longer overdue: after all, readers are increasingly likely to search for an article by title and author rather than transcribe the URL given in a print citation or follow a hyperlink that is likely to have broken.

The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing still has that special magic. While your publication venue (or professor) usually determines which style guide you ll use, it s nice to know that, for once, the humanities aren't the last to adapt to changing technology." --The Journal of Electronic Publishing, Spring 2008

"MLA's scholarly guide was last revised ten years ago, when the online universe was less pervasive than it is now. As a result, MLA users might have expected an expanded section on online sources, but they also might have expected simply an updating of the traditions that MLA has promulgated for almost sixty years. Those users would be wrong. This edition moves MLA's scholarly guidance into the twenty-first century in ways that most of us would never have expected." --The Writing Lab Newsletter, October 2008

"Clearly written, this style manual has the official imprimatur of the Modern Language Association of America. New features include citation formation for electronic sources and guidelines for preparing electronic files. Also featured are useful sections on placing a manuscript with a journal and with a press, copyediting, proofreading, and preparing an index (including strictures on the limitations of indexing software.) This third edition of the manual is indispensable. . . . Essential." --Choice, November 2008