The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 8th ed.
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Original title | The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
Subject | Style guide |
Publisher | Modern Language Association of America |
Publication date
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2016 |
Published in English
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April 2016 |
Pages | xiv + 146 |
ISBN | |
OCLC | 930786330 |
808.02/7—dc23 | |
LC Class | LB2369 .G53 2016 |
Preceded by | MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed., 2009) |
Website | http://style.mla.org |
The MLA Handbook (8th ed., 2016), formerly the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (1977–2009) is a publication of the Modern Language Association (MLA). According to the MLA, the MLA style "has been widely adopted for classroom instruction and used worldwide by scholars, journal publishers, and academic and commercial presses".
Like the MLA Style Manual, the MLA Handbook 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, such as English studies (including the English language, writing, and literature written in English); the study of other modern languages and literatures, including comparative literature; literary criticism; media studies; cultural studies; and related disciplines. Released in April 2016, the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook (like its previous editions) is addressed primarily to secondary-school and undergraduate college and university teachers and students.
The MLA Handbook grew out of the initial MLA Style Sheet of 1951 (revised in 1970, 1977, and 1988), a 28-page "more or less official" standard. The first five editions, published between 1977 and 1999 were titled the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. The title changed to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers in 2003 (6th ed.).
The seventh edition's main changes from the sixth edition were "no longer recogniz[ing] a default medium and instead call[ing] for listing the medium of publication [whether Print or Web or CD] in every entry in the list of works cited", recommending against listing URLs, and preferring italics over underline. Additionally, the seventh edition included a website with the full text of the book. Later online additions allowed for citation of e-books and tweets.