MLA STYLE
MLA STYLE
A Written Report
Submitted to:
December/19/2024
Here are 15 unknown vocabulary words and their definitions:
7. Plagiarism - The act of copying someone else’s work or ideas and presenting them as
one’s own.
9. Capitalization - The act of writing a letter in uppercase, particularly in titles or proper nouns.
10. Abbreviations - Shortened forms of words or phrases (e.g., ed. for editor).
11. Subtitle - A secondary or additional title that elaborates on the main title of a work.
12. Hyphen - A punctuation mark (-) used to join words or separate syllables.
13. Masthead - The section of a newspaper or magazine that lists its title, editors, and
publication details.
15. Citation - A reference to a source of information, typically used to give credit to the author.
Here are 15 objective questions with answers based on the provided text:
1. Who published the first MLA style manual? Answer: Riley Parker
2. In what year was the first MLA manual published? Answer: 1951
3. What is the primary purpose of MLA formatting style? Answer: Acknowledging sources
Answer: Italics
Answer: Period
Answer: Author, title, site title, editor, publication info, access date, URL
14. When was the MLA style sheet updated to reduce Roman numerals?
Answer: 1970
Modern Language Association (MLA) is one of the paper formats to prepare their essays or
other writing assignments and cite sources in arts and humanities. Basically, Riley Parker was
the first person to publish an MLA style manual in 1951. In this case, the manual was an
official guide to the writing conventions by considering the question of what is MLA format.
Moreover, the manual helped to publicize MLA, which became the preferred referencing style
in school, colleges, universities, and other renowned publishers. Hence, MLA formatting style
helps scholars to acknowledge information obtained from various scholarly sources by using
parenthetical MLA citation.
If you've ever felt like MLA and APA styles are rival citation formats, you're actually kind of
right. MLA Style was created in 1931, just two years after APA Style. MLA members Carleton
Brown and Cyril Arthur Peerenboom invented the style to create a consistent look and, more
importantly, consistent grammatical and citation rules for the scholarly journal the association
published. MLA had a few bugs to work out in its early days, such as choosing to use in-text
citations instead of footnotes. Now in its eighth edition, the style has evolved into a helpful rld-
renowned citation method for writers of all experience levels MLA format has gone through a
series of changes since its invention. For instance, Riley Parker published the first MLA
manual in 1951 to solve disagreements that existed concerning its consistency. Before the
publishing of the first manual, scholars thought that MLA had many problems that were hard to
agree. In this case, the first manual provided the basic rules for MLA format. Then, the MLA
style sheet was updated in 1970 to reduce the use of Roman numbers and inclusion of
publisher’s names in the bibliographic information. Besides, the knowledge of what is MLA
format becomes crucial in among scholars who publish their research results.
Since the 1950s, MLA format continues to be an essential referencing style among people
through various updates in schools, colleges, universities, and other writing fields. For
instance, the knowledge of what is MLA format helps a writer to proof the exact location of the
information in a source. The statement alludes to the page number of the paragraph that
contains the ideas used in the MLA format paper. Besides, the approach helps scholars to
reduce cases of plagiarism in their work..
Your list of works cited should begin at the end of the paper on a new page with the centered
title, Works Cited. Alphabetize the entries in your list by the author’s last name, using the letter-
by-letter system (ignore spaces and other punctuation.) If the author’s name is unknown,
alphabetize by the title, ignoring any A, An, or The. For dates, spell out the names of months in
the text of your paper, but abbreviate them in the list of works cited, except for May, June, and
July. Use either the day-month-year style (22 July 1999) or the month-day-year style (July 22,
1999) and be consistent. With the month-day-year style, be sure to add a comma after the
year unless another punctuation mark goes there.
Underlining or Italics?
When reports were written on typewriters, the names of publications were underlined because
most typewriters had no way to print italics. If you write a bibliography by hand, you should still
underline the names of publications. But, if you use a computer, then publication names should
be in italizes.
The MLA guidelines specify using title case capitalization - capitalize the first words, the last
words, and all principal words, including those that follow hyphens in compound terms. Use
lowercase abbreviations to identify the parts of a work (e.g., vol. for volume, ed. for editor)
except when these designations follow a period. Whenever possible, use the appropriate
abbreviated forms for the publisher’s name (Random instead of Random House). Separate
author, title, and publication information with a period followed by one space. Use a colon and
a space to separate a title from a subtitle. Include other kinds of punctuation only if it is part of
the title. Use quotation marks to indicate the titles of short works appearing within larger works
(e.g., “Memories of Childhood.” American Short Stories). Also use quotation marks for titles of
unpublished works and songs.
Books
Format: Author’s last name, first name. Book title. Additional information. City of publication:
Publishing company, publication date.
Examples:
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Creators: A History of the Heroes of the Imagination. New York:
Random, 1992.
Hall, Donald, ed. The Oxford Book of American Literacy Anecdotes. New York: Oxford UP,
1981.
Searles, Baird, and Martin Last. A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction. New York: Facts on
File, Inc., 1979.
Note: If the dictionary or encyclopedia arranges articles alphabetically, you may omit volume
and page numbers.
Examples:
Pettingill, Olin Sewall, Jr. "Falcon and Falconry." World Book Encyclopedia. 1980.
Format:Author’s last name, first name. “Article title.” Periodical title Volume # Date: inclusive
pages.
Note: If an edition is named on the masthead, add a comma after the date and specify the
edition.
Examples:
Kanfer, Stefan. “Heard Any Good Books Lately?” Time 113 21 July 1986: 71-72.
Hall, Trish. "IQ Scores Are Up, and Psychologists Wonder Why." New York Times 24 Feb.
1998, late ed.: F1+.
Kalette, Denise. "California Town Counts Down to Big Quake." USA Today 9 21 July 1986:
sec. A: 1.
Website or Webpage
Format: Author’s last name, first name (if available). “Title of work within a project or
database.” Title of site, project, or database. Editor (if available). Electronic publication
information (Date of publication or of the latest update, and name of any sponsoring institution
or organization). Date of access and <full URL>.
Note: If you cannot find some of this information, cite what is available.
Examples:
Dove, Rita. “Lady Freedom among Us.” The Electronic Text Center. Ed. David Seaman. 1998.
Alderman Lib., U of Virginia. 19 June 1998 <http://etext.lib.virginia.edu /subjects/afam.html>.
Levy, Steven. "Great Minds, Great Ideas." Newsweek 27 May 2002. 10 June 2002
<http://www.msnbc.com /news/754336.asp>.
Journal Article
Format: Author’s last name, first name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, vol. number, no. issue
number, Year, pages. Database Name (if applicable), DOI/URL (if online).
Note: The title of the journal is italicized. Include the volume and issue numbers if available.
For online journal articles, include the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) or a stable URL. If
accessing from a database, include the database name.
Example: Doe, Jane. “Digital Media's Impact on Teen Behavior.” Journal of Modern
Communication, vol. 10, no. 3, 2021, pp. 123-138. JSTOR, doi:10.1234/jmc.2021.45678.
Learned, Truly. “The Web-Toed Bibliosaurus: Cranial Measurements Indicate a Smarter than
Average Lizard.” Journal of the Paleocranial Society, vol. 85, 1995, pp. 566-592.
Bisantz, Adam and Bea Biserk. “Adaptivity and Genetic Predisposition to Temper Tantrums.”
Misbehavior and Medication, vol. 35, no. 3, 2000, pp. 34-48.
SUMMARY:
When writers take the time to credit original authors and sources, they demonstrate respect for
others' work. That's where MLA format comes in – a cornerstone of academic writing. This
format transforms research papers into clear, concise, and credible masterpieces. Imagine
diving into a neatly organized bibliography, where sources are alphabetized and punctuation is
consistent. It's like finding a treasure trove of reliable information! This precision not only
prevents plagiarism but also showcases attention to detail. MLA format navigates diverse
sources – books, articles, websites, social media, and more. Although mastering multiple
formats (APA, Chicago) can be daunting, MLA provides a straightforward roadmap. By
embracing MLA format, writers demonstrate academic integrity, respect original authors,
enhance research clarity, build credibility In conclusion, MLA or Modern Language Association
format fosters honest, high-quality research. By using it effectively, writers pave the way for
meaningful contributions to their field.
References: