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6 – MLA Style

Why Should I Care?

Some journals (and academics in that same field) use the MLA style, which is useful to know.

The Basics

MLA stands for Modern Literature Association. This group of “English Lit” professors share a common style for the publishing of papers, which are fiction, and usually prose.

It is known to be a very short format, without a cover page, which saves trees.

The style is also used by many historians, anthropologists, and many other disciplines in the humanities. If the text is not fiction, there is a specific style for citations (paraphrase and quote).

Here is the complete set of guidelines for the Dawson-approved MLA style.

http://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/academic-skills-centre/handouts/

The Format
  • Get the top blurb right.
  • No teacher first name
  • Olde-English-Style date
  • Title is centered
  • Caps on each Title word
  • Text is 2.0 spaced, first line indented, and aligned to the left.

John Smith

 

Professor Ramsay

 

Research Methods 300-300-DW

 

26 March 2014

 

The Rain Was Heavy and Wet


            C.A. Ramsay’s thought provoking prose is best known for a repetitive passage in his ground-breaking novel November Rain (Ramsay, 67): “I tried to find shelter. But there was none. The rain was pouring down on my head and giving me a splitting headache. I tried to find shelter. But there was none.” According to Mark L. Davidson’s lengthy analysis (Davidson, 54), the author tried to find “shelter.”

 

The Bibliography
  • These are “works of art”, hence Works Cited.
  • Full first name when possible. Full second name also.
  • An association or government organization, is NOT a person’s name, so no comma.
  • Notice the italics are for book or journal titles.
  • The quotation marks are for article or chapter titles.
  • The second author’s first name comes first…
  • Text is 2.0 spaced, aligned to the left, secondary lines indented half an inch.

Works Cited

Abraham, Markus. Making MLA Really Fun. New York City: Crazy Fun Press. 2004. Print.

 

Burroughs, Peter. ‘‘Ramsay, George, 9th Earl of Dalhousie’’, in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, Université   Laval/University of Toronto, 2003, Retrieved 9 March 2020, from http://www.biographi.ca.

 

Commission de toponymie. “Rue de Ramezay.” Gouvernement du Québec, 2010.

 

Davidson, Mark L. A Guide to Ramsay’s Literature. Montreal: Happy Times Books. 2013. Print.

 

Fielder, Jean. “Asimov’s Robots.” Critical Encounters: Writers and Themes in Science Fiction. Ed. Dick Riley. New York: Ungar, 1978. 1-22. Print.

 

Libby, Orin Grant. “Ramsay as a Plagiarist.” The American Historical Review, vol. 7, no. 4, 1902, pp. 697–703. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1834565. Accessed 9 Mar. 2020.

 

Pringle, Michael, and John Gonzales. The MLA Style of Documentation – A Pocket Guide. Boston: Pearson Education. 2010. Print.

 

Ramsay, Charles-Albert. November Rain. Montreal: Providential Allegories Printing Co. 2010. Print.

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