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
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Get the top blurb right.
No teacher first name Olde-English-Style date |
John Smith
Professor Ramsay
Research Methods 300-300-DW
26 March 2014
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Title is centered Caps on each Title word |
The Rain Was Heavy and Wet
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Source Last Name, and page. No date in citation. |
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Text is 2.0 spaced, and aligned to the left. |
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
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These are “works of art”, hence Works Cited. |
Works Cited
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Full first name when possible. Full second name also. |
Abraham, Markus. Making MLA Really Fun. New York City: Crazy Fun Press. 2004. Print.
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An association or government organization, is NOT a person’s name, so no comma. |
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.
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Notice the italics are for book or journal titles.
The quotation marks are for article or chapter titles. |
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.
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The second author’s first name comes first… |
Pringle, Michael, and John Gonzales. The MLA Style of Documentation – A Pocket Guide. Boston: Pearson Education. 2010. Print.
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Text is 2.0 spaced, aligned to the left half an inch. . |
Ramsay, Charles-Albert. November Rain. Montreal: Providential Allegories Printing Co. 2010. Print.