Doc Scribe's MLA Document Set

MLA Style Document Set
MLA style is a crisp modern style with many linkages to Chicago style. For example, references closely follow the Chicago bibliography format. Many text rules, though, are the MLA's unique invention, such as when to write numbers as words, and when to use figures. The shortcoming of the style is a tendency to complicate things needlessly, like quotations and Internet references.

The best strategy is to get the basic features of the style right, and to be consistent with everything else. Those who wish to do more will find the MLA Document Set a useful resource. Central to this is the MLA "Nota Bene List," a list of 30 MLA style features that range from the near obvious to petty details. For example, this gem comes from the MLA Handbook: “Be consistent in writing dates: use either the day-month-year style (22 July 1999) or the month-day-year style (July 22, 1999) but not both” (Gibaldi 100).

Doc Scibe's MLA Document Set

The MLA Document Set includes the Writer's Guide to MLA Style-NB Edition and the MLA Web Sheet. The Writer's Guide incorporates the MLA Quick Reference (available free) and 25 pages of notes on MLA style features and punctuation. The "Nota Bene" is hyperlinked to the appropriate reference in the guide.

	MLA Writer's Guide & Nota Bene. The Nota Beneis embedded in the Writer's Guide to MLA Style, along with the MLA Quick Reference and 25 pages of style notes (TOContents \| Nota Bene \| page format \| references \| text rules).
	MLA Web Sheet. The MLA Handbook describes a murderously complex process for referencing sources found on the Internet. The MLA Web Sheet offers the short course through this labyrinth (screen shot).

MLA Handbook Woes. The current sixth edition followed the fifth edition of the MLA Handbook by just a couple of years. In that short period the complex rules for formatting and presenting quotations were largely reversed or made optional. New formats for Internet references were also devised. These are complex verging on bizarre. It is generally accepted that if a source is not durable online, if it disappears before you finish your paper, it is not a source. No amount of documentation can legitimize it, though MLA tries. Will this too change with the next edition?

Watch Yor Step! Most styles have things that can trip you up, and they do not post warning signs to mark these pitfalls or provide lists of what is really weird. It is up to you to dig them out. The MLA Nota Bene answers 30 questions you might not think to ask.

	MLA Nota Bene #9. Centuries and decades (answer). Do you write the Twentieth Century, twentieth century, 20th Century, or perhaps the 20th century? How about the sixties, 60s, 60's, 1960's, or perhaps the Sixties? The MLA Nota Bene lists the questions you need to ask (and answers them).
	MLA Nota Bene #16. Headings and subheadings. The MLA Handbook makes no provision for the use of headings or subheadings in a paper. But about half the papers published in the MLA's own journal (PMLA) use subheadings. These are featured in the MLA Writer's Guide.

Download: MLA Document Set (ZIP File 660 KB)

The MLA Doc Set requires a password to install. This is $2.00 through the Amazon.com Honor System. If you are not satisfied you can get a refund. Once your payment has been made you will taken to a page with the password, confirmed by e-mail. The doc set cannot be installed without the password. Note, the password is case sensitive.

Passwords are good for all future updates of the MLA Doc Set as well as the APA and Chicago Doc Sets.

Amazon.com

Gibaldi, Joseph. 2003. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern

Language Association of America. Link to Amazon.com: ( Paperback $17.00, 361 pages).

The MLA Handbook documents a style especially appropriate for scholarship in literary fields. Coverage of documentation formats for text citations and references is excellent, occupying about a third of the volume. Other sections introduce the process of research and writing, and the mechanics of punctuation, mostly quite conventional. The new sixth edition has relaxed requirements for using brackets in quotations and expanded coverage of referencing Internet sources.

Fall 2007