Mla Format For Paper

The MLA documentation style covers all aspects of scholarly writing, beginning with the mechanics of writing and publishing, through the basics of writing style, to guidelines for the preparation of theses and dissertation writing. Although the MLA guidelines cover all aspects of writing and publishing a paper, MLA documentation style places special emphasis on the proper citing of sources of information in one’s written work, and how to properly and consistently cite them throughout a paper or manuscript.

MLA produces two major style publications as follows:

• The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (targets high school and undergraduate college and university students).
• The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (targets graduate students, scholars, and professional writers).

There is often confusion when teachers, students, editors and researchers use the terms "MLA format" or "MLA style". The following three paragraphs from the MLA website should clear up some of that confusion: 

"The Modern Language Association does not publish its documentation guidelines on the Web. For an authoritative explanation of MLA style, see the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (for high school and undergraduate college students) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (for graduate students, scholars, and professional writers). 

The style recommended by the association for preparing scholarly manuscripts and student research papers concerns itself with the mechanics of writing, such as punctuation, quotation, and documentation of sources. MLA style has been widely adopted by schools, academic departments, and instructors for nearly half a century. 

MLA guidelines are also currently used by over 125 scholarly and literary journals, newsletters, and magazines with circulations over one thousand; by hundreds of smaller periodicals; and by many university and commercial presses. MLA style is commonly followed not only in the United States but in Canada and other countries as well; Japanese translations of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers appeared in 1980, 1984, and 1988, and a Chinese translation was published in 1990." 

A key feature that differentiates MLA style from other major style conventions is that it recommends that the citation of works (sources) be listed “in-context” within the text of a paper, rather than in page footnotes or chapter/document endnotes.