MLA Style, a standardized writing format established by the Modern Language Association, refers to:
This is a quick guide intended as a starting point. If your citation situation isn't covered here, try these other online citation guides or a print handbook in BC Libraries.
The MLA updates handbooks and style guides regularly to adapt to new norms in scholarship.
With the 8th edition, MLA style changed significantly: instead of a long list of precise rules organized by source type, MLA adopted the MLA Core Elements as "a set of universal guidelines that writers can apply to any source" ("What's New"). To build a bibliographic entry, instead of searching for a definitiive source type, you'll look for descriptions of various core elements such as author, title of source, etc., and build the entry element by element.
The 9th Edition has added considerably more examples and clarity about the core elements, along with some new recommended changes to language and format.
Work Cited
"What's New in the Eighth Edition." MLA Style Center. Modern Language Assocation, https://style.mla.org/whats-new/.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th Edition)
MLA Handbook (8th Edition)
MLA Handbook (9th Edition)
