How many mla editions are there

Jacobs, Alan. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. Oxford: Oxford UP, This version includes the city of publication Oxford and the medium print , which the new eighth edition does not require. Kincaid, Jamaica. This version identifies the volume 24 , the number 2 , and the page numbers of the scholarly journal, rather than leaving those numbers without clear explanation.

This helps readers best make sense of your citation and allows them to locate your source without getting bogged down with extra information or references that can be difficult to decipher. Also note that punctuation is simple; only commas separate the journal title, volume, number, date, and page numbers. Kincaid , Jamaica. This version includes the volume and number The seventh edition emphasized following a strict punctuation formula, such as parentheses around the date and the colon, while the new eighth edition focuses on providing this information in a more streamlined manner by using only commas to separate each component.

Every source you come across can be added to a Works Cited using these Core Elements. See the Core Elements tab for more info. MLA 9 will be designed for this:. Two important things the Purdue Owl has to say about all this emphasis mine :. From the Purdue Owl's page all emphasis mine :. If you are already familiar with traditional MLA citation methods, continue to use them in a more simplified form.

For a description of other changes, such as how to handle abbreviations. It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. They wanted to provide flexibility to writers in creating entries for research sources. Be sure and check with your instructor about which edition to use. MLA is a style guide primarily used for the humanities, arts, and language.

Because the sources used for research are diverse, MLA citations are more flexible to use than other styles. In that case, rather than citing a print book or journal for your source, you would need to list the piece of art and its physical location.

Although MLA style allows some flexibility in creating your entries in the works cited list, your entries need to be consistent within the list.

The seventh edition of the MLA Handbook, published in , carried on the tradition of providing specific examples of ways to document sources and ways to create entries in the works cited list. It also eliminated the use of URLs in the works cited List as it seemed cumbersome and websites tend to disappear or change names.

Another change in the MLA Handbook Eighth Edition was to include the medium of publication in the entry, for example, including the word Print for a book source or Web for a web source.

Previously, print was the assumed medium. So, you only had to note other publication mediums. Before they revised the MLA Handbook , the editors realized that it was time-consuming to create new ways to cite sources on so many different platforms.