Reference Reviews

Lawrence Looks at Books

MLA style manual and guide to scholarly publishing, 3rd edition. Joseph Gibaldi. 336p. New York : Modern Language Association of America, 2008. 978-0-87352-297-7; 2008-2894. $32.50.

Although designed for the scholar preparing professional manuscripts, this familiar style manual, along with its student-oriented companion, the MLA handbook for writers of research papers, has long been recommended to college students preparing term papers in the humanities. In fact, the two publications have been staple resources for students seeking guidance with the preparation of footnotes for freshman English papers. While the Handbook was last published in 2003, MLA has not revised their recommended documentation formats since the 1998 edition of the MLA style manual. During the intervening 10 years, the world has witnessed tremendous changes in the way scholars access information, with widespread adoption of the Internet and electronic journals. The academic acceptance of the Web as a scholarly medium is reflected in the changes in footnote forms that appear in this edition of the MLA style manual. While the previous edition did address Web resources, footnotes generally required citation of the exact URL where the information was consulted. The sprawling Web addresses frequently doubled the length of citations. MLA no longer recommends such precision. The new standard for electronic materials is similar to print standards in requiring author, title, publisher, edition and date of publication, but also includes the title of the overall Web site, plus the medium and date of access. Actually, the medium of access (print, Web, CD, DVD, etc.) is now expected for all citations; so that too is the same. For materials born in print but now available on the Web, MLA recommends the somewhat redundant documentation of the publication features of the original as well as the means of access, including electronic databases and Web sites.

While these simplified standards are consistent and easy to follow, the guide still does not provide what most students want to see. In other words, the same detailed examples of every variation in electronic publications that is provided for printed media. In addition, the table of contents, while enumerating the types of examples, no longer includes the page numbers for specific examples. This reduces the volume’s ability to serve as a quick-reference tool. Otherwise, the coverage and content of this edition is much the same with its survey of scholarly writing, publishing, copyright issues, manuscript preparation and documentation. The chief change is the elimination of the appendices summarizing other style systems. The greater consistency in the size and style of typefaces also results in a much cleaner look. Still a fundamental tool for scholars in the humanities, this volume is a required purchase for academic libraries.
—John R.M. Lawrence