If you have ever wondered why MLA is used and how it will impact your assignment, read this blog post.
The MLA style is a prescribed format for academic and research material, propounded by the Modern Language Association. It is a highly popular format that finds extensive application in various disciplines of humanities studies such as English literature, history, and many others.
The MLA style can thus be defined as a well-recognized standard of written material in the regularly updated MLA Handbook. When formatted and arranged according to the MLA style, a piece of written communication becomes unambiguous, making it easier for the reader to understand and appreciate the content. It is one of the most common formatting styles followed by many educational institutions worldwide with APA and Chicago styles being some of the other common alternatives.
If you have ever wondered why MLA is used and how it will impact your assignment, read on – we provide a comprehensive discussion about these questions concerning the MLA style.
What are the different features of an MLA-style assignment?
The MLA style of formatting is known for ascertaining the reliability and credibility of a written manuscript or research paper. In the MLA Handbook, detailed instructions about the preferred font, spacing requirements, heading styles for different levels, and citing information sources are provided.
For instance, while preparing an MLA-style assignment, you are required to maintain a 1-inch page boundary on all sides and highlight your student and course details at the top-left corner of the first page of your assignment. This is different from many other formatting styles, such as APA, which require the writer to develop a distinct cover page for their assignment.
The MLA style generally prohibits the use of different fonts and text colors. For text differentiation, MLA uses different patterns of bolding and italicization. It allows the writer to highlight necessary information while ascertaining a professional outlook of the document.
A key feature of MLA-style assignments is the use of an author page-number format for in-text citations. Citations inside the text are necessary to highlight the parts of the document which have been obtained from secondary sources. These external sources are also enlisted at the end of the document under the heading of works cited.
In-text citations usually follow quotations or other components of the document and help highlight the fact that it was obtained from an external source. This is a distinguishing feature of the MLA style as in some of the other assignment formatting styles, the in-text citations do not include page numbers and highlight only the author/s’ last name.
How does MLA style impact your assignment?
The aforementioned unique features of an MLA-style assignment may impact your writing in various ways. From enhancing its readability to improving overall credibility, the impacts of the various features of MLA style are as follows:
- The MLA style is a formatting standard that is largely acknowledged by the global liberal arts and humanities streams. With the help of strict and specific formatting guidelines, the MLA style allows students and researchers to produce standardized manuscripts that are fit for publication in most reputable journals. You might wonder why we are so concerned with the standardization of the document format. It is found that having a standardized format allows readers to easily explore the various parts of a text and not get distracted by unexpected formatting. For instance, a reader habituated to handling MLA-style texts can easily identify the headings and subheadings in the document, facilitating the correlation of one part of the document with another. Thus, by producing an MLA-style assignment you enable yourself to become part of a globally appreciated community of scholars.
- The MLA style encourages clarity and brevity in the text. The demarcation of different levels of headings in a document is encouraged in this style which enables a hassle-free exploration of the entire text. In the MLA style, writers are encouraged to construct multiple subheadings under a large topic, which are then formatted in such a manner that they can be distinguished from each other. It prevents the construction of long and monotonous chunks of text which might end up boring or confusing your reader. With the help of the MLA style, you can design a focused, brief, and unambiguous document that is often appreciated by a wide variety of readers.
- The MLA style, as discussed above, does not allow the use of different fonts or text colors unless explicitly specified. To emphasize a certain portion of the text, the writer must use varying combinations of text highlighting techniques such as bolding, italicization, text orientation, or underlining. This approach to text highlighting allows a writer to present a professional-grade document with a standardized appearance. The professional appearance of the written material is key to its acceptance as a credible and authoritative source of information that could be used for future reference purposes.
- One of the most important aspects of the MLA style of formatting is the citation guidelines. Referencing external sources of information used in the development of academic material is a significant contributor to its overall credibility and reliability. The absence of due accreditation of external sources is often termed plagiarism which is considered to be grave misconduct in the global academic community. Plagiarism essentially refers to the intentional or unintentional and unauthorized use of a piece of information that was either collected or generated by another scholar. The inclusion of plagiarised content in literary material essentially erodes your credibility and raises serious concerns about your overall competency. Thus, the MLA style of formatting takes due measures to safeguard your credibility in the following manner:
- The parenthetical citations included in MLA-style assignments specifically highlight the author/s’ last name and the page number of the document from which the information was obtained. By following this citation format, you specifically highlight those portions of your text which were obtained from an external source. These citations are especially significant when you include quotations in our text, which is a common occurrence in liberal arts documents. By highlighting the source of the quotation, you not only eliminate the chances of plagiarism but also enhance the ethos component of your text.
- The works cited list at the end of the document includes a detailed description of the source and the external links which will allow a reader to directly access the particular information source that you have used while developing your document. It is especially beneficial for a reader who is interested in undertaking some additional reading concerning your subject matter and may seek to explore some other credible sources of information on the topic. With the help of the source description included in your works cited list, the reader is only a few clicks away from the content they wish to explore.
- A quick look through your works cited list will also provide your reader with an opportunity to analyze the credibility and reliability of the data sources you have accessed. As a student/researcher, you may obtain supporting information from various online and printed materials such as websites, journals, books, newspaper articles, and many others. Nowadays, a substantial amount of information is available on the internet. However, not all articles contain reliable and credible information. For your document to be treated as a professional-grade and credible document, you need to ascertain that all information included in the text is authentic. Your works cited list is, therefore, suitable evidence of the credibility of the sources that have contributed to your material and can help enhance your reputation in the academic circle that will have access to your document.
- The addition of page numbers in the in-text citations is an additional measure of enhancing the credibility of your document. In an MLA-style assignment, the presence of page numbers in the parentheses facilitates the quick assessment of the in-texted material by your lecturer. Furthermore, for readers looking to explore the source of information, the page numbers make it easier to scroll through a huge amount of information.
- The key purpose of an assignment is to demonstrate a strong command of a subject matter and obtain good grades in return. In the MLA style of formatting, a writer has ample scope to display their understanding of the content in addition to various standards of credible academic writing. Thus, proper utilization of the MLA style will allow you to attract the attention of your readers to the most important parts of the text while providing due credit to any external source wherever applicable. Therefore, the MLA style of formatting can help you secure good grades and earn recognition for being a skilled, professional, and credible writer who is efficient in undertaking necessary research and presenting the same.
Thus, to conclude this discussion about the benefits of the MLA style, if you wish to present a professional standard document and establish your reputation as a credible writer of literary material, the MLA style is the way to go.
Here are some example of types of assignment writing;
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