Review by Choice Review
A new companion to the student-oriented MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (2nd ed., 1984), this manual provides scholars in the humanities with a useful, authoritative guide to the mechanics of scholarly writing. Its coverage ranges from plagiarism and copyright to preparing manuscripts in machine-readable form, and includes more than 100 pages on documentation. Unencumbered by information intended primarily for editors, the MLA manual will appeal to writers who find the Chicago Manual of Style (13th ed., 1982) unwieldy; others will prefer the Chicago manual's abundance of detail, its famous obsessiveness. (The MLA manual, for example, has a paragraph on illustrations and tables; Chicago devotes a chapter to each.) On some points the two differ, e.g., the preparation of indexes. On the other hand, both manuals endorse the author-date form of citation, thus making a significant step toward standardization in scholarly documentation. The prose is exact, and the organization, index, and examples are most helpful, although one misses the detailed chapter tables of contents of the Chicago manual. The bibliographical references for further consultation are excellent. Already standard source.-S. Lehmann, Swarthmore College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
