1. Changes to MLA in 2016:
(Illustration from the MLA,
An Overview to Aid the Transition to the Eighth Edition of the MLA Handbook
By Debbie Burdick, Writing Center Coordinator, Alamance Community College

2. Change is good . . .change is good . . .
The previous edition of the MLA Handbook prescribed patterns for documenting different types of sources. The eighth edition is “a system for documenting sources that begins with a few principles rather than a long list of rules” (MLA 3).
There is more than one way to document a source, and the choice depends on what the writer’s readers need to know.

3. The nine core elements for documenting any source
Sample
Author.
Title of source.
Title of container,
Other contributors,
Version,
Number,
Publisher,
Publication Date,
Location.
Puig, Manuel.
Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Translated by Thomas Colchie,
Vintage Books,
1991.

4. Puig, Manuel. Kiss of the Spider. Woman. Translated by
Puig, Manuel. Kiss of the Spider Woman. Translated by Thomas Colchie, Vintage Books, 1991.
(MLA Handbook 25)

5. Using the nine core elements to document a journal article
Sample
Author.
Title of source.
Title of container,
Other contributors,
Version,
Number,
Publisher,
Publication Date,
Location.
Tilman, David.
“Food and Health.”
Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences,
vol. 144,
no. 4,
Fall 2015,
pp. 5—7.

6. Tilman, David. “Food and Health. ”. Dædalus, Journal of the
Tilman, David. “Food and Health.” Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, vol. 144, no. 4, Fall 2015, pp. 5—7.

7. Most of the words on the list are familiar, but “container” is new in MLA and denotes the larger whole where the source appears, whatever that may be. A poem may have a book as its container; an article may be contained in a magazine, journal, newspaper, or website, just to name a few (30); a song may be contained on a CD or a website.
Various containers

8. A single source may have more than one container.
An article appearing in a journal may be available through a database such as JSTOR. Whenever a source is nested inside more than one container, the second container is listed after all information on the first container is provided (MLA 31).
Coles, Kimberly. “The Matter of Belief in John Donne’s Holy Sonnets.” Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 68, no. 3, Fall 2015, pp JSTOR. Doi: /

9. A source with more than one container
Author.
Title of source.
Title of first container,
Other contributors,
Version,
Number,
Publisher,
Publication Date,
Location.
Title of second container,
Location
Coles, Kimberly.
“The Matter of Belief in John Donne’s Holy Sonnets.”
Renaissance Quarterly,
vol. 68,
no. 3,
Fall 2015, pp
JSTOR.
Doi: /

10. Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Associate Executive Director of the Modern Language Association likens these containers to Russian nesting dolls.

11. Here are some other highlights of 8th edition MLA documentation
In keeping with the overall goal of providing information that is practical and readily understood, the information is less coded. For example, instead of writers simply listing the volume and page numbers for a journal article entry, the labels vol. and no. are included, as in this example:
Tilman, David. “Food and Health.” Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, vol. 144, no. 4, Fall 2015, pp. 5—7.

12. Including information about online locations
The new MLA says to include the DOI, permalink, or URL, whenever one exists, as the last section of a works cited entry.
What is a DOI? A digital object identifier is a unique number attached to an online object. It is useful for finding articles that appear in various locations. See
The 8th ed. advises omitting or from the URL (110). The hyperlink will still work without them.
Coles, Kimberly. “The Matter of Belief in John Donne’s Holy Sonnets.” Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 68, no. 3, Fall 2015, pp JSTOR, doi: /
Leonard, Andrew. “The Surveillance State High School.” Salon, 27 Nov. 2012,

13. Optional Elements
The eighth edition also allows “optional elements” in the works cited entry at the writer’s discretion (50). Some of these were standard elements in the previous MLA. Original publication date, city of publication, number of volumes in a work, and date of access are now all optional elements that should be included if they provide information important to their specific use. For example, original publication date is important if it provides historical context for a source (50).
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus Project Gutenberg, December 10, 2012 [EBook #41445],

14. Your North Carolina MLA Experts
We are not
Your North Carolina MLA Experts
Who is? The Modern Language Association
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