MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Sixth Edition Reviews

• A necessity for writers of college research papers.

  
  By AYH7FF915C5AH on 2004-01-22
  Knowledge of MLA formatting is a necessity for writing college research papers these days. As an older, part-time college student, I found myself lacking the skills to properly cite information in my papers. Not having time to take an entry level English class, to learn the MLA style, I turned to the MLA Handbook for guidance.

  This easy to use book has been a lifesaver! The book is well organized and provides plenty of examples. The table of contents is broken down so well, something that is not common enough in textbooks, that within minutes of picking up the book, you have a concrete example of what you need.

  Each section starts with the most basic example of citing from a particular type of work and builds, step-by-step, to a complete citation. The applicable example for entry into the Works Cited Page can be found with ease as well.

  If you will be writing research papers, or currently find yourself having difficulty citing, this is a tool you should strongly consider.

  "Tight Lines!"
  ~..~..~.. ><((((*>
  
  

• An essential book for college students

  
  By A23GFTVIETX7DS on 2003-10-28
  With his MLA HANDBOOK, Gibaldi has written one of the best stylebooks for college students. Accessible yet detailed enough to help students navigate tricky issues of citations and format, this book offers excellent advice for writing term papers. The electronic citation section is especially helpful since many style manuals have not been properly updated to embrace contemporary research practices.

  This book should be on every college student's shelf. For those already well-versed in MLA style, consider Gibaldi's more advanced MLA STYLE MANUAL AND GUIDE TO SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING.
  
  

• Perfect for basic college papers

  
  By A1RS4N4YERTJ8R on 2002-06-10
  I am incredibly anal about formatting my papers correctly, because it represents easy points to me. As most of you know, a large portion of almost any grade on a paper is format. I have bought many handbooks and guides for the MLA format, and I can say with absolute certainty that Joseph Gibaldi's is the best. Of course everyone has their own format, and as you become more specialized in your education you will no doubt be prodded away from MLA into that of your own niche (APSA modified version of CMS for me... ~groan~), but this book will prove most valuable for the majority of your undergraduate education. It has basic tips for research and the mechanics of writing; which, unless you slept through all of your high school English classes (or, as in the case of myself, have an emnity with commas), you'll probably know already. Where this book is indespensible is in its exhaustive documentation listings. To date, I have never found a source which this book doesn't list. I thought I had it stumped this morning when I needed to know how to cite an online congressional record of a speech, but to my surprise it was there, prompting me to write this review! This book has been a lifesaver many times; every college student needs it. Sit down, follow the instructions in the book (well first make sure your instructor wants your paper in MLA format!), and I promise you that you will receive full marks for the format portion of your grade! My only quibble is that it says you don't need a title page, yet I have never had a professor that didn't require one. However, that is an issue for the people who sit around and think up the MLA rules, not with the book. I do believe this has been the most useful book of my college education!
  
  

• The MLA Handbook is indispensible for research authors.

  
  By on 1996-12-13
  Easily the most useful book any college student could own, the MLA Handbook is full of information on how to correctly cite almost any source. It helps to please any professors who insist on 100% accurate citations. A must have for anyone who writes any number of research articles, it is definitely a sound investment. If you don't have the MLA Handbook, you're left guessing on new citation standards such as CD-ROMs, Online postings, speeches, television shows, radio addresses, etc. The book has bailed me out on a number of occasions, especially when I have been forced to go to 'unorthodox' sources for information.
  
  

• The MLA Is a Joke

  
  By A2LONX7E5LHCJE on 2002-04-05
  Not many scholarly or academic journals, much less reputable publishers, recommend the use of the MLA, and for good reason. It's not very thorough, and many of its recommendations are against the prevailing views. Annual MLA meetings are often the bane of serious writers and academia, and is frequently the material for murmors and shouts. The book seems attractive, because it's short. If a briefer version of the "Chicago Manual of Style," *the* authority on style, is desired, then Kate Durabian's book based on "Chicago" is the reccommended version. For the very economical, which is not suitable for serious papers, there is always "Elements of Style," a perennial favorite of style. But don't waste time and money on MLA, where you'll learn to do things wrong, and be told bad form is okay.
  
  
• Very Helpful
  By A2SPMLHB7ZA836 on 2000-02-21
  This is a must for any high school or college student learning about citing materials (either traditional or electronically). I use this to cite references for my collegework.
  
  
• A Must-Have for Writers
  By A2LIA6TQ8HKE0E on 2000-12-03
  Comprehensively indexed and meticulously cross-referenced, the MLA Handbook seems to have format and style guidelines for each and every situation you may need help with. Many times when I have been stumped on some strange, complicated, and obscure format or style issue that could cost me points, I have been pleasantly surprised because MLA had anticipated just such a situation and explained a way out. Because the Modern Language Association is nationally recognized (USA) as the definitive authority on writing style, format, mechanics, and source citation, few instructors will be presumptuous enough to take exception to it. By using this handbook, you are safeguarding your grade.
  
  
• ok, but could be bigger
  By A1CARK7KW1B00S on 2003-10-05
  This book is for people who write papers. In fact, you can't write a paper without it. The MLA format is easy to use because you don't have to do it right unless your teacher is hard.

  This book should be bigger. I wanted to write a paper about MLA style, but I didn't know how to cite the handbook. They need a chapter about how to cite research guides. Also, they need a chapter on how to cite from video games because I wrote a paper on "Final Fantasy VII" and the scene where you have to fight Sephiroth and take back the world from his minions, but when I tried to include the something from the game, the MLA book didn't tell me how to do it. Also, if doesn't tell you how to cite from wrestling interviews or candy wrappers.

  If they ever revise this book, they should make it longer and include more ways to cite. I gave this 3 stars because it's ok.
  
  

• MLA Handbook: The Savior of College Students
  By A1VRIXABC0F66R on 2006-03-07
  The MLA Handbook is the most useful writing instruction manual available. The handbook's straight-forward English and clear-cut presentation of its contents, will make writing research papers, formal letters and yes, citations, a smooth and swift task. College freshmen and sophomores will be sharpened and formed into skilled and knowledgeable writers. And their anxieties will be consumed by a confidence that no longer fears those dreadful words "research paper." But this does not mean that you should sell it back after you meet your requisites! The MLA handbook is a not something you discard like those odious textbooks that are reprinted and updated every semester. It is a trustworthy handbook there for your literary refinement, always. The MLA handbook should be issued to all incoming students at orientation.
  
  
• Great useful information for young aspiring writers! Buy it!
  By A1UDKEZNIAD71A on 1999-04-27
  A great book that helped me tremendously with my writing of my research papers. The easy to follow instructions and the usefulness of it's information astounded me. Thank you so much for writing the MLA Handbook for those of us who are aspiring writers.We try so hard to write good quality works but we need help finetuning the criticals and the formatting of such things. The MLA Handbook does it all. Reading and writing are my passions and my all time favorite hobbies. I love to review books so send me any and ALL information about new releases and books of interest to you at Amazon.com. I am interested in all topics including literature of the fantastic of the 20th centuary and famous works of the early times. Mainly Shakespere, Hemingway, Frost, Dickens and Dickenson. I also enjoy poetry and short comical works as well as biographies and art/culture books. I am quite proud to say that I love shopping and browsing in bookstores for hours but I found your website just as useful.

  ~future author~
  
  

• THE book to have
  By AZ43UZLJNC53K on 1999-11-08
  This is absolutely the book to have for any research paper at the high school level and above.
  
  
• THE SOURCE OF ALL WRITING MANNER
  By A364X07NE1XD9 on 2002-05-25
  I recently had to write a 10 page research paper for a Greek history course I was taking. One of the required books to use when writing this new style of paper was the MLA handbook.

  At first glance I thought that this book would be a rough overview of things I already knew since that is what most books of this are. However, the MLA is much different, I am convinced, after 7 months of use, that this is THE PERFECT format book ever.

  If you are trying to write a well written and comprehensive paper, this book is a must. If you are trying to pull up your grade with perfect formatting and source citing, this book is a must. If you want a good grade period, this book is a must.

  Do not brush this book away, buy it, keep it, and cherish the tons and tons of information it gives in a very readable manner.
  
  

• Acceptable Guide for Writing Acceptable Research Papers
  By A2B9Y0WXNSN17U on 2003-12-16
  The best parts of this edition of the MLA guide are those that enforce the mechanics of strong writing, though if you're the creative type with unconventional ideas, there is no need to be constrained by these guidelines. Another good section concerns plagiarism, especially the tips on how to avoid both malicious and accidental plagiarism. The guidelines on how to conduct research are better presented elsewhere, while the chapter on how to format a paper is not entirely useful unless you have an assignment that demands that particular type of formatting. Otherwise you will often be free to use a format and construction style of your own choosing. Of course the meat of this guide is the sections on citations and bibliographies, which quite clearly explain the punctuation and mechanics of just about every type of citation imaginable (including new-fangled Internet sources). The only problem is that these sections are difficult to search because of a fuzzy index that sends you to annoyingly demarcated section numbers rather than page numbers. [~doomsdayer520~]
  
  
• Required & Almost Complete
  By A3ESHVIR987JQN on 2004-10-04
  The MLA is the standard for most literary papers. The book itself is well-formatted and easy to read. It is fairly easy to find what you need except when it is not in the book.
  
  Because of the lapse in time from writing to publication, style requirements change as new forms of information become available. One type of citation I needed was not in the book and I finally had to search for the MLA website. That is the reason I do not give this book 5 stars, they do not list their own website for up-to-date style references. By using the website with the handbook, I find answers to most of my style questions.
  
  For reference, the website is www.mla.org/ Enjoy!
  
  
• A Necessity!!
  By A2XLNDHRYZIJXK on 1999-04-04
  I don't know how I wrote papers before I got this book. It covers all the aspects of a research paper that a college student needs to know from layout to citations. Topics are easy to find and illustrated.
  
  
• A definite reference for College students.
  By on 2004-01-29
  I use this book almost in daily basis. As a graduate student - I write several journal articles and research papers weekly. This book is my primary reference book when I edit the final draft copy. If you are in college - I suggest you should invest the money and get this book - you will need this book many times for proper referencing, quotation, and correct punctuation style.
  
  
• The General Handbook on Writing.
  By A96K1ZGW56S2I on 2005-02-02
  The MLA Handbook is THE handbook used for writing in high school and colleges across the United States. The APA handbook comes in 2nd place, but it can't stand up to the MLA Handbook. English teachers across the country swear by it, and despite what people might think, English teachers do have a great deal of clout when it comes to writing with the mass populace. There have been a few minor changes that the MLA has made since publishing this edition. Nevertheless, this is the latest edition and until edition 7 comes around, this will be the handbook on writing and researching that tons of students across the country will become familiar. A good resource.
  
  
• A great guide to a great style
  By A2VE83MZF98ITY on 2005-08-31
  The MLA (Modern Language Association) style is my preferred style for writing papers - both in terms of citation and in terms of overall format. While I must confess to making small changes (based on my British English background and preference), I still adhere to most of the MLA standards when it comes to putting together research papers.
  
  This is a guide that is useful not only for writing, but also for researching. There is a section that discusses researching both in a library and online. The guide then gives a refresher course in grammar, spelling, sentence and paragraph construction, and other elements of style that are useful in the general academic paper.
  
  By far the most useful part of this guide is the section that shows how to reference in footnotes, endnotes, in-line/in-text citations and proper documentation of sources. While there are few elements due to new media (how does one reference a video on MPG format that doesn't actually reside on a website?) that might not be covered, this guide is fairly comprehensive when it comes to in-print, internet, and other media resources.
  
  For undergraduate students, graduate students, academic writers and general writers, the MLA style is easy to follow, fairly intuitive in approach, and comprehensible even by those not training in such styles.
  
  
• Useless Crap and the Pinnacle of Busy Work
  By A2L119B70PDKAH on 2006-01-10
  There are some things in life that I just do not understand at all. Being this detailed in citing a reference is one of them. People, let's all think about this logically for a moment. Someone is writing a term paper for high school or college. This person obviously does a lot of research, spends time editing his grammar and the way the paper flows, and making sure all of his points are accurate and effective. He has spent mich time putting his notes together and typing his research into a fully comprehensible paper. After all of this, he wastes a lot of time looking up how to "correctly" cite a source.
  
  What I don't understand is why you can't just do something like write down the author's name and the title so that if anyone wanted to go back to the original source, they can. This would work a lot better than wondering what gets underlined, what gets quotes, where all of the puntuation marks go, and every single minute detail this book worries so much about. Certainly this would not be considered plagiarism in a society that thinks logically because you are giving credit where credit is due, and anyone can go back and check what publishing company and city and year your book is from if need be.
  
  It is a sad day for mankind when we get extremely picky over how we're going to cite sources. An author and the title would be plenty. This book is busy work in its worst form. It spends time that is needleslly wasted.
  
  
• A Must-Have Book for College Students
  By A3KY68OTSNHM3G on 2006-07-03
  I have used this book extensively since I began my Master's degree program, and I have been very pleased with both the content and simplicity of use. Having been out of school for several years, I found myself confused as to how to correctly cite various types of media for a bibliography, but this great book is loaded with examples of how to correctly cite any type of media.
  
  From book citations to internet websites, this book conatins complete chapters along with detailed examples of different citations and how to correctly place them in a bibliography. The text is comprehensive and easy to understand. I have referred to this book numerous times to find a correct citation, and every time I have been able to find an example of the citation I was looking for.
  
  I give this great book my highest recommendation. It is a necessary tool for any student who is required to write a research paper. If you're having trouble finding the correct way to cite items for a bibliography, then check out this great resource. You'll be sure to find what you're looking for inside.
  
  
• A wrong choice!
  By on 1998-02-12
  I was greatly disapointed in the offerings of this book. One glaring miscue is the fact that it has only one research paper as an example, and then it does not fully offer examples. In one case an inline refernce to a page is made in this research paper example. Yet, there is no refernce pointing to information that explains its format. In other matters, it is woefully lacking in the area of MLA usage and electronic mediums such as the Internet. The information provided is sparse and lacking. In addition it is poorly written and apparently was rushed to press. One would think there would be at least 4 or 5 examples of papers or articles in the book there is only one (pages 264-265)! And this one is so poorly done that it is a scandal that they have the nerve to publish this book as a refernce for MLA styles. Pass this book up or waste your money!
  
  
• Most useful grammar book you'll ever purchase
  By A1SIGPA4EXBOC2 on 2002-09-26
  I recently purchased this book (after referencing it quite often at the library), and it is easily the most well-laid-out grammar book I have ever used. There are examples for just about every scenario one could hope to think of, and these examples prove to be the most useful things in the book. The index is perfectly laid out so one can find *exactly* what one wants without thumbing around wasting time.
  
  
• thank god they updated it!
  By A13HQTA9SRY4ZJ on 2005-03-03
  After staring at the 5th edition through a 4 year B.A., and continuing to refer to it into my graduate degree, I am SO glad they put out a new edition with an update on citing the internet. Hopefully they will have updated some of the other things that are missing for university students who want to work beyond a basic level research paper. Definitely worth keeping within reach if you have to write any Humanities paper
  
  
• Decent, Not Great--Needs Better Help on Internet Cites
  By on 2002-09-08
  If you're relatively new to the MLA style, this book is a decent introduction. It has a fair number of samples and will get you started with few holes in your knowledge. However, the real shortcoming of this book is in the discussion of Internet citations.

  The section on citing electronic publications is very poorly organized. I wonder whether the author has spent any significant time on the Internet. The categories of sources and the examples given don't handle some of the most common situations you'll run into. It can be rather frustrating having to cobble together citation formats from the examples provided which are close enough to the source I'm trying to cite.

  As a result, if you're looking for a book to simply help you appropriately cite your sources, I'd look for another book. (I don't know which one yet; I'm still looking.) However, if you're looking for a general MLA style guide, this book is a respectable start.
  
  

• An indispensable reference
  By AHCVWPLA1O4X8 on 2003-04-16
  This volume is priceless. Everyone who writes research papers has questions on how to document or cite something, and this manual provides the solution. It covers everything from abbreviations to translations to multi-volume works to internet sites. It is extremely easy to use--everything you need can be found without difficulty. The chapters and sections are nicely arranged in such a way that makes it easy to find your way around the book.

  I have used this guide many times in writing papers. It has effectively eliminated the guesswork, the wondering just how to include something in my bibliography, or what the proper way to cite something is. Anyone who writes research papers of any kind needs to have a copy of this book.
  
  

• Danger!
  By on 2003-09-11
  Just don't leave it on the passenger seat in your car. The cover is silver and highly reflective. So if the sun catches it right, LOOK OUT! My Research Methods instructor calls it the silver bullet.
  
  
• Pursuant to misterb's comment,
  By on 2003-10-05
  it also doesn't tell you how to cite to sandwiches, borscht, shoelaces, or beeswax. I was eating some borscht and wanted to know how to cite it MLA style, but the book wouldn't tell me!!!
  
  
• A Life Saver
  By A2YQ2JWKYZZVXJ on 2004-04-18
  The MLA Handbook is the perfect companion of any higher education student. My English teacher, Mr. Holt, has recommended this book with pride and I agree with him. Any essay assignment should be double checked using this book. Once you land your hands on this novel, skim through it and post sticky notes on the important pages for a quick check when you need it later.
  
  
• Not convenient -- poor organization
  By A13BA59FZEXJGH on 2006-12-18
  As an English Lit. major in college a MLA Handbook is indispensible, but I was disappointed with this one. I found it difficult to locate the information I needed, often having to comb several pages to find what I was looking for. It is just not convenient to use. I much prefer Diana Hacker's "A Writer's Reference." The layout of her book is much simpler to navigate, and the spiral binding is always a plus, because it lays open on your desk nicely.
  
  
• MLA Handbook
  By A3V46FPKGYG7I4 on 2007-09-23
  I loved this book. It contains all the essentials needed to write papers and do them properly. It is an excellent book!
  
  

• The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition
• Apa/mla Guidelines (Quickstudy: Academic)
• The Great Gatsby
• The Essentials of MLA Style: A Guide to Documentation for Writers of Research Papers
• MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd Edition