What is the role of MLA in modern research publishing? Chicago and APA occupy so much of the space within modern scholarship that MLA sometimes seems like an afterthought. This is mostly a misperception, however. This style guide sets the standards for modern English usage in academic and pedagogical contexts. As such, it constitutes an invaluable resource for writers, teachers, and professors. Even if it operates partially in the background.
MLA as Teaching Tool
The MLA is the first style manual that most students will interact with in the American school system. It thus wields a great deal of influence over the foundational rules of usage in American English. This is unsurprising, given that the Modern Languages Association originated in the desire to elevate the study of English in its own right. The MLA still functions as a linguistic gatekeeper today, and this is still apparent in the recently published 9th edition of their style guide. If you teach research and writing to students at either the high school or university level in any discipline, most of their habits of citation and usage will likely have been formed by Modern Language Association rules.
MLA and Inclusion
Even if your research does not fall under a humanities discipline and you do not intend to train students, MLA likely still influences you. As modern academia works to include multiple perspectives and ranges of experience, language constitutes an important site of negotiation and reification for academic discourse. MLA remains front and center in these negotiations. The Modern Language Association’s website highlights the organization’s advocacy within modern educational institutions at all levels. The handbook provides up-to-date guidance on the current consensus of those institutions. In combination, these two resources provide a flexible reference point for writers. While both Chicago and APA devote space to inclusion, MLA frames its work explicitly in terms of this specific issue, making it the leading map to inclusion.
Getting Published
The final question for each of these posts remains: How does this manual help authors to publish? The answer to that question for MLA resides in its channeling of current academic discourse. This guide began as one of the earliest style guides because academic linguists recognized the need to take the English language seriously in its own right. Almost 100 years later, the Association still provides researchers and writers alike with the most up-to-date English usage. This goes far beyond the basics of spelling or punctuation, however. MLA provides a window into the construction of academic discussion around pressing issues of the day. Even if writers never come within 10 feet of a university English Department, the MLA remains an indispensable resource.
