MLA, Eighth Edition

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Clarissa

March 31, 2016

Wow be unto us! The MLA has released the eighth edition of the handbook with an overhaul of the citation rules that bring the MLA style closer to Chicago Manual. This is what the differences between the previous and the new editions are:

Seventh edition: Copeland, Edward. “Money.” The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen. Ed. Copeland and Juliet McMaster. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. 131-48. Print.

Eighth Edition: Copeland, Edward. “Money.” The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, edited by Copeland and Juliet McMaster, Cambridge UP, 1997, pp. 131-48.

Unbe-fucking-lievable. Now one has to memorize this entire abomination, and for what? For what, I ask you???

Having to learn this new citation style is very disruptive. We were all fine with the regular style. What’s the point of futzing with it and making our lives harder?

I’m feeling murderous impulses right now.

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15 responses to “MLA, Eighth Edition”

AnonP

March 31, 2016

You could use a reference manager, like Zotero or Endnote and then you don’t need to worry about this at all – when the manager is updated with the new MLA format, everything should be automatically transformed.

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Evelina Anville

March 31, 2016

Ugh. I’m in the middle of final edits on a project. I wonder if I need to update to the new edition. I don’t even have the new edition! I just bought the 3rd edition in January!……………I agree it’s annoying. But for me there is one bright light: I’m glad they took off the ridiculous requirement to list “print” (or web or whatever) after every single entry. It was annoying and useless.

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1. Clarissa
  
  March 31, 2016
  
  I only just got used to the “Print” thing and now I have to unlearn it again. So annoying.
  
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Ol.

March 31, 2016

edited by?

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1. Clarissa
  
  March 31, 2016
  
  Some brainless fool I read an interview with and whose name I repressed because I wanted to forget about the horrible experience.
  
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  1. Ol.
    
    April 1, 2016
    
    edited by MLA people who want to make more money out of a new, unnecessary 8th edition
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      April 1, 2016
      
      Yes. Creeps.
      
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TomW

March 31, 2016

This is really no different than what goes on with textbooks for lower-level courses. They make lots of changes that are mostly meaningless, but that strips used copies of value and forces everyone to buy a new book. It’s win for the publisher and a loss for everyone else.

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Ol.

April 22, 2016

You must discover by yourself what how we should quote female writers in Spanish according to the new edition. Unbelievable.

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1. Clarissa
  
  April 22, 2016
  
  Tell me!
  
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Ol.

April 22, 2016

“Spanish: The surname of a married woman usually includes her paternal surname and her husband’s paternal surname, connected by ‘de.’”

Ocampo de Bioy, Silvina…

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1. Clarissa
  
  April 22, 2016
  
  That would be the limit, for sure.
  
  My students would love it, though. I often have a rebellion on my hands when I say, “companeros y companeras” or “chicos y chicas” because it’s too politically correct, apparently.
  
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  1. Ol.
    
    April 22, 2016
    
    So… no chicxs in your classroom, right?
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      April 22, 2016
      
      It’s the first time I’m seeing this. And hopefully the last. 🙂
      
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Ol.

April 22, 2016

I need to back my source, however. A friend told me about this in a discussion, but I have not consulted the new edition myself. I say that you are not the only onw angry with the new edition.

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