Writing Formats

Trisha Cummings

The Five Writing Styles Modern Language Association - MLA:

literature, arts, and humanities. American Pschogocial Assosiation - APA:

psychology, education, and other social sciences.

AMA: medicine, health, and biological sciences. Turabian: designed for college students to use

with all subjects. Chicago: used with all subjects in the "real

world" by books, magazines, newspapers, and other non-scholarly publications.

MLA Modern Language Association began in

1883 Does not publish its guidelines on the web Must buy their books

Handbook for Writers of Research Papers – 6th ed

THE STANDARD GUIDE FOR OVER HALF A CENTURY The MLA Handbook is published by the Modern Language Association,

the authority on MLA documentation style. Widely adopted in high schools, colleges, and publishing houses, the

MLA Handbook treats every aspect of research writing, from selecting a topic to submitting the completed paper.

WHAT'S NEW IN THE SIXTH EDITION

a chapter on plagiarism that explains how to avoid this serious offense new annotated illustrations that clarify documentation style an updated and expanded discussion on using electronic resources in

research enhanced guidelines on citing electronic sources, such as documents

from Internet sites, home pages, articles from online periodicals, and works from subscription services

added tips on the mechanics of writing, including punctuation new citation examples an updated and enlarged appendix of selected reference works by field

streamlined format for easier use Enlarged discussions of Internet sources clarify what to do when the URL of a Web

document is not evident or is impractically long. The rule on abbreviating spans of years is expanded and clarified (but not changed). Inclusive roman numerals are no longer abbreviated. Such spans are written out in full. Added ellipses are no longer enclosed in square brackets (except when brackets are

needed for clarity in special cases). References to familiar historical documents (like the United States Constitution) and to

the United States Code are now documented entirely with parenthetical citations in the text. But legislative bills and acts still call for works-cited-list entries.

An entry for a law case now includes the number of the case instead of data about the law report.

A format for patents is provided. There are now formats for Web pages for academic courses and departments. This section describes what to do when an online database supplies only the starting

page number of an article's original print version. The new edition eliminates the suggestion that page numbers may be omitted in

parenthetical citations of articles in alphabetically arranged works (like encyclopedias). Such articles are now cited the same way as other articles.

When two or more anonymous works have the same title, a text citation giving the title does not adequately distinguish the works. This section offers a solution.

MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (2nd

edition) Since its publication in 1985, the MLA Style Manual has been

the standard guide for graduate students, teachers, and scholars in the humanities and for professional writers in many fields.

The book has sold more than 100,000 copies. Extensively reorganized and revised, the eagerly awaited

new edition contains several added sections and updated guidelines on citing electronic works--including materials found on the World Wide Web.

The second edition begins with an expanded chapter on the publication process, from manuscript to published work, and includes advice for those seeking to publish their articles or books.

The second chapter, by the attorney Arthur F. Abelman, reviews legal issues, such as copyright law, the concept of fair use, the provisions of a typical publishing contract, defamation, and the emergence of privacy law.

Subsequent chapters discuss stylistic conventions and the preparation of manuscripts, theses, and dissertations.

Chapter 3 gives an overview of writing fundamentals and includes expanded sections on spelling; punctuation; italicization; capitalization; and the treatment of titles, names of persons, quotations, and numbers.

Chapters 4 and 5 describe the mechanics of preparing scholarly manuscripts, theses, and dissertations and provide a new section on readying manuscripts for electronic publication.

Chapters 6 and 7 offer an authoritative and comprehensive presentation of MLA documentation style, including citation formats for materials found on the World Wide Web and for other electronic resources.

The last chapter lists common abbreviations and proofreading symbols.

An appendix details other systems of documentation.

American Psychological Association APA style is the style of writing used by journals published by the

American Psychological Association (APA). The style is documented in the APA Publication Manual (5th ed., 2001). The APA Manual began as an article published in Psychological Bulletin

in 1929. That article reported results of a 1928 meeting of representatives from

anthropological and psychological journals, "to discuss the form of journal manuscripts and to write instructions for their preparation" (APA, 2001, p. xix).

By 1952 the guidelines were issued as a separate document called the Publication Manual.

Today the manual is in its fifth edition, and the APA format described in it is a widely recognized standard for scientific writing in psychology and education.

American Medical Association It was only in 1962 that the 68-page first

edition of the AMA style manual was published

the writing is clear and concise with many illustrations.

Turabian Turabian, named for Kate Turabian

who developed this style, is used in various disciplines, including history.

This style is sometimes referred to as Chicago style since it is based on The Chicago Manual of Style.

Good for citing electronic documents

Chicago Style The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is

the standard reference to American English usage.

MLA Citation Style

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th edition

APA Citation Style

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition

AMA Citation Style

American Medical Association Manual of Style, 9th edition

Turabian Citation Style

A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th edition

Chicago Citation Style

The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition

References Modern Language Asssociation

http://www.mla.org/ American Psychological Association Crib Sheet

http://www.wooster.edu/psychology/apa-crib.html American Medical Association

http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm Elmhurst College – A.C. Buehler Library

http://www.elmhurst.edu/library/ecresources/writecite.html CMS Crib Sheet

http://www.docstyles.com/cmscrib.htm