MLA style began as one journal's house rules, not as a guide for students. In 1931 three pages set out how quotations, footnotes and references should look in PMLA, the Modern Language Association's journal. The ninth edition of the MLA Handbook, published in April 2021, runs to 400 pages (Modern Language Association, 2021).
EdCitation publishes this history. It rests first on the MLA's own pages: its time line of MLA style, the MLA Style Center, and archived copies of its answers to readers. Library and ERIC records, Desai (2023) and Walker and Kelly (2017) fill the gaps. All were read in September 2026; the handbooks' prefaces could not be read in full online.
For the rules as they stand now, see our MLA 9 Works Cited guide. To make an entry, EdCitation's Cite a source finds the work in the publisher's record and sets it in MLA 9, at no cost.
When did MLA style start?
In 1931. The MLA's time line credits Carleton Brown, the association's executive director, and Cyril Arthur Peerenboom, a member, with a three-page sheet "for use in connection with PMLA". Percy W. Long, the journal's new editor, announced it at that year's convention as a sheet "prepared by the printers" that any contributor could ask for. It was corrected and approved again on 15 October 1935 (Modern Language Association, n.d.).
A C. A. Peerenboom also signed the 1929 rules that began APA Style, as our history of APA Style records. We found no source that says whether they were the same person.
The MLA Style Sheet of 1951
The first style guide the MLA published came twenty years later. William Riley Parker became the MLA's secretary and PMLA's editor in 1947 and, annoyed by authors' erratic styles, built a style sheet from questionnaires sent to journals in the field (Desai, 2023). The time line calls it "a cooperative enterprise" of Parker and the editors of 109 journals and 34 university presses.
The MLA Style Sheet appeared in PMLA in April 1951, pages 3 to 31 of volume 66 ("The MLA Style Sheet," 1951), and as a 31-page stapled booklet for scholars publishing in learned journals. The Executive Council printed its hope that it would be used "widely, even universally".
Parentheses for short references, notes for long ones
The 1951 sheet put a brief reference in parentheses in the text and a long one in a note, warning that a footnote "teases the reader to look at the bottom of the page". Parker kept arguing for fewer footnotes. In a 1957 column John Fisher counted: readers of volume 71 of PMLA met footnotes 2,024 times, against 4,013 in volume 61 (Desai, 2023).
How did a style sheet become the MLA Handbook?
By selling far beyond scholars. Desai (2023) records 30,000 copies sold within a year. In July 1957 the MLA's treasurer, Allan F. Hubbell, reported another 30,000 printed and called the sheet "a best seller in actual fact"; Publishers' Weekly counted 100,000 sold since 1951, at 25 cents each (Modern Language Association, n.d.).
A revised edition compiled by Parker followed in 1954, at 30 pages (Modern Language Association of America, 1954). The 48-page second edition asked for text that was "self-sufficient" and notes that were "unobtrusive" (Modern Language Association, n.d.).
The first handbook, 1977
The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations turned a sheet for scholars into a 163-page book for students and their teachers, led by Walter S. Achtert and Joseph Gibaldi of the MLA's book publications staff. It cost $3.95 and still documented sources in endnotes and footnotes, with a bibliography at the end (Gibaldi & Achtert, 1977). It was the first MLA guide to deal with plagiarism, and it offered a list of "works cited" for a paper that drew on films, recordings or other nonprint sources (Modern Language Association, n.d.).
A separate manual for scholars
With the handbook aimed at undergraduates, The MLA Style Manual followed in 1985 for scholars and graduate students, renamed MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing in 1998, with a third edition in 2008 (Modern Language Association, n.d.). In April 2016 the MLA said the manual would be taken out of print, leaving the handbook's eighth edition as the authoritative source for MLA style (Modern Language Association, 2016b).
When did MLA switch from footnotes to parenthetical citation?
In 1984, with the handbook's second edition. It recommended brief parenthetical citations pointing to a list at the end, headed Works Cited rather than Bibliography or Literature Cited, because papers drew on films, recordings and television as well as print (Modern Language Association, n.d.).
The ground was prepared in 1982. Kelly, in Walker and Kelly (2017), points to the May issue of PMLA, where the editor's column and the report of the Advisory Committee on Documentation Style ("Report of the Advisory Committee," 1982) argued for in-text citation, and where, Kelly writes, the first articles using it appeared.
Notes stayed, for comments. Kelly adds that the eighth edition mentioned them only when discussing translation; the ninth gave notes a chapter of their own (Modern Language Association, 2020).
What changed in each MLA edition, year by year?
Each edition changed something a writer could see. Where a length could not be confirmed, the table says so.
| Year | Guide | Length | What changed for the writer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | Style sheet for PMLA | 3 pages | One style for quotations, footnotes and references in one journal |
| 1951 | The MLA Style Sheet | 31 pages | Short references in parentheses, long ones in notes |
| 1954 | Style sheet, revised | 30 pages | Not confirmed |
| 1970 or 1971 | Style sheet, 2nd ed. | 48 pages | Fewer, consolidated notes |
| 1977 | Handbook, 1st ed. | 163 pages | Notes and a bibliography; works cited for nonprint sources; plagiarism |
| 1984 | Handbook, 2nd ed. | Not confirmed | Parenthetical citation; Works Cited; computer software |
| 1988 | Handbook, 3rd ed. | Not confirmed | Writing on a word processor |
| 1995 | Handbook, 4th ed. | 310 pages | CD-ROMs, diskettes and online databases |
| 1999 | Handbook, 5th ed. | Not confirmed | Revised "for the Internet age" |
| 2003 | Handbook, 6th ed. | Not confirmed | A plagiarism chapter; entry formats unchanged |
| 2009 | Handbook, 7th ed. | Over 250 pages | Italics; Print or Web in every entry; URLs no longer recommended |
| 2016 | Handbook, 8th ed. | 160 pages | Core elements and containers; no city; vol. and no.; URLs back |
| 2021 | Handbook, 9th ed. | 400 pages | DOIs as https://doi.org/ links; chapters on inclusive language and notes |
Rows come from the MLA's time line and pages; lengths from library records, ERIC (Gibaldi, 1995) and, for the seventh, Walker and Kelly (2017).
Where the records disagree
The time line calls the 1951 booklet the MLA's first published style guide; Desai (2023) calls it the first MLA style sheet. A library record dates the second edition 1970 (Modern Language Association of America, 1970); the time line gives 1971, under John Hurt Fisher, and a 1971 record says Parker began the revision and Fisher and others finished it (Modern Language Association of America, 1971). Authorship differs too: the time line says the first and seventh handbooks treat the MLA as author, where ERIC and Kelly name Gibaldi.
When did MLA drop underlining, "Print" and "Web", and the URL?
Underlining went in 2009, the medium was required from 2009 to 2016, and the URL was dropped in 2009 and restored in 2016.
Underlining to italics
In an answer last updated in 2003, the MLA said words italic in print were usually underlined in papers handed in for grading, since italic type was not always distinct enough; a student who preferred italics should ask (Modern Language Association, 2003). The seventh edition's examples assumed italics (Modern Language Association, 2009).
"Print" and "Web", added and dropped
Before 2009 the medium was named only for works outside print, such as a CD-ROM. The seventh edition asked for one in every entry (Modern Language Association, 2009), so entries from those years end in Print or Web. The eighth dropped it except where needed for clarity (Modern Language Association, 2016a).
URLs: brackets, none, then back
In 2000 the MLA put URLs in angle brackets so a reader could see where an address began and ended (Modern Language Association, 2000). The seventh edition stopped recommending URLs (Modern Language Association, 2009). The eighth gave the URL again, without http:// or https:// and without brackets, encouraged DOIs and made the access date optional (Modern Language Association, 2016a). Its examples wrote a DOI as doi:10.1632/adfl.43.2.11 (Modern Language Association, 2016c); in the ninth, a DOI is preceded by https://doi.org/ (Doose, 2022). See What is a DOI.
Why did MLA 8 move to core elements and containers?
Because a separate pattern for each kind of source had become impractical, the MLA said, once works appeared in mixed forms or forms without a name (Modern Language Association, 2016a). Since 2016 the writer fills in one template of core elements, whatever the source. A work inside a larger whole sits in a container: a story in an anthology, an article in a journal.
The eighth edition's other changes
Et al. now follows the first author from three authors, where before it applied from four and was optional. The city of publication went, except in special cases; "vol. 64, no. 1" replaced "64.1"; n.d. and other placeholders were dropped; and academic presses kept the abbreviations U, P and UP (Modern Language Association, 2016a).
The idea was not wholly new. Walker, in Walker and Kelly (2017), notes that The Columbia Guide to Online Style organised citation by elements "as far back as 1998". Kelly admired the template but asked who the slimmer book was written for.
What the ninth edition added
The ninth kept the eighth's system (Modern Language Association, 2021), grew from 160 pages to 400, and added chapters on inclusive language, formatting a paper and notes, with an appendix of sample entries by format. It also made clear that element names are not always literal: Publisher can mean the theatre company that staged a play (Modern Language Association, 2020). When to use MLA style sets out the rest.
How do I update an MLA 7 or MLA 8 entry to MLA 9?
Rebuild it from the record, then check it against the edition your brief names.
- Find the edition asked for. Run the brief through EdCitation's Check your paper, free: it lists each rule with the sentence it came from. Our test brief, asking for sources "in MLA 9", came back with MLA 9 as its style.
- Rebuild the entry from its DOI or ISBN in Cite a source. Print, Web, the city and the angle brackets go.
- Italicise, never underline, titles of books, journals and websites.
- Write a university press as UP (Fordham UP), and keep Press in full for other publishers (Doose, 2022).
- Use et al. from three authors, not four.
- Paste the list you end with into Verify references, also free. Each entry returns as verified, as "check this" or as not found, and retracted papers are marked. For the page itself, see MLA 9 paper format.
What is the best way to build MLA 9 entries today?
From the publisher's record, and for that job the best tool is EdCitation's Cite a source. The 1951 sheet was agreed with the editors of 109 journals and 34 presses; Cite a source starts from what the publisher itself deposited, looking each work up rather than composing it, which no chatbot can do. Hand it an ISBN, a PubMed ID, a DOI, a web address or a title, and it builds the MLA 9 entry, or one in Harvard, APA 7, IEEE, Vancouver or Chicago 18 author-date, and flags a retracted source. It charges nothing and asks for no account.
What Cite a source returned
Given the 1951 Style Sheet's DOI on 24 September 2026, Cite a source built this from the record Crossref holds, and found no retraction:
“The MLA Style Sheet.” PMLA, vol. 66, no. 3, Apr. 1951, pp. 3–31, https://doi.org/10.2307/2699076.
The record names no compiler, so the entry opens with the title, in quotation marks as a work inside a journal, and the journal goes by the short title it prints, PMLA. Given the ISBN of a history of the footnote from a university press, it wrote the press as the MLA asks:
Grafton, Anthony. The Footnote: A Curious History. Harvard UP, 1999.
Verify references then verified a pasted list of three MLA entries: the 1951 sheet and the 1982 report from their publishers' records, and the 1977 handbook against a library catalogue record.
What to check yourself
- An organisation that wrote and published the work. For the MLA Handbook itself, MLA 9 skips the author and opens with the title (Doose, 2022). Cite a source did so from the handbook's ISBN, but check that the publisher is written as the book gives it, Modern Language Association of America.
- The page in your sentence. An MLA citation's page number is in no record; it is yours to add.
For a whole paper, References from a file, in the Pro plan at $8 a month (pricing), checks every reference and pairs each citation with its entry. No EdCitation tool writes any of your paper.
Quick questions
When did MLA style start?
In 1931, as a three-page style sheet for PMLA. The MLA Style Sheet, the MLA's first published guide, followed in 1951.
Who created MLA style?
Carleton Brown and Cyril Arthur Peerenboom drew up the 1931 sheet; William Riley Parker compiled the 1951 one with the editors of 109 journals and 34 presses.
When did MLA stop using footnotes for citations?
In 1984, when the handbook's second edition recommended parenthetical citations and a Works Cited list. Notes remain for comments.
Why do some MLA entries end in Print or Web?
They follow the seventh edition of 2009, which named the medium in every entry. The eighth dropped it in 2016.
What were the MLA 8th edition changes and the 9th edition changes?
The 8th (2016) brought core elements and containers and dropped the city and the medium. The 9th (2021) kept that system and added chapters and examples.
Is there a free tool that builds MLA 9 entries from the record?
Yes. EdCitation's Cite a source builds MLA 9 entries from the publisher's record, with no account.
References
- Desai, G. (2023, June 30). For members only. Cambridge Core Blog. https://www.cambridge.org/core/blog/2023/06/30/for-members-only/
- Doose, S. (2022). A closer look at MLA style. MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/closer-look-at-mla-style/
- Gibaldi, J. (1995). MLA handbook for writers of research papers (4th ed.; ED380819). ERIC. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED380819
- Gibaldi, J., & Achtert, W. S. (1977). MLA handbook for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations (ED148156). ERIC. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED148156
- The MLA style sheet. (1951). PMLA, 66(3), 3–31. https://doi.org/10.2307/2699076
- Modern Language Association. (n.d.). The history of MLA style, 1931–2016 [Time line]. https://www.mla.org/About-Us/About-the-MLA/MLA-Time-Lines/MLA-Style
- Modern Language Association. (2000, August 17). Why does the MLA recommend putting angle brackets around URLs in the works-cited list? Archived August 30, 2006, at http://web.archive.org/web/20060830035920/http://www.mla.org/publications/style/style_faq/style_faq5
- Modern Language Association. (2003, September 9). Should I use underlining or italics? Archived August 30, 2006, at http://web.archive.org/web/20060830035920/http://www.mla.org/publications/style/style_faq/style_faq2
- Modern Language Association. (2009, January 13). What is new in the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook? Archived April 2, 2010, at http://web.archive.org/web/20100402071100/http://www.mla.org/style/handbook_faq/whatsnew_7edhandbook
- Modern Language Association. (2016a, March 1). What's new in the eighth edition. MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/whats-new/
- Modern Language Association. (2016b, April 8). Is a new edition of the MLA Style Manual going to be published? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/is-a-new-edition-of-the-mla-style-manual-going-to-be-published/
- Modern Language Association. (2016c, August 11). I am citing a paginated journal article that appears online. Should I include the page range, the URL, or the DOI as the location element in the works-cited-list entry? MLA Style Center. Archived August 20, 2019, at http://web.archive.org/web/20190820204619/https://style.mla.org/page-range-and-doi/
- Modern Language Association. (2020, September 14). What's new in the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook (spring 2021). MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/ninth-edition-whats-new/
- Modern Language Association. (2021, April 22). How does the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook compare with the eighth edition? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/handbook-editions-comparison-chart/
- Modern Language Association of America. (1954). The MLA style sheet (Rev. ed., W. R. Parker, Comp.). https://openlibrary.org/books/OL207458M
- Modern Language Association of America. (1970). The MLA style sheet (2nd ed.). https://openlibrary.org/books/OL4766693M
- Modern Language Association of America. (1971). The MLA style sheet (2nd ed., J. H. Fisher et al., Comps.). https://openlibrary.org/books/OL18570000M
- Report of the Advisory Committee on Documentation Style. (1982). PMLA, 97(3), 318–324. https://doi.org/10.1632/s0030812900085655
- Walker, J. R., & Kelly, E. E. (2017). Trying to contain ourselves: A dialogic review of the MLA Handbook, eighth edition. Composition Forum, 35. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1137814.pdf