The MLA Handbook (8th ed.

, 2016), formerly the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research

Papers (1977–2009) is a publication of the Modern Language Association (MLA). According to
the MLA, the MLA style "has been widely adopted for classroom instruction and used worldwide
by scholars, journal publishers, and academic and commercial presses".[1]

Like the MLA Style Manual, the MLA Handbook is an academic style guide widely used in the
United States, Canada, and other countries, providing guidelines for writing and documentation
of research in the humanities, such as English studies (including the English language, writing,
and literature written in English); the study of other modern languages and literatures, including
comparative literature; literary criticism; media studies; cultural studies; and related
disciplines.[2] Released in April 2016, the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook (like its previous
editions) is addressed primarily to secondary-school and undergraduate college and university
teachers and students.[3]

The MLA Handbook grew out of the initial MLA Style Sheet of 1951[4] (revised in 1970[5][6]), a
28-page "more or less official" standard.[7] The first five editions, published between 1977 and
1999 were titled the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.
The title changed to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers in 2003 (6th ed.).

The seventh edition's main changes from the sixth edition were "no longer recogniz[ing] a
default medium and instead call[ing] for listing the medium of publication [whether Print or Web
or CD] in every entry in the list of works cited", recommending against listing URLs, and
preferring italics over underline.[8] Additionally, the seventh edition included a website with the
full text of the book.[9] Later online additions allowed for citation of e-books[10] and tweets.[11]

The eighth edition's main changes from the seventh edition are "shift[ing] our focus from a
prescriptive list of formats to an overarching purpose of source documentation".[7] Released in
spring 2016, it changes the structure of the works cited list, most directly by adding
abbreviations for volumes and issues (vol. and no.), pages (p. or pp.), not abbreviating words like
"editor" or "translator", using URLs in most instances (though preferring DOI, as in APA), and
not favoring the medium of publication.[12]

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLA_Handbook