Should health care be spelled as two words?
The MLA primarily follows Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary for spelling, so we spell health care as two words when it is used as a noun, and we hyphen it… Read More
Posts related to spelling
What is the MLA’s stance on the use of British spelling?
MLA publications generally follow the American spelling preferences listed in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged. When you are writing a paper for a… Read More
Should shortened generic forms of proper nouns be capitalized?
In general, lowercase generic forms of proper nouns: the United States Army, the army President Kennedy, the president the Brooklyn Bridge, the bridge Housatonic River,… Read More
When should you correct spelling in a title?
The spelling of a title should almost never be corrected, especially by students, even when the title seems to include an error. Sometimes the “error”… Read More
If I need to fit a quotation syntactically into a sentence, can I use empty brackets to indicate that I have removed letters from a verb?
No. In MLA style, brackets are generally only used to add material or show visible alterations, not to indicate omissions.1 So when attempting to fit… Read More
President’s Day: A Singular Holiday?
Authorities disagree about the name Presidents' Day . . . Read More
When is Press spelled out in a publisher’s name in the new MLA style?
If the name of an academic press contains the words University Press, use the abbreviation UP in the publisher’s name, as indicated in the MLA Handbook (97):… Read More
How do you make a plural out of the word so?
Someone might write, for example, “There are too many sos in this sentence,” in response to: So many people were present, so he said so,… Read More
How do I handle prefixes such as pre- and post- in MLA style?
MLA style, which follows Merriam-Webster, does not use hyphens after most prefixes. We would write, for example, antiestablishment, coauthor, nonlinear, and prealgebra. A hyphen is needed, however, before a capital letter… Read More