Since you should never begin a sentence with a numeral, you should first try to reword the sentence. If you find it unwieldy to reorder your words, spell out the number: Seventy-six percent of the class barely passed the final, 18% flunked miserably, and 6% burst into tears. Normally you shouldn’t mix words and numerals, . . .
Published 19 April 2018
The MLA Handbook gives examples of how original publication information can be provided as an optional element in a works-cited-list entry (53). But MLA style generally avoids annotating works-cited-list entries: if information is important for the reader to know, it belongs in your discussion or in a note. For example, let’s say that you quote . . .
Published 21 March 2018
Writers sometimes cause confusion by failing to make the elements in their writing parallel.
Published 20 March 2018
You can express a number range using words (“from . . . to”): The party will take place from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Or you can use an en dash: The party will take place 6 p.m.–10 p.m. But you cannot combine words (“from”) and an en dash to convey a range: The party will take place from . . .
Published 14 March 2018
In your works-cited-list entry, provide the name of a foreign institution in the original language if that is how it is presented in your source. In the following example, the publisher’s name is given in the original language: Dieulafoy, Jane. Papiers et correspondance de Marcel et Jane Dieulafoy. Manuscripts de la Bibliothèque de l’Institut de . . .
Published 13 March 2018
The MLA style discourages the use of italics in academic prose to emphasize or point, because they are unnecessary—most often, the unadorned words do the job without typographic assistance. And if they don’t, then rewording is often the best solution. This policy is a matter of stylistic convention, not grammar. Reserve italics for emphasis . . .
Published 23 January 2018
In MLA style, words used as words and letters used as letters are italicized: Accommodation is spelled with two c’s and two m’s.
Published 8 February 2018
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, so they were all so very pleased, but others felt that attendance was not so great, was, in a word, so-so. But “sos” is hard to read. It looks at . . .
Published 7 February 2018
Claire Kerhwald Cook notes that when however means “but” or “in spite of that,” the term “should follow the element that contrasts with something previously stated” . . .
Published 28 December 2017
When a verb in a quotation does not fit syntactically into your sentence, you may use brackets to change the tense: If Charles Dickens were alive today, he would likely say, “It [is] the best of times, it [is] the worst of times” (5). Work Cited Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Updated and rev. . . .
Published 15 December 2017
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