Which term is the widely used academic style guide for documenting sources and formatting research papers, primarily in the humanities?

• A. Modern Language Association Style Guide (aka MLA)
• B. APA Publication Manual
• C. Chicago Manual of Style
• D. Bluebook Citation Guide

Answer: (A)

In humanities work, the standard approach to documenting sources and formatting papers is the MLA style. The Modern Language Association developed MLA to provide a consistent method for citing sources within the text and listing works cited at the end, along with clear guidelines for page layout, fonts, and punctuation. This style is especially common in literature, languages, and cultural studies, where concise parenthetical citations and a works-cited list are widely used.

Other styles serve different fields: APA is geared toward psychology, education, and the social sciences with an author-year citation system; Chicago offers two documentation systems (notes-bibliography and author-date) and is popular in history and publishing; Bluebook is specialized for legal citations. Because the question focuses on a widely used humanities framework for both sources and formatting, MLA is the best fit.