Over the last four years, the only citation style I have used (or at least have used so much that I actually know how to use it) is MLA, and apparently, rhetoric has been creeping into the crevices of my papers all along. Used mostly in the papers I have written analyzing literature, this style seems most fit for, as Bazerman states, furthering “a project of incremental encylopedism” (139). Though we are instructed to create an intelligent and unique argument, our argument can only be validated if surrounded by the appropriate support—the work of an acknowledge scholar who, preferably, has already come to the same conclusion we are seeking to prove. The necessity of first stating an author’s name and then his or her research serves to reinforce and perpetuate already codified knowledge.
In comparison with the APA style Bazerman discusses, the general format of an essay written in MLA style raises some interesting points. Unlike the APA format, in which section divisions minimize or even eliminate the need for transition (127), the MLA style does not demand any divisions in an essay. Does the need then for smooth transitions serve to reinforce the coherence of the subject matter being written about? For example, in a literary analysis essay, the continuity throughout the essay would mirror the progressive narrative development of the work being discussed.
On the topic of in-text citation, Bazerman states that the APA style makes “the close consideration of competing ideas and subtle formulations” an awkard and difficult task. Though MLA format does offer some leniency when close reading a text, the author must be careful to repeatedly mention the text name or the author, reminding readers that he or she is not creating, but rather restating.
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