Style comparison
MLA Style vs Wikipedia Style

MLA Style uses title case for formal academic writing, while Wikipedia Style uses sentence case for encyclopedic content. The two belong to different editorial traditions.

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MLA Style
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Wikipedia Style
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MLA Style
The humanities paper standard

MLA Style capitalizes all principal words while lowercasing articles, prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions unless they open or close a title. It follows the Modern Language Association Handbook.

MLA Style is required for papers in English literature, film studies, and other humanities disciplines at most universities. It is the most common format for undergraduate academic writing.

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Wikipedia Style
Sentence case for encyclopedias

Wikipedia Style uses sentence case for all article titles and section headings, capitalizing only the first word and any proper nouns. It is the editorial standard of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikipedia Style applies to all Wikipedia articles and other Wikimedia projects. It is also adopted by technical documentation projects and wikis that want a neutral, readable tone.

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When to use MLA Style

MLA Style is required for papers in English literature, film studies, and other humanities disciplines at most universities. It is the most common format for undergraduate academic writing.

Verbs are always capitalized, including short ones like is and are. The rules closely resemble Chicago Style for most practical purposes.

When to use Wikipedia Style

Wikipedia Style applies to all Wikipedia articles and other Wikimedia projects. It is also adopted by technical documentation projects and wikis that want a neutral, readable tone.

Only the first word and proper nouns receive capital letters. Common nouns that would be capitalized in title case remain lowercase.

Choosing between them

Choose MLA Style for academic papers and citations formatted to MLA standards.

Choose Wikipedia Style for Wikipedia articles and reference documentation.

A Wikipedia article about a book would use sentence case for its headings while citing the book's title in title case. Both styles can appear on the same page for different purposes.