The MLA Handbook 8th ed. According to the organization, their MLA style "has been widely adopted for classroom instruction and used worldwide by scholars, journal publishers, and academic and commercial presses". Both are academic style guides that have been widely used in the United States, Canada, and other countries, providing guidelines for writing and documentation of research in the humanities , such as English studies including the English language, writing , and literature written in English ; the study of other modern languages and literatures , including comparative literature ; literary criticism ; media studies ; cultural studies ; and related disciplines. The announcement also stated that the organization "is in the process of developing additional publications to address the professional needs of scholars. The seventh edition's main changes from the sixth edition were "no longer recogniz[ing] a default medium and instead call[ing] for listing the medium of publication [whether Print or Web or CD] in every entry in the list of works cited", recommending against listing URLs , and preferring italics over underline.