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Another minor consideration: If you're writing an academic research paper or other "scholarly document" then the MLA handbooks are germane. If not, they are less useful.
The first thing I look at in a reference document is the audience it intends to serve. In the case of the MLA guides, my work is outside of their scope. This is the other side of the first tenet of techwriting from the author's perspective: first, consider the audience you are addressing.
Seems at least somewhat logical, I think.
David
-----Original Message from David Ferrier <ferrierd -at- telus -dot- net>-----
Ana Gosling asked:
What are the main reasons you prefer the Chicago Manual of Style to the
"MLA style guide" [the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and
the MLA Manual and Style Guide for Scholarly Publishing]?
Just giving links to sources defining the nature of two standards did
not give us the reasons for preferring one standard over the other.
The Chicago Manual of Style
* sets good standards for the preparation of documents,
* is user-friendly, and
* is helpful as a reference.
The MLA works also set document preparation standards, but
* aren't user-friendly and
* are unsuitable for use as reference works.
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