American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a nonprofit membership organization for sociologists located in Washington D.C. The association's goals are to serve sociologists in their work, advance the profession and field of sociology, and convey the contributions and practical use of sociology to the public. ASA articulates...

Style guides and manuals are necessary to provide a sense of uniformity in the style and format of a document. The modern style guides emerged in the early twentieth century. They are a set of standards for the writing, design, and format of a written work. There are different...

  Most academic disciplines will follow a specific research and writing style guide, such as Harvard, APA, Chicago/Turabian and MLA. Used broadly in academic disciplines literature, media and cultural studies throughout the world and commercial publications, understanding MLA is imperative to students and professionals writing research-based material. MLA refers to...

The field of writing includes an assortment of rules systems for grammar, punctuation, editing and citing sources. One of the most common is APA (American Psychological Association) Style. Though it has been used traditionally in the social sciences, it has since spread to other disciplines as well. Authors of...

Dante Alighieri, the great Italian poet of the 14th Century, brought Italian literature into a more modern era.  Incorporating Medieval themes with an increasing humanism, a famous but anonymous quote states that he "stand with one foot firmly placed in the Middle Ages while with the other he salutes...

One of the fathers of the Beat generation, and an influential 20th century American poet, Allen Ginsberg was a major contributor to modern poetry. He rose to fame during the counter-culture era of the 1950’s and 60’s, challenging the norms of society. While most poets of the time used...

Considered one of the most beloved British authors of all time, Charles Dickens has garnered a diverse audience and fan base from around the world. One of the few authors whose characters can be said to be fully ingrained in the public imagination, his works remain immensely popular despite...

The Oxford scholar and world-renowned fantasy author, J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote of his aims in a foreword to the Lord of the Rings’ second edition, “The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of...