Difference Between APA and MLA

In every type of academic writing, there is a strict format that you need to follow. These formats include the APA and MLA essay formats. Before choosing the correct format for your essay, you must understand the difference between APA and MLA formatting styles. Difference Between APA and MLA:

There are several formatting styles which include: Chicago, MLA, and APA. The APA and MLA have similarities and differences; students find it challenging to determine the style to use when formatting their essays. In this blog, you will find step-by-step guidelines on two main formatting styles.

MLA and APA format

When comparing the difference between APA and MLA formatting styles, you will notice that the two have a little difference in formatting. The MLA mainly applies to arts and humanities to help break down citing paintings and books. APA is specifically designed for technical tasks found primarily in social sciences.

The APA style is used to format journals and technical reports. You can use any of these styles to write a paper considering utilizing a technique that will meet all the requirements. Determining the best citation style to use between MLA vs. APA can be very challenging for you as a student.

The main goal of APA and MLA is to offer the best citations, avoid plagiarism and create a high-quality paper following the appropriate structure. This blog has divided the two sources and discussed each on its own to help you understand easily. You will come across the complete guide on choosing the best style for your assignment and the main standards of each.

MLA essay writing style

To determine the difference between the APA and MLA, begin with the history beyond them. The MLA style is used for scientific research work and in humanities. MLA is appropriately detailed, especially in referencing and citing the evidence. Another difference is the MLA focuses on the name of the writer and previous and new research. The APA focuses on the date of the referenced book publication and chooses the newly publicized ones with relevant information.

An MLA formatting style has specific standards that you need to use when writing your paper. They include;

Use of times new roman font 12 and one inch in all margins
Double spaced lines
The in-text citation has the name and the page without using a comma
In MLA format, the indirect sources only have one page
In MLAs, line break in citations is avoided
When using the MLA style, the page number, together with the writer’s name, appears in the upper part of the paper
In MLA, the list of work cited are bibliographically arranged
The essay or article topics are written using speech marks, and you must capitalize every word

How to cite an essay using the MLA format

As a student, you must learn how to cite in MLA format from quality MLA format examples to gain essential skills to improve your academic writing skills. Learning the MLA format helps you submit high-quality written homework, dissertation, case study, argumentative essays, and many other academic writings that require to have citations.

If you have challenges citing your essay using the MLA format, you do not have to worry again. We have gathered all the significant and essential parts of the MLA citing. By reading this article, you will understand every detail you need about the MLA format style.

Understanding the MLA style format

The MLA was developed by a writing style format that is known as the modern language association to improve academic studies and scientific assignments. This association publishes a unique control that focuses on the regulations college students follow, primarily when working on their projects. Depending on what you want to research, your instructor can ask you to submit a report in MLA; this means you must uniquely provide your citations, develop a page outline and follow the instructions in the MLA guide.

Many university students opt to use the MLA style format because it is easily accessible. It is straightforward for students to understand how it works as they have a draft and must submit their assignments. All MLA-cited papers or articles must have an in-text citation part in the body paragraph, and a list of the work cited that you must provide at the end of your paper.

APA format style

In college, your professor can assign you an assignment and will ask you to format it in a specific way. APA format is one of the most common writing formats used for research papers, essays, and books. This style was created by the American Psychological Association to be used by experts in psychology and other types of sciences.

Many schools and colleges teach the APA format style to help improve their academic writing skills. To understand the in-text citation APA style, you must go through the best APA format examples to get a complete guide. When using the APA citations, it is essential to consider the main points of the APA style, including the following:

The general structure

An APA format style must start with a title page, introduction, main body, references, footnotes, graphics, and appendices.

Title page

The title page is referred to as the first page of your paper. You must include a title at the center, then your name, and the name of your institution or school. You must have the running head at the top of this title page. An APA style uses the running head at the top of every page.

The running should have less than fifty spaces and start at the top left of every page. You must include the “running head” label directly on your title page.

Introduction

Your introduction appears on page two; as an author, you should write the word introduction at the center below the running head. You must compose a 100 to 200 words summary to explain the key points of your research and essay, for example, the hypothesis of your study, the methods used, and any conclusions. Note that your abstract or introduction should not have any paragraph indentations.

Body structure

Your main body paragraphs start on page three of your paper. It would be best to format your essay with a one-inch margin throughout the content. Your left side margin must be flush, except at the beginning of every paragraph, which must be indented in five to seven spaces. Use times new roman, and ensure that your paper is double-spaced and the page number appears at the top right.

References and citations

The APA citations show your audience where your ideas and research sources are. In the main body of your paper, you must refer to any materials that you used when developing your content and conducting research. Remember that your references must appear next after the main body.

The footnotes

When you use footnotes to develop your explanation, you need to list them right after the reference page. You must ensure that your footnotes start on a new page, and they should have a short title centered at the top of the paper. You must arrange your footnotes by numbers and ensure that every footnote starts on a new line.

The graphics

Any supporting documents or graphics appear next after the footnotes. It appears next after the footnote, and each page has supporting documents such as; tables, figures, and appendices. Ensure that each of these pages is labeled and centered at the top of your paper.

Features of an APA format

To identify the difference between APA and MLA in-text citations, you need to look at the features or standards of each formatting style and compare them. The following are the standards of the APA format style; they include:

The lines in each paragraph are double spaced
They use the time’s new roman font, 12 and one inches for all the margins
The upper part of every page is numbered and has a title
The footnotes or endnotes must also be double-spaced
The in-text citations involve the writer’s name, page, and year of publication
The reference list is written in a bibliographic order
The writer’s name in the reference list is given in a particular formula
In the subtitle, only the first word is capitalized, and no usage of quotation marks
The title is always centered in the upper part of the page
For long papers, the abstract is included

Similarities between MLA and APA

Although MLA and APA are two different formatting styles, they have similar characteristics. The following are some similarities between MLA and APA format styles. They include:

Both use a reference page at the end of the paper
They both have double-spaced lines
They use 12 times new roman font
One inch in every for all margins
A bibliography list of citations in both formats

To wrap-up

Understanding the difference between APA and MLA formatting styles is essential. It helps you determine the format style suitable for your paper. This blog has explained the differences and how you can cite them.

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