Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA) are two common style guides used for writing academic papers. MLA is primarily used in the liberal arts and humanities. APA is used within social sciences (e.g. psychology, education, sociology).

If you are just starting to write papers for college or are a graduate student, your instructors will include the style that is required for assignments in the assignment guidelines. In addition, they may require additional preferences (e.g, a different style to the cover page). Pay attention to these requirements because instructors will remove grade points if a student does not follow the formatting for approved grammatical and citation requirements.

It is recommended (strongly) that students study and learn the requirements of the style early on in their education career and keep updated as different editions are released by MLA (currently 3^rd edition) and APA (currently 6^th edition). Having good knowledge of the style will help the student write more efficiently. Another recommendation is to have the style book by your computer as you work so that you can check punctuation and citations as you write. Highlight the most commonly used punctuation and other information with a highlighter and post-it notes, because the answer surely will come up again.

Both APA apastyle and MLA mla have Websites and search engines that can help if you have a tough style problem. Also, most colleges have Writing Centers or online tutorials to help you with ensuring that your use of the style guidelines in your academic paper are perfect.

Here are some major differences in the two styles.

Reference Examples:

APA Style

Jelfs, A., Richardson, J., & Price, L. (2009). Student and tutor perceptions of effective tutoring in distance education. Distance Education, 30(3), 419-441. doi:10.1080/01587910903236551.

Mellers, B.A. (2000). Choice and the relative pressure of consequences.  Psychological Bulletin, 126, 910-924.

MLA Style

Jelfs, Anne, John T. E. Richardson, and Linda Price. “Student and tutor perceptions of effective tutoring in distance education.” Distance Education 30.3 (2009): 419-441. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 Feb. 2010.

Palmer, William J. Dickens and New Historicism. New York: St. Martin’s, 1997. Print.

In-text Citation Examples:

APA Style This is the citation format when there is a quote:

According to Black (2009), “all clowns scare children to death” (p.3).

MLA Style

According to Kenneth Black, “all clowns scare children to death” (3).

Other Comparisons

Professional Editing

There is another option if you need help with academic writing, especially when you are writing a thesis or submitting a paper for publication.  Many editors, like the editors at FirstEditing, specialize in academic writing and will offer to edit a paper based on word count or pages and the type of editing required. Academic editing will cost more than a standard edit. These editors are professionals who have a lot of experience editing papers in different style formats. They can provide expertise for the difficult editing issues such as footnotes and endnotes, charts and tables, and citing references.

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Tags: APA, APA editing, APA formatting, APA style, editing, editors, endnotes, firstediting.com, footnotes, MLA, MLA editing, MLA formatting, MLA style, Professional Editing, Technical Editing

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