Know the Difference between MLA and APA Referencing

Referencing is one of the most basic requirement of the college homework writing. It is mandatory for you to add references to your academic paper to give it authenticity.

MlA PLA

MLA and APA are the two writing styles you use while attempting various university assignment. So, it is a must for you to have appropriate knowledge of the difference between MLA and APA writing styles. Thus, as an homework help provider, we will disccuss the same in this write-up.

Title page

According to the writing specialists, in the APA formatting, you have to give page headers for every page, same applies for the title page. You write the page numbers on the right and on the left side you give the paper title. Other major contents of the title page are homework title, name of the author and institutional affiliation.

When you take a look at the MLA formatting, you can get to know that you have to write the title on the first page of the essay and should use double spacing to separate the title from the essay. You also have to give a header on the left side of the first page and should not forget to write author’s name, instructor’s name, course and date.

Paper formatting

Just like the differences, APA and MLA formattings have few similarities as well. In the both of these types of referencing, you have to use double spacing, write the content using 12 font size and should give one inch margins on all sides.

There are four sections in an APA formatted academic paper. These are; title page, abstract, main content and references. While in the MLA referencing, there are only two sections; main content and a page that contains citations.

In text citations

When it comes to the in-text citations, you have to use different methods for it in MLA and APA writing styles. In APA, you have to follow author-date for in-text citations and you have to follow author page format in the MLA.

In simple language, you have to write author’s last name and year of publication in parenthesis after the  cited text in the APA formatting. On the other side, you have to include author’s last name and page number in the parenthesis after the text.

Reference page

You may have the idea that you have to add references on a separate page, however, there is a difference between APA and MLA when it comes the referencing. You have to include a separate page at the end of the academic paper entitling as references in the APA format and you have to include a page named as “works cited” while using MLA formatting.

In both these types of referencing, you have to list the sources you have used in the assignment in the alphabetical order by the last name of the author and have to give double spacing. If you are using two works of the same author, you have to list it in chronological order from the earliest work, it applies for the APA formatting. On the flip side, you have to make entries in alphabetical order by title and you have to add three hyphens in place of name of the author after making the first entry.

If you have some problem in adding references to your homework, then you can opt for our homework help online and can expect to get a well-referenced academic paper from us.