The document compares and contrasts the MLA and APA citation styles. MLA style is used in the humanities and focuses on citing sources in scholarly writing. It requires listing sources alphabetically in a Works Cited section. APA style is used in the social sciences and provides conventions for in-text citations, including citing authors by last name and year. It also requires listing references alphabetically but in a References section. Both styles require providing bibliographic information about sources like author, title, publisher, and date according to their prescribed formats.

1. MLA VS APA
By :
Zahra Aamir

2. The Purpose of Citing Sources
1-To give credit to (cite) other people’s ideas, creations, and
information (sources) used within your academic work.
2-To direct your readers to your sources through your Works
Cited list at the end of your academic work.
3- To help you avoiding unintentional plagiarism

3. MLA style
 The Modern Language Association of America.
 MLA is a system for documenting sources in scholarly writing.
 It has been widely adopted for classroom instruction and used
throughout the world by scholars, journal publishers, and academic .
 The MLA documentation style gives all researchers in the field
concerned to consult the sources that are cited in your project.

4. The following headings indicate to the nature of your list:
 Works Cited for a list of works including books, articles, films, recordings,
sources, and so on that are quoted or paraphrased in the research paper.
 Works Consulted if your list includes works not cited in your research paper.
 Annotated Bibliography for a list of references that includes a description of the
contents of each source.
 Selected Bibliography for a list of readings on the subject.

5. To format the works cited page, we should do the following:
 Arrange items in alphabetic order by the surname of the author using the letter-by-
letter system.
 Ignore spaces in the author’s surname.
 Consider the first names only when two or more surnames are identical.
 When no author is listed, alphabetize by the first important word of the title.
 Formatting the Works Cited Page
 Imagine lettered spelling for unusual items.
For example, “#2 Red Dye” should be alphabetized as though it were "Number 2 Red
Dye.”

6.  When two or more entries cite coauthors that begin with the same name,
alphabetize by the last names of the second authors:
Huggins, Marjorie, and Devin Blythe
Huggins, Marjorie, and Stephen Fisher
 The list of sources may also be divided into separate alphabetized sections for
primary and secondary sources.

7.  Set the title Works Cited 1 inch down from the top of the sheet and double-space
between it and the first entry.

8. A) MLA Works Cited Page: Books
When you are gathering book sources, be sure to make note of the following
bibliographic items:
 The author name(s), other contributors such as translators or editors, the book’s
title, editions of the book, the publication date, the publisher, and the pagination.
 Below is the general format for any citation:
Author. Title. Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date,
Location .
 Creating the Works Cited List

9. When a book has two authors, order the authors in the same way they are
presented in the book. Start by listing the first name that appears on the book in
last name, first name format; subsequent author names appear in normal order
(first name last name format).
Example:
Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Allyn
and Bacon, 2000.
 Book with More Than One Author

10. If there are three or more authors:
 list only the first author.
 Followed by the phrase et al. (Latin for "and others") in place of the
subsequent authors' names.
 Note that there is a period after “al” in “et al.”
Example:
Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media: Theory and
Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Utah State UP,
2004.

11.  List by title of the book.
 Incorporate these entries alphabetically just as you would with works
that include an author name.
Example:
Encyclopedia of Indiana. Somerset, 1993
 Book with No Author

12. Periodicals include magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals.
For journal or magazine articles, use the following order:
1. Author(s)
2. Title of the article
3. Name of the periodical—italicized
4. Series number (if it is relevant)
5. Volume and issue number (for journals)—(e.g., 70.4)
6. Date of publication
7. Page numbers
8. Medium of publication—“Print.”
 MLA Works Cited Page: Periodicals

13. The basic format is as follows:
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, pages.
Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call." Time, 20 Nov. 2000, pp.
70-71.
 Cite by listing the article's author.
 Put the title of the article in quotations marks.
 Italicizing the periodical title.
 Follow with the date of publication.
 Remember to abbreviate the month.
 Article in a Magazine

14.  An Article in a Scholarly Journal
A scholarly journal can be thought of as a container, as are collections of short
stories or poems, a television series, or even a website.
In this case:
 Cite the author and title of article as you normally would.
 put the title of the journal in italics. Include the volume number (“vol.”) and
issue number (“no.”) when possible, separated by commas.
 Add the year and page numbers.
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, pages.
Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol. 15, no. 1, 1996, pp.
41-50.

15. For an individual page on a Web site:
 list the author or alias if known.
 Followed by an indication of the specific page or article being referenced.
 Usually, the title of the page or article appears in a header at the top of the page.
 If the publisher is the same as the website name, only list it once.
Example:
Lundman, Susan. “How to Make Vegetarian Chili.” eHow, www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-
chili.html. Accessed 6 July 2015.
 A Page on a Web Site

16.  Citations for e-books closely resemble those for physical books.
 Simply indicate that the book in question is an e-book by putting the term
"e-book" in the "version" slot of the MLA template
(i.e., after the author, the title of the source, the title of the container, and the
names of any other contributors).
Example:
Silva, Paul J. How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing. E-book,
American Psychological Association, 2007.
 An E-Book

17. Provide the artist's name, the work of art italicized, the date of creation, the
institution and city where the work is housed.
Follow this initial entry with the name of the Website in italics, and the date of
access.
Example:
Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Museo Nacional del Prado,
www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-family-of-carlos-iv/f47898fc-aa1c-48f6-a779-
71759e417e74. Accessed 22 May 2006
An Image (Including a Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph)

18. For all online scholarly journals,
 provide the author(s) name(s), the name of the article in quotation marks, the
title of the publication in italics, all volume and issue numbers, and the year of
publication.
 Include a DOI if available.
 provide a URL or permalink to help readers locate the source.
Example:
Dolby, Nadine. “Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and
Future Directions.” Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only
Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, 2008, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/60/362. Accessed
 An Article in an Online Scholarly Journal

19.  APA Style is a writing style and format for academic documents
such as scholarly journal articles and books.
 It is commonly used for citing sources within the field of
behavioral and social sciences.
 It is described in the style guide of the American Psychological
Association
 (APA), which is titled the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association.
 Using the APA Style

20. APA style uses the following conventions for in-text citations:
 Cites last names only.
 Cites the year, within parentheses, immediately after the name of
the author. Include only the year in the text citation even if the reference
includes a month.
 Cites page numbers with a direct quotation but not with a
paraphrase.
 Uses “p.” or “pp.” before page numbers.
 In-text Citations

21. An in-text citation in APA style requires the last name of the author and the year of
publication.
Nguyen (2012) has advanced the idea of combining the social sciences and
mathematics to chart human behavior.
 Citing Last Name Only and the Year of Publication

22. If you quote the exact words of a source:
 provide a page number
 use “p.” or “pp.” Place the page number in one of two places: after the year (2012,
p. B4)
or at the end of the quotation.
Nguyen (2012) has advanced the idea of “soft mathematics,” which is the practice of “applying mathematics to
study people’s behavior” (p. B4).
 Providing a Page Number

23. When one work has two or more authors:
 use and in the text but use & in the citation.
Werner and Throckmorton (2013) offered statistics on the toxic levels of water
samples from six rivers.
but
It has been reported (Werner & Throckmorton, 2013) that toxic levels exceeded the
maximum allowed each year since 2009.
For three to five authors,
 name them all in the first entry (e.g., Torgerson, Andrews, Smith, Lawrence, &
Dunlap, 2013), but thereafter use “et al.” (e.g., Torgerson et al., 2013).
 For six or more authors, employ “et al.” in the first and in all subsequent instances
(e.g., Fredericks et al., 2012).
Citing a Work with More Than One Author

24.  Use lowercase letters (a, b, c) to identify two or more works published in the same
year by the same author.
For example:
(Thompson, 2013a) and (Thompson, 2013b).
 Then use “2013a” and “2013b” in your References.
If necessary, specify additional information:
Horton (2012; cf. Thomas, 2013a, p. 89, and 2013b, p. 426) suggested an
intercorrelation of these testing devices, but after multiple-group analysis, Welston
(2011, esp. p. 211) reached an opposite conclusion.
 Citing More Than One Work by an Author

25. Use a double reference to cite a person who has been quoted in a book or article.
Use the original author(s) in the text and cite your source for the information in the
parenthetical citation.
 Citing Indirect Sources
 Citing from a Textbook or Anthology
If you make an in-text citation to an article or chapter of a textbook, casebook, or
anthology, use the in-text citation to refer only to the person(s) you cite.
 Citing Classical Works
If an ancient work has no date of publication, cite the author’s name followed by n.d.
within parentheses.

26.  Abbreviating Corporate Authors in the Text
The names of groups that serve as authors, such as corporations, associations, and
government agencies, are usually spelled out each time they appear. The names of
some corporate authors may be abbreviated after a first, full reference.
 Citing a Work with No Author
When a work has no author listed, cite the title as part of the in-text citation (or use
the first few words of the material):
The cost per individual student has continued to rise rapidly (“Tuition Crises,” 2012,
p. B–3).

27.  Preparing the List of References
 Use the title References for your bibliography page.
 Alphabetize the entries letter by letter—remembering, for example, that
Adkins, Y. R., precedes Adkinson, A. G., even though o precedes the y for the
first entry.
 Type the first line of each entry flush left and indent succeeding lines five
spaces.
 Italicize names of books, periodicals, and volume numbers.

28. .
 List the author
 (surname first and then initials for given names),
 year of publication within parentheses,
 title of the book italicized and with only first word of the title and any subtitle
capitalized (but do capitalize proper nouns),
 place of publication (including state abbreviation or country name), and publisher.
 If no author is listed, begin with the title of the article.
a)Book

29.  Book –one author
Collier, A. (2008). The world of tourism and travel. Rosedale, New Zealand: Pearson Education New
Zealand.
 Two or More Authors
Last name, F. M., & Last name, F. M.
OR
Last name, F. M., Last name, F. M., Last name, F. M., Last name, F. M., & Last name, F. M.
Kent, A. G., Giles, R. M., Thorpe, A., Lukes, R., Bever, D. J., & He, Y.
If there are 8 or more authors listed on a source, only include the first 6 authors, add three ellipses,
and then add the last author’s name.
Roberts, A., Johnson, M. C., Klein, J., Cheng, E. V., Sherman, A., Levin, K. K. , ...Lopez, G. S.
 No authors
 If the source lacks an author, place the title in the first position in the reference. When the
source’s title begins with a number (Such as 101 Dalmatians), place the reference alphabetically as
if the number was spelled out. 101 Dalmatians would be placed in the spot where ‘One hundred’
would go, but keep the numbers in their place.
 Additionally, if the title begins with the words ‘A’, ‘An,’ or ‘The,’ ignore these words and place the
title alphabetically according to the next word.

30. b) Periodical
 Journal
 List author(s), year, title of the article without quotation marks and with only the
first word (and any proper nouns) capitalized,
 name of the journal underscored or italicized and with all major words capitalized,
 volume number underscored or italicized, and inclusive page numbers not
preceded
by “p.” or “pp.”
Busby, J. W., Smith, T. G., White, K. L., & Strange, S. M. (2013). Climate change and insecurity: Mapping vulnerability
in Africa. International Security, 37(4), 132–172.

31.  Magazine
 List author, the date of publication year, month without abbreviation, and the
specific day for magazines published weekly and fortnightly (every two weeks)
 title of the article without quotation marks and with only the first word capitalized,
 name of the magazine in italics with all major words capitalized, the volume
number if it is readily available,
 inclusive page numbers if you do not provide the volume number.
 If a magazine prints the article on discontinuous pages, include all page numbers.
Petruzzi, J. D. (2013, June). A bloody summer for horsemen. Civil War Times, 30–37.

32.  List author, date (year, month, and day), title of article with only first word and
proper nouns capitalized, complete name of newspaper in capitals and underlined,
and the section with all discontinuous page numbers.
 Unlike other periodicals, p. or pp. precedes page numbers for a newspaper
reference in APA style. Single pages take p., while multiple pages take pp., as
shown below.
Few, J. (2013, April 21). New hope for foreign teachers. Savannah Morning News, pp. 1A, 6A.
Newspaper

33. c) Sources Accessed Online
When citing electronic sources in your APA references, include the following information if available:
 Author/editor last name, followed by a comma, the initials, and a period.
 Year of publication, followed by a comma, then month and day for magazines and newspapers,
within parentheses, followed by a period.
 Title of the article, not within quotations and not italicized, with the first word and proper nouns
capitalized. Note: This is also the place to describe the work within brackets, as with [Abstract] or
[Letter to the editor].
 Name of the book, journal, or complete work, italicized, if one is listed.
 Volume number, if listed, italicized.
 Page numbers only if you have that data from a printed version of the journal or magazine. If the
periodical has no volume number, use “p.” or “pp.” before the numbers; if the journal has a volume
number, omit “p.” or “pp.”).
 Give the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) if available.
 If no DOI is available, then use the words “Retrieved from” followed by the URL. Line breaks in
URLs should come before punctuation marks such as slashes. Include the date of access only for
material that changes over time (e.g., Wikis)