This document provides an overview of MLA and APA formatting styles for academic papers and documents. It discusses key aspects of each style such as double spacing, font, title pages, citations, and references. MLA is generally used in the humanities while APA is commonly used in science and social science fields. The document also provides additional tips for writing clearly such as using page numbers, checking for spelling/grammar errors, and maintaining good sentence structure. It recommends taking a class to improve writing and formatting skills.

1. Your Guide to
Formatting Papers and
Documents: MLA, APA,
and Citations

2. 2 | Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents: MLA, APA and Citations
Navigating the professional world is a series of
learning languages. Sometimes it’s figuring out
a bit of light HTML in your Wordpress blog; other
times it’s getting on a new social platform to boost
your personal brand, connecting with friends, and
learning how to make the most of it. Other times it’s
learning the ins and outs of proofreading and editing
so you can learn how to craft a clear, professional
document that allows you to be taken seriously.
Writing and formatting styles are a language unto
themselves. Formatting styles such as those set forth
Your Guide to Formatting
Papers and Documents:
MLA, APA and Citations

3. 3 | Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents: MLA, APA and Citations
by the APA (American Psychological
Association) and MLA (Modern
Language Association) are primarily
for professional and educational
documents (in other words, things
that aren’t necessarily native to the
web), but that doesn’t mean you
don’t need to be familiar with them
just because you do most of your
writing on a blog, website, or social
platforms. In fact, knowing these
formatting styles can help you present
complicated information in clear ways.
Here are a few things you should
know when formatting papers and
documents; from MLA, APA,
and beyond.
Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents:
MLA, APA and Citations
APA
MLA
Citations
Title page
Page numbers
12 Point Times New Roman

4. 4 | Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents: MLA, APA and Citations
APA style is generally used for science and social science
documents. Because it is the preferred style for these topics,
many of their guidelines are meant to assist with clarity and
“word choice that best reduces bias in language.” This is
reflected in many ways, most notably in that it helps reduce
bias in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and
disability.
APA is also concerned with visually laying out information on the
page in a way that makes it easy to process. For this reason, APA
insists on double-spaced documents and one-inch margins on all
sides of the text. In terms of font, APA prefers 12-point Times New
Roman. In terms of paper size, standard 8.5” x 11” is required.
APA style asks for a title page for all documents. This title page
should include the title of the work being presented, the name
of the author, and the school or institution with which they are
What is APA?

5. 5 | Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents: MLA, APA and Citations
affiliated. After the title page, a
running head should appear at the
top of every page. This is basically a
header that reiterates the title of the
paper, serving as a reminder to the
person reading the document.
Citations are very important when
using APA styles. If you’re a millennial,
or if you just have been hanging out on
the internet for too long, you probably
have little to no idea what a citation
is, or it’s buried so deep in the back of
your brain that it’s hard to remember
who to even correctly cite something.
On the web, we usually cite things by
linking to them. Users click a hyperlink
and are taken to a page that houses
the original information, thereby
showing that the idea or fact came
from somewhere else before being
given its own spin. On paper there are
no hyperlinks, which is why citations
are so important.
APA style asks that you include
citations within the text and a full
list of references in the back of the
document. Including citations within
an article usually means including
the last name of the author of the
reference materials, as well as the year
the source material was published.
The citation list at the end of the
document will include all identifying
What is APA?

6. 6 | Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents: MLA, APA and Citations
information for the source, including the author or authors’ name(s),
the year of publication, the title of the article of text being cited, and the
publisher.
Citation is especially important because it helps ward off claims of
plagiarism. To be clear, plagiarism is when a writer passes off another
writer’s ideas or work as his or her own. Sometimes it can be tricky
knowing what you need to cite in a paper. While some facts are common
knowledge and are taken by most people at face value, other ideas or
concepts are introduced by certain writers or thinkers. It’s this latter
case in which you need to identify the source. And keep in mind that
identifying and citing sources doesn’t make you a bad writer or an
unoriginal thinker. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It shows that you can
collect information from a variety of sources and use it to support an
original argument or thought. In the world of academia, very few people
are working in a vacuum or coming up with ideas or concepts that have
never been broached before. Use these earlier sources and arguments to
support your writing, but be sure to cite them appropriately.
What is APA?

7. 7 | Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents: MLA, APA and Citations
What is MLA?
MLA is a different style of formatting that is
generally used in papers and articles in the
field of literature and the humanities. MLA
style is more popular in the United States
than APA. It’s also quote popular abroad in
countries such as China, Brazil, and Japan.
When citing a source in a document using
MLA style, you’ll put the author’s last name
and the pages from their text that contain this
information in parenthesis. This parenthetical
citation should appear directly after the
information being used. The paper will end
with a section featuring all works cited. These
should appear in alphabetical order by the
author’s last name. If for some reason the
author’s name is not available, go by the title.

8. 8 | Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents: MLA, APA and Citations
Like APA, MLA asks for double-spaced
content, one-inch margins, and
12-point copy, preferably Times New
Roman. However, unlike APA, they
don’t ask for a title page. The two major
components of an MLA paper are the
article itself and the page that cites the
works referenced within the text.
Within the paper, you should use a
header on the left side of the page that
includes the name of the author of the
paper. If the paper is being written for
a class, include the class name, the
instructors’ name, and the date on the
first page. All other pages should bear
the author of the paper’s name and
page numbers.
What is MLA?

9. 9 | Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents: MLA, APA and Citations
Whether you’re using ALA or MLA,
there are some basic formatting
rules you should follow when writing
a professional paper. These will help
you present information in a clear,
concise way, and also help position
you as a professional who knows
what he or she is talking about. As
you know, presentation is crucial in
terms of making connections and
being taken seriously, and nowhere
is that more important than when
you are forming your ideas and
presenting a paper that reflects
them.
First off, always be sure to use page
numbers. This is a relatively simply
thing to include, but it’s also a
relatively simple thing to forget. Page
numbers are one of those things you
don’t realize you need until you’re
reading a document without any and
realize you need a page number to
reference something you’ve found.
In general, page numbers should
appear in the bottom right side of the
document on all pages except for the
first one.
Another thing that should be on
every page: your name and maybe
even your contact info. For instance,
let’s say you’re a fiction writer who
is submitting a story to a contest.
Sometimes, contest organizers will
What Else Do I Need to Know?

10. 10 | Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents: MLA, APA and Citations
remove the title page if it has any
identifying information on it that could
sway the judges. If your name and
contact info are only on that first page,
there might be no other way to get a
hold of you.
Checking your spelling and grammar
is another important part of creating
a paper. Whenever you write a paper,
give it a good read to make sure it
reads well and is free of any errors.
Even if you’ve read it a few times, ask
a friend, professor, or colleague to
give it another read in case there’s
anything you’ve missed. Also, it may
sound obvious, but use spellcheck! It’s
surprising how many people neglect to
What Else Do I Need to Know?

11. 11 | Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents: MLA, APA and Citations
click that little button at the top of their word processing
program when they are finished with a document. Doing
it can save you a lot of embarrassment (and typos!).
Speaking of, be sure you have a good grasp on grammar.
Do you know the difference between you’re and your?
It’s and its? Their, there, and they’re? Who’s and whose?
If any of these have you scratching your head, it’s time to
take some grammar lessons.
Also, on a more intricate level, watch your sentence
structure and make sure that it’s engaging and
appropriate. For instance, avoid using the passive voice.
Also, make sure you are using complete sentences, in
other words sentences that have both a subject and a
verb. While there may be rare cases when incomplete
sentences do the job nicely and are technically correct,
make sure longer sentences are clear and full.
What Else Do I Need to Know?

12. 12 | Your Guide to Formatting Papers and Documents: MLA, APA and Citations
Take a Class
All images are subject to copyright.
If you have any doubt about
your paper writing, formatting,
proofreading and editing skills,
try taking a class that gives you a
refresher and maybe teaches you
some new things. Classes are great
ways to learn how to become a
better writer, and the professor
and classmates you meet there can
be hugely helpful when it comes
to finding readers and mentors
in the future.