AN INTRODUCTION TO MLA AND APA
DOCUMENTATION
Part One:
DOCUMENTATION BASICS
WHAT IS DOCUMENTATION?
When your teacher states that you must use
APA or MLA documentation style, he or she is
simply directing you to use a system that
reveals to your reader what sources and
information you have utilized in writing your
paper.
 The documentation style also determines
certain formatting practices in your paper.

GENERAL PAPER FORMAT RULES
Double space entire paper.
 Use 12 point, Times New Roman font
 Do not bold titles or the bibliography page
heading
 Set all margins to 1”
 New paragraphs should be indented ½” from
the margin

PARTS OF DOCUMENTATION
In-text (parenthetical) citation
 Bibliography (Works Cited Page, References)

The in-text citation acts as a key to your
bibliography and directs your reader to specific
sources. The in-text citation includes the author’s
last name (and/or) the title of the work so that
you can easily locate the complete source
information in the bibliography.
IN-TEXT CITATIONS
You need to give credit to a source any time you
use information from the source in the following
ways:
 Direct Quotation
 Paraphrase
 Summary
TYPES OF QUOTATIONS
Block Quotations – must be longer than three
lines, set off from main body of paragraph (like
a block)
 Integrated Quotations – three lines of text or
fewer, flows seamlessly in the paragraph

BLOCK QUOTATION FORMAT
Indented
1” and
double
spaced
Period
comes at
end of
quote
No quotation
marks
Citation
follows
the
period
INTEGRATED QUOTE FORMAT
Quote
integrated
into
paragraph
Quotation
mark
precedes
citation
Quotation
marks
needed
Period
follows
citation
FORMATTING A PARAPHRASE OR SUMMARY
The
paraphrase
or
summary is
in your own
words and
flows
smoothly
with the
paragraph.
The suggestion that
there is a continuity in the
linguistic abilities of apes and
humans has created much
controversy. Linguist Noam
Chomsky has strongly
asserted that language is a Period follows
unique human characteristic citation.
(Booth, 1990).
Part Two:
APA VS. MLA
An Example of an APA Title Page
•The header includes the running
head (formatted as the following:
Running head: TITLE OF ESSAY)
against the left margin and the
page number against the right
margin.
•The title of the essay, your name,
and the university name should
appear centered, double spaced,
and on the top half of the page.
•All text should be in 12 pt. Times
New Roman font and should not be
bolded.
•Author’s note (optional) contains
contact information and
acknowledgements and should be
placed at the bottom half of essay.
MLA Sample First Page
•MLA format does not require a
title page.
•On the first page, the student
includes a heading (name,
professor, course number and
date). The first page heading
begins on the first line of text
(not the header) and is double
spaced.
•The title appears centered in
plain text after the first page
heading.
•The header contains only the
student’s last name and page
number.
MLA
APA
On each page after
the title page, APA
requires that the
title appear in all
caps on the left
and the page
number appears
on the right.
MLA format uses
the same header
(last name
followed by page
number in the
right corner) for
ever y page
SUBSEQUENT PAGE HEADERS
A QUICK EXERCISE
Look at the Bibliography of the APA Model Paper
and the MLA Model Paper and do the following
tasks:
 List all the similarities do you see.
 List all the differences you see.
SIMILARITIES





Entries are double-spaced
The first line of each entry
begins at the margin.
Subsequent lines display a ½”
hanging indent.
Entries are alphabetized by the
first word in each entry
(typically the author’s last
name)
The words “References” and
“Works Cited” are both
centered, at the top of the
page, and in plain text.
The important words in all
journal titles and book titles are
capitalized.
DIFFERENCES



MLA uses the heading “Works
Cited” while APA refers to the
page as “References.”
In MLA entries the title follows
the author’s name, but in APA,
the year (in parentheses)
follows the author’s name.
Essay titles in MLA are put in
quotation marks and all
important words are
capitalized. APA capitalizes
only the first word of an essay’s
title and does not put
punctuation marks around the
title.
BIBLIOGRAPHY COMPARISON
IN-TEXT CITATION DIFFERENCES
Look at the in-text citations below and list the
similarities and differences:
APA Example:
Obesity can be a devastating
problem from both an
individual and a societal perspective.
Obesity puts children at risk
for a number of medical
complications, including Type 2
diabetes,
hypertension, sleep apnea, and
orthopedic problems (Henry J.
Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004, p.
1).
MLA Example:
Frances Bents,
an expert on the relation
between cell phones and
accidents,
estimates that between 450
and 1,000 crashes a year
have some
connection to cell phone use
(Layton C9).
SIMILARITIES


Both reveal the author’s
name (or the title if the
source is anonymous)
Both reveal the page number
where the information can
be found if the source has
page numbers listed
IN-TEXT CITATIONS
DIFFERENCES

APA lists the year, but MLA
does not
A HELPFUL WEBSITE
The Online Writing Lab at Purdue
This website includes accurate guides to both
MLA and APA format, annotated sample papers,
examples of different types of works cited entries,
and detailed information concerning punctuation,
grammar, and other writing related topics.
