Differences in MLA & APA Format for a Bibliography
Citing sources is an important part of modern academia. Acknowledging where your facts come from lends credibility to your research by allowing others to fact-check your writings. Properly citing your sources is also essential to avoid plagiarism. There are several different acceptable formats for bibliographic citations. Different branches of academia favor different formats.
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Applicability
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MLA stands for "Modern Language Association." MLA style is typically used in liberal arts and humanities papers. APA stands for "American Psychological Association." APA style is frequently used for scientific-style writing. Both styles intend to convey the same information, where a fact or quote came from and how to find it, but they do so in slightly different ways to reflect the different needs of each branch of academia. The guidelines for each style are updated regularly by the MLA and the APA so that they stay current with new sources of information.
Necessity
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MLA style requires the use of a "Works Cited" page at the end of the document. APA style requires a "References" page. These pages only list sources that were specifically cited by the author in the article. In addition, in the required "Works Cited" or "References" page, the author may optionally include a complete bibliography that includes all of the sources that an author consults, even if they are not specifically cited in the text. Alternately, the author can include an annotated bibliography, which includes a short description of each source. Each style uses the same page and citation formatting for the bibliography or annotated bibliography as it uses for the "Works Cited" or "References" page.
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Citation Format
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There are many differences in the format used for each kind of citation between APA and MLA styles. Most notably, MLA style requires that you use the first and the last name of the author of a document in a reference. APA style only requires the author's last name and initials. MLA style also requires the year of printing and the print format for all printed materials in addition to the printing location and printing company that APA style requires. As of the 2009 guidelines, MLA style does not require web addresses for sources retrieved from the Internet. APA style does require the web address. There are many other minor differences involving use of punctuation, capitalization and order when preparing references. The complete style guide for each format (see Resources) describes the details of citation formats.
Page Format
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Both styles center the title of the citation section at the top of the first page of the section with no italics or special font. The title can be either "Bibliography," "Works Cited" or "References" depending on the type of citation section. If you have any sources that are not referenced in the text, the section must be called a "Bibliography." Both styles use hanging indentation for each source, so the first line of each source should be at the beginning of each line, and each additional line of the source should be indented. MLA style requires that you indent each additional line five spaces from the beginning of the line. APA style requires that you indent each additional line one half of an inch from the left margin. Any sources with the exact same list of authors should be listed chronologically, with the earliest reference first. In APA style, you must list the author's name for each reference. In MLA style, you can use three hyphens to replace the author's name for each citation after the first one. MLA allows nesting by author; APA does not.
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References
Resources
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