https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html

This has been my cheat sheet for classes.

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MLA is used for Humanities/English/Arts. APA is used for STEM. Depending on the class, you will use different citation styles. The most noticeable differences between the two are:

1. APA has a cover page, MLA has the information in the top left corner.
2. APA has only page numbers as headers, MLA has your last name and page number.
3. APA has a “References” page. MLA has a “Works Cited” page.

The formatting of the citations themselves are also different.

There is also a third option that some classes will require (history heavy classes) of Turabian.

The easiest thing to do is if the rubric does not specifically state the style to use, and you are to choose the style you use, go by whatever your majoring in. Example is that I am an English major so I naturally use MLA if not anything else stated.

I used https://www.citationmachine.net/ I hadn’t been to school since 98 and never heard of this- but I took my English gen eds and learned all about it there- I don’t ever remember writing this type of thing out (sans links) when I went to in person college….. I feel you! And congrats and the trying again! I’m stressed every class trying to learn this way- but one more day towards a degree and one less day of APA citations!

Adding onto what they are saying, the online library has a option for citing in any of these formats or more. Just to make life a bit easier

They're different ways of formatting the paper - margins, headers, and citations. I always have to google the specifics to remember how to do it properly.

Most of my classes require APA. If you need to know how to do MLA or APA formatting the Shapiro Library has formatting guides and examples for both. Formatting makes it easier for people reading your paper. Yes it affects how you list sources and how you do citations.

The biggest differences between APA and MLA is how work is cited, and how the content is organized. Both use the same margins and recommend the same font size. MLA requires double-spacing although your teacher might disagree with your page count if you do. APA will have more pages as it much more formal. It includes title and abstract pages, but these pages will not likely count towards your grade. APA is more difficult than MLA though if done correctly as there are more rules to follow. For most high-school and early college essays, MLA is probably best. In my opinion, IEEE is the best format although you don't seem to have that option.

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This is a a really interesting question! Generally, APA is primarily used in scientific research papers on a college level, and is what you will be writing in for a lot of your college career if you're a STEM major or are doing really any kind of academic research. This is because APA is what a good amount of professional research papers use. However, if you are a humanities major in, lets say, literature- then most of your papers will be in MLA. In high school, kids learn MLA because the papers they write are mainly for English or literature classes (like AP Lang); those MLA skills are taught because they will transfer over into papers for college literature classes.

This is why I'm an advocate for AP Seminar and AP Research in high school because they tend to require APA in both of those classes, allowing you to get experience writing research papers in that format, which is generally way more helpful for college unless you are planning on being a literature or a related humanities major.

If you're worried about not having enough APA experience by the time you are in college, I wouldn't worry too much as many other students are in the same boat and colleges are aware of this. I really do think that they should focus on teaching kids APA more in high school though, and if it really bothers you, then looking at APA guidelines from places like Purdue OWL is a good starting point- like I said earlier though, you're fine regardless!

Between APA and MLA i would easily write in APA and all these points are true reflections of what it is

This is very insightful, thank you for this elaborate and helpful citation and also providing me with the service that can help me out

Between APA and MLA i would easily write in APA and all these points are true reflections of what it is

MLA is most commonly used in the humanities. APA is (obviously based on the name) used in psychology and other social sciences. I assume high schools teach MLA because you usually learn it in English class. But different disciplines use different formats. High school's can't prepare everyone for the one the need, because different majors will use different formats.

You know, OP, APA isn’t too different. It’s date oriented (Shehulud 2025) versus location oriented (Shehulud 11). When I am reading a psych paper, for example, timeliness is important to me. Does the it review fill in gaps in research, for example? When was it published?

When I am reading a literature paper, I want to know where to find a specific line of text in Beowulf (translator X version), so page number is there in the in-text citation.

I tell my students to hop into google docs and use the citation tool. I use it. It’s badass. Try it out.

Yes - and if you try to google anything about ASA to figure out formatting for unusual situations, you get, 'Do you mean APA?' Argh

In undergrad, I had to know both MLA and APA. In grad school, I had to know MLA, APA and Chicago. Absolutely maddening, I get it.

I’m a sociologist and I just let my students use APA. So many sociologists publish in interdisciplinary journals anyway that it really doesn’t matter.

It depends. Different subjects have different citation styles. English has MLA, the sciences has APA, history is typically Chicago. Purdue OWL has citation guides for every format. This website is bookmarked since I can never remember the different nuances

I genuinely have no idea why we even have more than one anywhere. The entire point is so you can go look the thing up yourself. I can't find a single decent reason we have more than one. Yes, this style does that thing slightly better than this other style. But guess what? It's the 21st century. Everything is digital. Sure, maybe you have a the one paper copy your professor's dissertation advisor's own dissertation advisor printed out and that's all you got. I'm sure you can figure out how to translate it to the standardized format enough to find the citation.

You were supposed to learn the basics of format requirements and how to cite sources from the learning in middle/high school. With that knowledge, you should be able to apply any guidance. Which one you end up using at a job depends on your industry. As an engineer, most journals require that I use IEEE or a custom format.

Philosophy has no standard - every journal does whatever they want and you have to adapt. (Though most philosophy profs don’t really care what you use as long as you stick to one.)

chicago style, mla style, and apa style are different academic reference/citation formats

chicago style, mla style, and apa style are different academic reference/citation formats

Appa Pope 🤔

r/savedimageattribution

But does he have a Tan? That’s a….Factor.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Suss/s/KhL46X0B3G

https://www.reddit.com/r/Suss/comments/1msk866/various_guides_for_suss_freshiesexisting_students/

I would doubt it. I've had professors recommend using citation software like Zotero and Mendeley which actually function better than online generators.

Ask for clarification if you're really worried, but I think it's totally fine.

You're not taking someone else's information as your own, you're using the generator to make sure you're structuring citations correctly. So you're good

I literally recommend citation managers like Zotero specifically to help students save time. You learn nothing by typing citations manually, but they need to be done correctly for good reasons.

That said, sometimes generators get it wrong so don’t implicitly trust the outputs, and double check stuff. But yeah it’s fine. Read the syllabus or ask the prof if you’re super unsure but I’m 99.5% sure they won’t care.

Maybe on some technicality but they’ll never notice/care

Nope, as a researcher and even profs I work with we just use a software like mendeley and zotero to automatically do it for us. 90% of the time it’s accurate. I’d just double check the work it does, especially if references is heavily graded. I’m pretty sure msword and gdocs have a reference function now as well that automatically does it for you or an addons