Appendix A: Documentation Styles (MLA & APA)

When producing an academic text you are likely to need to apply either MLA or APA style. This section will provide you with a basic understanding of both aforementioned styles.

In “Formatting Your Paper in MLA,” Melanie Gagich gives some basic tips on how to affect MLA style when formatting your document.

John Brentar and Emilie Zickel, in “MLA: Works Cited Entries,” provide easily understood advice on how to affect MLA in-text citations.

A Works Cited example is provided by Emilie Zickel and John Brentar in “MLA: Works Cited Examples.”

In “Formatting Your Paper in APA,” Melanie Gagich gives formatting tips for APA style.

In “Applying APA Citations: In-text Citations,” Melanie Gagich goes over the basics of APA in-text citations, which do markedly differ from MLA.

And, in “Applying APA Citations: References,” Melanie Gagich presents foundational information about APA Reference page construction.

Appendix A: Documentation Styles will feature Composing Processes, Reading, and Information Literacy. Chapters 48, 49, 50, and 51 address proper MLA formatting procedures (Information Literacy), and in Chapters 52, 53, and 54, readers will be introduced to another type of formatting protocol, APA, which is used primarily in the social sciences. All together, these chapters emphasize the importance of appropriate documentation styles for first-year writing courses.