Picture this: you receive the assignment guidelines and rubric for an upcoming written assignment. Your professor requires in-text citations and a Works Cited or References page at the end of your paper, but doesn’t specify which citation style to use. Maybe they even explicitly say that they don’t have a preference. What citation style should you use for this assignment?
I’ve experienced this multiple times, and it’s likely that you have experienced or will experience this too. The most common citation styles you’ll most likely encounter are APA and MLA, so I had the idea to compare those two styles and find out what each of them may be most appropriate for so that I can help others in the process!
MLA & APA In-Text Citations
The main difference between APA and MLA in-text citations is the inclusion of the year of publication: both styles include the source’s author and page number, but only APA includes the publication date in the in-text citation. Below is an example of the same in-text citation for a source with a singular author in both APA and MLA style.
APA: “This is a quote” (Smith, 2001, p. 100).
OR According to Smith (2001), “This is a quote” (p. 100).
MLA: “This is a quote” (Smith 100).
OR According to Smith, “This is a quote” (100).
So, what are the advantages of including the publication date in an in-text citation? Well, when referencing scientific studies, it’s important to take the date into account so that you can properly understand whether the information might be outdated. It may not be as important to reference the date for a language arts assignment that references works of fiction or less formal webpages, but with scientific works, if your information has since been proved incorrect, the first hint will be the date. This is our first clue that APA might be more useful for the sciences, while MLA might be better for non-scientific disciplines.
MLA & APA Reference Lists
Take a look at this handy table to see the different ways that journal, book, and webpage references should be cited at the end of a paper in APA or MLA style. Each aspect of these citations is color-coded so you can see how the items shift around between citation styles.
| APA | MLA | |
| Journal | Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of article. Journal Title, volume number(issue number), pages. DOI | Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Journal Title, volume number, issue number, year, pages. DOI |
| Book | Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Book title. Publisher. | Last Name, First Name. Book Title. Publisher, Year. |
| Webpage | Last Name, First Initial. (Year, Month Day). Page title. Site Name. Retrieved Month Date, Year from URL | Last Name, First Name. “Page Title.” Site Name, Day Month Year, URL. Accessed Day Month Year. |
| 1 author | Smith, J. P. | Smith, Jason P. |
| 2 authors | Smith, J. P., & Doe, J. | Smith, Jason P. and John Doe. |
| 3+ authors | Smith, J. P., Doe, J., & Author, A. B. | Smith, Jason P., et al. |
You’ll probably notice that while the organization of reference items such as authors, dates, titles, and DOIs/URLs are rearranged between the two styles, the general content is almost identical between styles. The only noticeable differences in actual content are that MLA uses “et al.” for all but the first author when sources have three or more authors, and MLA spells out first and middle names rather than restricting them to their initials. This difference shows that MLA lends itself to sources with fewer authors, since co-authors on sources written by more than three people will be shortened to “et al.” MLA also makes the name of singular authors clearer, as the reader can see their first and middle names spelled out instead of having to look them up by their initials.
How to Choose Your Citation Style
As you may have guessed, APA style is widely regarded as being most appropriate for the natural, physical, and social sciences. Most papers you’ll be writing in these disciplines will rely heavily on citing scientific journals, and so APA is extremely useful in that case: it provides the year of publication in in-text citations and can list up to 20 authors in its references page without abbreviating authors. This ability to list many authors without shortening them into an “et al.” — which is what MLA requires — is extremely useful when citing scientific papers. This is because many articles are co-authored by a large number of researchers, and including them can help you better demonstrate the amount of research that has gone into a source.
Conversely, MLA is the best citation style for papers on the humanities: language, literature, philosophy, history, religion, art, and so on. MLA emphasizes brevity and clarity, making it easy for readers to understand your citations on the fly. Also, because humanities papers often analyze pieces of writing, the quick use of the author’s name and page numbers in in-text citations makes it easy for others to track down the quotes you’re interpreting. Resources on the humanities are also likely to have fewer authors than scientific papers, so it’s OK that MLA can only list two authors before just implying them with “et al.”
Making Your Decision
So, in the end, the best strategy to utilize when deciding on your citation style is just to look at the topic of your paper! Are you writing about science? You’ll probably want to use APA. Are you writing about the humanities? MLA is most likely the best choice for you.
Lastly, don’t be intimidated by a citation style that is currently unfamiliar to you! There are plenty of helpful resources like Purdue Owl and UNC University Libraries that can help you learn and get more comfortable with citation styles like MLA and APA. Before long, you may become a citation master who knows MLA and APA like the back of your hand.