Most teachers in high school teach MLA, so when it comes to college and your professor assigns you a ten-page research paper using APA citation style, you might be overwhelmed. But the important part is remembering to lean on the knowledge you have in MLA.
Common Mistakes in APA
According to a study done at Grand Canyon University, the top three mistakes that students make in APA format are: Format of In-text Citations, Use of In-Text Citations, and Format of References on Reference Page (Mandernach, Zafonte, & Taylor, 2016). The Journal of European Psychology Students also published a blog post claiming that 90.9 of all student authors made three or more mistakes when formatting their references (Vasilev, 2012). With all these common mistakes coming from reference formatting, I thought, why not use the knowledge of MLA, which is usually more of a solid foundation for people, to learn APA by looking at the differences?
APA is often used for social science topics. Consider then the style of writing used in the social sciences: it is usually concise and clear. This translates to the choices and formatting style of APA. Understanding the reasoning behind the format helps the writer to think of it as not just plugging in the elements, but as using a system that was formed deliberately in a certain way.
Breaking It Down
The general structure of an APA reference is:
Author Name. (Publication Date). Title of the Work. Publication Data.
Let’s use the example of a book for our reference today.
Author Name:
What’s the Difference?
Notice that while in MLA, full names are used, in APA, the first name is shortened to an initial and that “and” is replaced by an ampersand (“&”).
Why the Difference?
If we remember that style of writing for social sciences, it is all about being clear and concise. It still contains the same information about the authors, but more concisely.
Publication Date:
What’s the Difference?
Notice that in APA, the publication date is the second element in the reference, unlike in MLA, where it is very close to the end.
Why the Difference?
Think again about the social sciences. The date of research and studies are very relevant to their credibility. A study done about cancer in 2003 is very different from current cancer research in 2018.
Title of Work and Publication Info:
What’s the Difference?
The Title of Work for APA follows the same rule of being capitalized and italicized like MLA, but if there is a subtitle then not all words will be capitalized. Instead, think of it as like a sentence where the first word will be capitalized, but after, it will be lowercase. Like this: “Title of Book: A subtitle gives more info.”
Color and Arrows Method:
A great way to help writers understand how to use APA is to base it off how they arrange an MLA citation. Have them highlight each part of the citation in different colors to see the differences and how APA is arranged.
What this means for other peer tutors
I think that the important part to learn is that the writer already has tools and knowledge at their disposal. We can use this knowledge to build on and adapt to help them learn some new topics and skills, so it does not feel like they totally have to start from scratch.
References:
Manedernach, J., Zafonte, M., & Taylor, C. (2016). Instructional strategies to improve college students’ APA style writing. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 27(3). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1093747.pdf
Vasilev, M. (2013). What are the most common APA style mistakes done by students? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://blog.efpsa.org/2013/01/15/what-are-the-most-common-apa-style-mistakes-done-by-students/