MLA vs APA 7: Which Citation Style Does Your Class Use?

Half the grade-killing mistakes on student essays are not bad ideas — they are wrong citations. Different classes want different styles, and the differences are small but specific. This guide shows you exactly which style your class probably uses and how to format the two most common citation types correctly the first time.

Which classes use which style?

• MLA 9 — English, literature, foreign languages, most humanities.
• APA 7 — psychology, education, sociology, nursing, and most social sciences.
• Chicago / Turabian — history and some art history classes (not covered here).

If your syllabus or rubric does not say, the safest bet is to match what your textbook uses. When in doubt, email your teacher — it is the cheapest grade you'll ever protect.

In-text citations side-by-side

Quoting a book

Paraphrasing an article

Works Cited vs References

Both styles put a list of sources at the end of the paper, but the heading, the order of fields, and even the capitalization rules differ.

• MLA: heading is 'Works Cited'. Author last, first. Title in title case. Italicize books and journals.
• APA: heading is 'References'. Author last, F. Year in parentheses after author. Sentence case for article titles, title case for journal names.

Formatting checks teachers run first

1. Double-spaced, 12pt Times New Roman or 11pt Calibri.
2. 1-inch margins, page numbers in the top right.
3. MLA: header with last name + page number. APA 7: running head only on student papers if the instructor asks.
4. Hanging indent on every Works Cited / References entry.