Basic Features of APA and MLA

Formatting Styles
(worked out for UVOCORP Writers)

Mentors Department 2015

This presentation is dedicated to the most troublesome points in APA
and MLA formatting styles which result in many mistakes and
inaccuracies in the papers.
Since some of the rules remain a bit vague, we have felt a need to
make a uniform system of formatting rules which all writers of our
company will stick to.
It means that we all will comply with these rules unless are directed
by particular requirements from our customers.
So, here we provide you with this set of norms that should be learnt
and followed by our writers from the very beginning of their writing
career.
APA Formatting Style
Running head

● Running head is a shortened version of the paper’s full title (Note: it

should not be completely different from the title).
● It cannot exceed 50 characters, including spaces and punctuation (as
a rule, 5 words maximum).
● The running head should be in capital letters.
● It should be flush left, and page numbers should be flush right.
● Only on the title page should the running head include the words
“Running head” followed by a colon (:)
● For pages following the title page, one should repeat the running head
in capital letters but without the words “Running head.”
 Title page
● The title should be centered on the page, typed in 12-point Times
New Roman Font.
● It should not be bolded, underlined, or italicized.
● It should be in title case*
Note: Title case means that all the notional parts of speech (verbs, nouns,
pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs) and secondary parts of speech which are four
letters long or longer should start with a capital letter. The first word in the title or
the first word after the dash or the colon should always start with a capital letter.
● The title should correspond to the topic of the paper and reflected in the
running head.
● The author’s name and institution should be double spaced and centered.
● They should not be bolded, underlined, or italicized.

Note: Sometimes, the customers request the topic to be per the writer’s choice. In
such a situation, the writers should make the title on their own based on the topic revealed in the paper.
Moreover, very often the customers point out the subject to which the topic relates as a title of the paper (e.g. Sociology). It
cannot be the title of the paper. The writers should also make the title on their own based on the topic
revealed in the paper.
●
 Abstract
● The second page of the paper is dedicated to Abstract.
● In the abstract, the writers should briefly summarize the paper,
which allows readers to quickly review its main points and purpose.
● The abstract should be between 150-250 words.
● Abbreviations and acronyms used in the paper as well as other
keywords should be defined in the abstract.
● The word “Abstract” should be centered and typed in 12 point
Times New Roman.
● It should not be bolded, underlined, or italicized.
● The first line of the abstract paragraph should be flush left (flush-left,
or not indented, means that there should be no spacing before the first
line of the paragraph).
Note: customers sometimes do not require the Abstract to be included into the papers. But please, make
sure the writers insert it when they deal with more complicated orders, say University papers, research
papers and so on.
The page following the Abstract

● The page following the Abstract (or the second page if the
Abstract is not required) should begin with the title of the paper,
which should be centered on the page, typed in 12-point Times
New Roman Font.
● It should not be bolded, underlined, or italicized.
● It should be in title case.

Note: Some writers erroneously regard the title of the paper as the heading of the 1st level. It is
wrong. The title is just the title. It is neither the 1st level heading nor the A-level heading (according to
another terminology). The same concerns Abstract and References.
 In-text citations

● APA format presupposes the author-date method of in-text citation: the author's last name and the year
of publication for the source should appear in the text and a complete reference should appear in the
References at the end of the paper.
● In-text citations that are direct quotes should include the author’s/ authors’ name/s, the publication year,
and page number/s: (James, 2014, p. 150). Do not forget about the comma between the author’s last
name and the year of publication and the period after ‘p.’
● If you are just paraphrasing a source, you only have to make reference to the author and year of
publication and not the page number in your in-text reference: (James, 2014). Do not forget about the
comma between the author’s name and the year of publication.
In-text citations

● As a rule, in-text citations are put at the end of the idea paraphrased:
Example: In Africa, beating the heat is largely done by using the most traditional means of shade and
water (James, 2014).
Note: the period is put after the in-text citation.
● If while paraphrasing the idea the author’s name is mentioned in the text, only the year of
publication is included into parenthesis which directly follows. No in-text citation is used in the
end:
Example: According to James (2014), in Africa, beating the heat is largely done by using the most
traditional means of shade and water.
● But if the author’s name is mentioned before he/she is quoted directly, the year of publication
is included into parenthesis which directly follows and the page number is put in the parenthesis
at the end of the quotation:
Example: According to James (2014), “In Africa, beating the heat is largely done by using the most
traditional means of shade and water” (p.150).
In-text citations

● If the direct quotation is 40 words, or longer, it should be put in a free-standing block of lines. No
quotation marks should be used.
● One should start the quotation from the new line, indented (in the same place one would begin a
new paragraph). Each line which follows should be also indented as the first one.
Double-spacing should be maintained. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing
punctuation mark.
Example:
James’s (2014) research founded the following:
In Africa, beating the heat is largely done by using the most traditional means of shade and
water. Shade comes mostly from trees - Johannesburg is known for having the largest
man-made forest in the world with over 10 million trees planted across the city of gold. It is these
trees that come in handy when it is very hot. People simply sit under the trees in the shade.
 In-text citations
● When a print source has a corporate author, one may use the name of the corporation followed by the
year for the in-text citation for the first time.
● If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the
source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations.
First citation: (World Trade Organization [WTO], 2000)
Second citation: (WTO, 2000)
● When the author of the work is unknown, one should cite the source by its title in the signal phrase or use
the first word or two in the parentheses.Titles of books and reports are italicized; titles of articles,
chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks.
Example: (“Annual Marathon”, 2014).
● If no author or date is given, use the title in your signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the
parentheses and use the abbreviation "n.d." (for "no date").
● To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semicolon
Example:. . . as has been discussed elsewhere (James, 2014; Dewey, 2015).
Reference to sources

● While referring to the title of a source within the paper, title case should be used.
Example: A Darkness More Than Night
● While using the title of a source in References, sentence case should be used.
Note: Sentence case means that only the first word, proper nouns and some other words alike should
start with a capital letter.

Example: Connelly, M. (2001). A darkness more than night . NY: Little Brown and Company.
Reference to sources

● Remember how the titles of different sources should be formatted in the text:

Italicized In quotation marks

● books ● journal articles

● edited collections ● articles from edited
● movies collections
● television series ● television series
● documentaries episodes
● albums ● song titles
Reference to Author(s)
Please, remember how to refer to one or more authors in the text of the paper as well as in the
parenthesis when they are mentioned for the first time in the paper:

Number of In the text of the paper In the parenthesis Comments

Authors

Two Authors According to James and (James & Kameron, & is called ampersand
Kameron (2014) 2014)

Three to Five According to James, Brown, (James, Brown, & List all the authors
Authors and Kameron (2014) Kameron, 2014) Do not forget to put a
comma before ‘and’ and
before the ampersand

Six and more According to James et al. (James et al., 2014) Do not forget: period is
Authors (2014) put after ‘al.’ and not
after ‘et’
Reference to Author(s)

Please, remember how to refer to one or more authors in the text of the paper as well as in the
parenthesis when they are mentioned for the second time in the paper and subsequently:

Number of Authors In the text of the paper In the parenthesis

Two Authors According to James and (James & Kameron, 2014)

Kameron (2014)

Three to Five Authors According to James et al. (James et al., 2014)

(2014)

Six and more Authors According to James et al. (James et al., 2014)
(2014)
 Headings
In order not to be confused, for our company we have chosen
the numeric system of defining the level of headings. So,
further on, we will speak about 1st, 2nd, 3rd level headings and
elude A, B, C level headings.
APA Headings

1 level: Centered, Boldface, Title Case Headings

2 level: Left-aligned (= Flush left), Boldface, Title Case

Heading
3 level: Indented, boldface, sentence case
heading with a period. Begin the text after the period.

4 level: Indented, boldface, italicized, sentence case

heading with a period. Begin the text after the period.
5 level: Indented, italicized, sentence case heading with a period. Begin body text after the
period.

*flush left means that the heading is on the left and there is no spacing before it
*indented means that the heading is on the left but there is some spacing before it (as a rule, 05’’ which equals to 1.27 cm)
 References
● The list of sources used in the paper should appear at the end of
the paper.
● It should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay.
● It should be labelled ‘References’ (without any other variants; and
if only one source is used, it should be in plural anyway)
● The word ‘References’ should be centered at the top of the page
(NOT bolded, not underlined, not italicized, not in quotation marks).
● All lines after the first line of each entry in the list should be
indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging
indentation.
● Double-space all entries.
● Authors' names are inverted (last name first); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work for up to and
including seven authors. If the work has more than seven authors, list the first six authors and then use ellipses after the
sixth author's name. After the ellipses, list the last author's name of the work.
 References
● References should be arranged in the alphabetical order.
● Remember that the titles of books and periodicals are italicized in
the References as a rule.
● The articles or the chapters are not italicized. No quotation marks
for them.
● For the titles of books the sentence case should be used.
● For the titles of periodicals the title case should be used.
● For the online sources, the word Retrieved is used (without
any other variants). The exception is when the writer uses the
electronic book which is not directly available online or must be
purchased. In this case ‘Available from’ is more logical than
‘Retrieved from’.
Note: Since the aim of this presentation is to stress the most typical
features of APA and MLA formatting styles, in particular, those
where the writers often make mistakes, we do not provide
information about how each type of source should be formatted
in the References.
For more details, please, see the Citation Style Chart.
*The APA sample with the correct formatting of headings and some other parts of the paper will be attached to this ppt.
 Title Case and Sentence Case Capitalization in APA
Let’s resume what is the difference between the title case and the sentence case and when they
should be used in the APA.
Title case refers to a capitalization style in which most words are capitalized, and sentence case
refers to a capitalization style in which most words are lowercased. In both cases, proper nouns and
certain other types of words are always capitalized.
Title Case
Title case is used to capitalize the following types of titles and headings in APA Style:

● Titles of references (e.g., book titles, article titles) when they appear in the text of a paper
● Titles of inventories or tests
● Headings at Levels 1 and 2
● The title of your own paper and of named sections within it (e.g., the Discussion section), and
● Titles of periodicals (journals, magazines, or newspapers), which are also italicized (e.g.,
Journal of Counseling Psychology, The New York Times).
 Title Case and Sentence Case Capitalization in APA
Directions for implementing APA’s title case:

1. Capitalize the first word of the title/heading and of any subtitle/subheading;

2. Capitalize all “major” words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns) in the title/heading,
including the second part of hyphenated major words (e.g., Self-Report not Self-report); and
3. Capitalize all words of four letters or more.

This boils down to using lowercase only for “minor” words of three letters or fewer, namely, for
conjunctions (words like and, or, nor, and but), articles (the words a,an, and the), and prepositions (words
like as, at, by, for, in, of, on, per, and to), as long as they aren’t the first word in a title or subtitle.
 Title Case and Sentence Case Capitalization in APA
Sentence case
Sentence case is used in a few different contexts in APA Style, including for the following:

● The titles of references when they appear in reference list entries and
● Headings at Levels 3, 4, and 5

Here are directions for implementing sentence case in APA Style in these two contexts:

1. Capitalize the first word of the title/heading and of any subtitle/subheading;

2. Capitalize any proper nouns and certain other types of words;
3. Use lowercase for everything else.
Here are some examples of different types of (capitalized) proper nouns, along with some (lowercased) regular or common
noun corollaries:
Noun type Proper noun example Common noun example

Author or person Freud, Skinner, von Neumann the author, the investigator, the scientist

Company, institution, or agency American Psychological Association, University of the association, a university, a sociology department
Washington, Department of Sociology

Product Advil, Xerox, Prozac (brand names) ibuprofen, photocopy, fluoxetine (generic names)

Test or inventory Beck Depression Inventory, Child Behavior Checklist a depression inventory, a behavior checklist

Website or database PsycINFO, Facebook, Survey Monkey, Internet a database, a social media page, a website, online

Periodical (journal, magazine, Journal of Counseling Psychology, Time, The a psychology journal, a magazine, a newspaper
newspaper) Washington Post

Software, program, or app SPSS, Mplus, Davis’s Drug Guide for iPhone statistical software, a computer program, a mobile app
drug guide

Legal materials (statutes, acts, Americans With Disabilities Act, FDA Prescription Drug antidiscrimination laws, drug advertising legislation, a
codes, bills, regulations, Advertising Rule, U.S. Constitution constitution
constitutions, etc.)

most nouns when they are followed Table 1, Figure 2, Panel A if they are not followed by the numerals or letters:
by numerals or letters table, figure, panel
Let’s sum up how different types of sources should be formatted in APA. The following table
summarises what font and case should be used for the longer works and for their parts in the text of
the paper and in References.

Type of the Source In the text In References

Book Title italicized, title case italicized, sentence case

Title of the Periodical italicized, title case italicized, title case

Book Chapter in quotation marks, title not italicized, not in

case quotation marks, sentence
case

Article in Periodical in quotation marks, title not italicized, not in

case quotation marks, sentence
case
Summing Up…
Basic Features of APA
● Running head is present on each page
● Title page contains only three pieces of information: Title of the Paper, Name, Institution
● The second page is dedicated to Abstract
● The page following the Abstract starts with a title of the paper
● In-text citations usually contain information about the author of the work and the year of
publication. Comma is necessary between them (James, 2014)
● The headings are strictly levelled.
● The word ‘References’ is used for the list of sources.
MLA Formatting Style
 First page
● In MLA, there has to be a writer’s surname and a page number in the right upper
corner of each page. This header has to be flush right.
● There is no title page in MLA. The paper begins with a section on the left which
contains information about the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course number,
and the date of the paper. Do not violate this order!
● This section should be flush left, double-spaced.
● Begin the title of the paper from the next line.
● It has to be centered, not underlined, not italicized, not placed in quotation marks
(unless you refer to other works in your title such as books, articles, films etc.).
The Title Case has to be used for the title.

Note: sometimes the customers may require a single spacing. Then you should follow the requirements. Or they may request
for a title page. In such situation, they should provide you with clarifications on how the title page should look like. If not, ask for
them. Do not forget about the terms of proper communication between writers and customers which you have had a chance to
learn in one of our previous presentations.
In-text citations
● In-text citations in MLA contain information about the author of the work and the page number
with no comma between them.
● As a rule, in-text citations are put at the end of the idea paraphrased:
Example: In Africa, beating the heat is largely done by using the most traditional means of shade and
water (James 150).
Note: the period is put after the in-text citation.
● If while paraphrasing the idea the author’s name is mentioned in the text, only the page
number is included into parenthesis which is located at the end of the idea paraphrased.
Example: According to James, in Africa, beating the heat is largely done by using the most traditional
means of shade and water (150).
In-text citations

● Use block quotes when quotations are longer than four typed lines.
● Block quotes begin on a new line, are double spaced, and are indented 1” from the margin. Do
not use quotation marks.The citation information (either the author name and the page number
or just the page number) follows the punctuation mark which is at the end of the quotation.
Example:
James’s research founded the following:
In Africa, beating the heat is largely done by using the most traditional means of shade and
water. Shade comes mostly from trees - Johannesburg is known for having the largest
man-made forest in the world with over 10 million trees planted across the city of gold. It is these
trees that come in handy when it is very hot. People simply sit under the trees in the shade.
Water is another way of cooling down on a hot summer's day. In South Africa people tend to
spend time in swimming pools either at home or in publicly run pools. There are also the ice
lollies sold at traffic lights. (150)
In-text citations

● When a print source has a corporate author, one may use the name of the corporation followed by
the page number for the in-text citation.
● When the author of the work is unknown, one should use a shortened title of the work instead of an
author’s name. The title should be placed in quotation marks if it's a short work (e.g. an article) or
italicized if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows). Besides, the page number is to be
provided.
Example: (“Annual Marathon” 45).
Note: the full name of the article should appear first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry in the
Works Cited
Example: “Annual Marathon.” Sport Today. 2014. Web. 15 Jul. 2015.
● To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semicolon
Example:. . . as has been discussed elsewhere (James 3; Dewey 21).
In-text citations
If you are citing non-print sources without page numbers available, include in the first item that
appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author’s name, article name,
website name, film name) either to the text (then no parenthesis is needed at all) or to the parenthesis.
Example:
During the presentation, Jane Yates stated that invention and pre-writing are areas of rhetoric that
need more attention.
OR
In the presentation it was stated that invention and pre-writing are areas of rhetoric that need more
attention (Yates).
The respective entry on the Works Cited page is the following:
Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and
Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Presentation.
Reference to sources

● In MLA, unlike APA, both in the text of the paper and in the Works Cited, title case is used to
refer to some particular sources.
Examples:
In the text: A Darkness More Than Night
In the Works Cited: Connelly, Michael. A Darkness More than Night . NY: Little Brown and Company,
2001. Print

● But as well as in the APA, longer works are usually italicized, whereas parts of works are put in
quotation marks. (See Slide 13)
Reference to Author(s)

● If two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials.
Example: Whereas some specialists suggest beating the heat using shade and water (R. James 150),
others are for some more radical means (P. James 78).

● In MLA, unlike APA, there is no difference whether the reference to the author(s) is made for the
first or for the second time. Neither is any difference between the reference to the author(s) in
the text of the paper and the parenthesis:

Number of Authors In the text of the paper In the parenthesis Comments

Two Authors According to James and (James and Kameron Do not forget that a page number in the
Kameron, ... (150). 150) parenthesis should be in the end

Three and more According to James et al., (James et al. 150 ) 1) Period is put after ‘al.’ and not after ‘et’
Authors ... (150) 2) In the Works Cited, mention all authors
with the comma before ‘and’
 Headings
● As was mentioned, in our company we will stick to the numeric system of headings for all formatting styles (1st, 2nd,
3rd…).
● Unlike APA, there are no strict rules at to how each level heading should be formatted.Therefore, for our company,
we have chosen the following system of headings in MLA each writer should stick to unless not followed by particular
instructions of the customer:
■ MLA headings

1 level: Bold, Flush Left, Title Case

The paragraph should start from a new line, also flush left.

2 level: Italics, Flush Left, Title Case. The text should begin
just after the period.

3 Level: Centered, Bold, Title Case

The paragraph should start from a new line, flush left.

Level 4 Heading: Centered, Italics, Title Case

The paragraph should start from a new line, flush left.

Level 5 Heading: Underlined, Flush Left, Title Case

The paragraph should start from a new line, also flush left.
 Works Cited

● The list of sources used in the paper should appear at the end of the paper.
● It should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay.
● It should be labelled ‘Works Cited’ (both words should start with a capital letter;
if only one source is used, you may use ‘Work Cited’ in singular).
● The words ‘Works Cited’ should be centered at the top of the page (NOT bolded,
not underlined, not italicized, not in quotation marks).
● Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries.
● Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations by 0.5 inches to create a
hanging indent.
● Sources should be arranged in the alphabetical order by the the author's last
name. Author names are written last name first; middle names or middle initials follow
the first name. Unlike in APA, please, try to provide full names instead of initials.
● If the author of the work is unknown, alphabetize it by its title but together with all other sources.
MLA Eighth Edition: What's New and Different
A print book with one author:

Eighth edition (the new way):

Jacobs, Alan. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. Oxford UP, 2011.

In this version, only the most essential information is included (author’s name, book title, publisher, and date). Note that
the city of publication is not needed, and the medium of publication is eliminated.

Seventh edition (the old way):

Jacobs, Alan. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.

This version includes the city of publication (Oxford) and the medium (print), which the new eighth edition does not
require.
MLA Eighth Edition: What's New and Different
An article from a scholarly journal:
Eighth edition:
Kincaid, Jamaica. “In History.” Callaloo, vol. 24, no. 2, Spring 2001, pp. 620-26.

This version identifies the volume (24), the number (2), and the page numbers (620-26) of the scholarly journal, rather than
leaving those numbers without clear explanation. This helps readers best make sense of your citation and allows them to
locate your source without getting bogged down with extra information or references that can be difficult to decipher. Also
note that punctuation is simple; only commas separate the journal title, volume, number, date, and page numbers.

Seventh edition:
Kinkaid, Jamaica. “In History.” Callaloo 24.2 (Spring 2001): 620-26. Web.

This version includes the volume and number (24.2), and page numbers (620-26) of the journal, but does not explain those
references. The seventh edition emphasized following a strict punctuation formula, such as parentheses around the date
and the colon, while the new eighth edition focuses on providing this information in a more streamlined manner by using
only commas to separate each component.
MLA Eighth Edition: What's New and Different
Online Sources:
Eighth edition:
Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 16 Aug. 2002,
alistapart.com/article/writeliving. Accessed 4 May 2009.

● For online sources, you should include a location to show readers where you found the source. Many scholarly
databases use a DOI (digital object identifier). Use a DOI in your citation if you can; otherwise use a URL. Delete
“http://” from URLs. The DOI or URL is usually the last element in a citation and should be followed by a period.
● All works cited entries end with a period.
● MLA also uses the phrase, “Accessed on” to denote which date you accessed the web page when available or
necessary.

Seventh edition:
Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 16 Aug. 2002 Web
4 May 2009.
● In this edition Web was used instead of Accessed on
● No URL was required
MLA Eighth Edition: What's New and Different

A YouTube Video
With the Eighth edition you may now cite YouTube.

Video and audio sources need to be documented using the same basic guidelines for citing print sources in MLA style.
Include as much descriptive information as necessary to help readers understand the type and nature of the source you
are citing. If the author’s name is the same as the uploader, only cite the author once. If the author is different from the
uploaded, cite the author’s name before the title.

“8 Hot Dog Gadgets put to the Test.” YouTube, uploaded by Crazy Russian Hacker, 6 Jun. 2016,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBlpjSEtELs.

McGonigal, Jane. “Gaming and Productivity.” YouTube, uploaded by Big Think, 3 July 2012,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdzy9bWW3E.
 Works Cited
● You do not have to put ‘Print’ for print sources according to the new
edition of the MLA guide.
● Instead of Web for online sources, use Accessed on.
● You should use a DOI in your citation if you can; otherwise use a URL.
Delete “http://” from URLs. The DOI or URL is usually the last element in a
Citation and should be followed by a period.
● Remember that the titles of books and periodicals are italicized in the Works
Cited as a rule.
● The articles or the chapters are not italicized. Use quotation marks for them.
● Unlike in APA, the title case should be used for all sources. So, capitalize
each word except articles (the, a, an), prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is
the first word of the title or subtitle.

*The MLA sample with the correct formatting of headings and some other parts of the paper will be attached to this ppt.
Let’s sum up how different types of sources should be formatted in MLA in the text of the paper and in
Works Cited.

Type of the Source In the text In References

Book Title italicized, title case italicized, title case

Title of the Periodical italicized, title case italicized, title case

Book Chapter in quotation marks, title in quotation marks, title

case case

Article in Periodical in quotation marks, title in quotation marks, title

case case
Summing Up…
Basic Features of MLA
● Double spacing is used throughout the whole paper
● There is no title page as a rule
● There is a Header in the upper right-hand corner of each page where Surname and page
number are mentioned
● There is a section on the left of the first page with the student’s name, the professor’s name,
the course number, and the date of the paper
● In-text citations usually contain information about the author of the work and the page number
with no comma between them
● The headings are levelled
● The words ‘Works Cited’ are used for the list of sources
Thank You for Your Attention!