Guides: English 102- Changing an MLA Research Paper to an APA Research Paper: Overview

APA vs MLA Resources

APA vs MLA The Key Differences in Format and Citation

The “Online Writing Lab” (OWL) at Purdue University has excellent online guides to both MLA and APA. These websites also have complete, annotated sample papers that you can download and use as examples.

Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide
Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide

MLA vs APA (via Scribbr)

Key Differences

Formatting your APA Style Paper
There are three main differences between APA format and MLA format.

Title Page- Required for APA Style
Running Header- An APA header includes a right-aligned page number (not required in student papers unless instructed otherwise)
Block Quote Formatting- Block quotes are long quotations that are set on a new line and indented as a block, with no quotation marks. In APA, any quote of 40 words or longer should be formatted as a block quote. In MLA, block quote formatting is used for quotes of more than four lines of prose or more than three lines of verse. In both styles, the in-text citation is added after the period at the end of a block quote.

In-Text Citations

An APA in-text citation icludes the author's last name and the publication year. If you're quoting or paraphrasing a specific passage, you also add a page number. When there are two authors, APA styles separates their names with an ampersand (&), while MLA used "and". For three or more authors, list the first author followed by "et al." in both styles.