APA vs MLA: How to Choose Between APA 7 and MLA 9

APA vs MLA: Quick Answer

Use APA when the syllabus, journal, or department is in psychology, education, nursing, social work, or another social or behavioral science, and the reader needs the year in every citation. Use MLA when the course is in literature, languages, composition, or cultural studies, and the reader needs a page, line, or time stamp more than a year. If the assignment sheet names a style, that instruction wins over any field custom. Do not mix an APA year with an MLA Works Cited list.

Current Editions: APA 7th vs MLA 9th

The comparison only holds if you are using the editions instructors now expect. APA 7th edition, published by the American Psychological Association in 2020, is still the current APA manual. In-text rules sit in Chapter 8; reference examples sit in Chapter 10. The Common Reference Examples Guide last updated 3 March 2026 is the current official journal and book handout. The MLA Handbook, 9th edition, was published in spring 2021 and is still the current MLA handbook. Neither style wants a city of publication for a modern book. APA 7 already dropped publisher location. MLA 9 never required it in the current core-element template.

Why APA and MLA Look Different

The punctuation is not decoration. It encodes what each field treats as the first fact a reader must see. Chelsea Lee's APA Style blog post (12 February 2024) answers the usual complaint — why learn a second style — by locating each handbook in its discipline: MLA in the humanities, APA in the behavioral sciences and in education, nursing, business, and some engineering writing.

Those sentences come from the APA Style basic principles of citation, the APA vs MLA blog post, the MLA Style Center citations-by-format page, and the MLA Style overview. They are the shortest accurate definition of the APA vs MLA choice: recency and a year in every citation versus a locator and a reusable core-element template.

What Each In-Text Citation Is Designed to Show

APA's parenthetical form is author and year: (Niepel et al., 2025). A narrative citation moves the name into the sentence and keeps the year: Niepel et al. (2025) examined state academic self-concept. A direct quotation adds a page with the abbreviation p. or pp.: (Niepel et al., 2025, p. 772). Two authors take an ampersand in parentheses — (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) — and the word and in a narrative citation. Three or more authors become First Author et al. from the first mention.

MLA's parenthetical form is author and page, with no comma and no p. The MLA Handbook, 9th edition, Chapter 6, defines those citations as brief pointers into the Works Cited list and, when relevant, into a location in the source:

So Morrison's novel is (Morrison 3), not (Morrison, 1987, p. 3). A narrative citation leaves only the page in parentheses: Morrison describes 124 as "spiteful" (3). Two authors take and: (Kahneman and Tversky 263). Three or more authors take et al.: (Niepel et al. 772). The year stays in the Works Cited list unless you must distinguish two works by the same author from the same year — a rare case in literary essays, a common one in psychology. Duquesne University's MLA in-text guide restates the handbook's no-comma, no-p. pattern with the same Chapter 6 page reference.

The Same Sources in Both Styles

Invented examples hide the real differences. The works below are published sources or official handbook samples: Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall from the MLA Style Center book page; Lynne M. Jackson's The Psychology of Prejudice (2nd ed., 2019) from the APA Style book references; Hanna Levenson and colleagues' 2025 APA book from the Common Reference Examples Guide (3 March 2026); Christoph Niepel and colleagues' 2025 Journal of Educational Psychology article, DOI 10.1037/edu0000946, from the same handout; Anne Goldman's Georgia Review essay from the MLA Style Center citations-by-format page; Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky's 1979 Econometrica article on prospect theory, DOI 10.2307/1914185; Toni Morrison's Beloved (Alfred A. Knopf, 1987); and William Deresiewicz's Atlantic essay from the Style Center online-works examples.

A novel and an official MLA book

APA shortens the given name to an initial, puts the year after the author, and uses sentence case for the book title. MLA spells the given name, keeps title case, abbreviates the trade imprint to Knopf, and holds the year until the end. Neither list needs a city of publication. For whole-book templates, see how to cite a book in APA and how to cite a book in MLA.

Official APA books, then MLA

Jackson is the official second-edition-plus-DOI case, so (2nd ed.) sits after the title and is not italic. Levenson et al. (2025) is four authors, so APA already shortens the in-text citation to et al. MLA lists the first author and et al. in the Works Cited entry when there are three or more authors. APA lists up to 20 names in the reference.

A journal article

APA italicizes the volume, puts the issue in parentheses, and presents the DOI as a URL with no period after it. MLA writes vol. and no., uses pp. only in the Works Cited entry, puts article titles in quotation marks and title case, and still prefers the https://doi.org/ form when a DOI exists. For a JSTOR article without a DOI, MLA keeps the database as a second container and drops https://. APA 7 §9.30 tells you not to name most academic research databases; cite the journal of record. The older five-author Style Center journal sample (Grady et al., 2019) still appears on the APA journal page; the current handout sample is Niepel et al. (2025). For the article template in each style, see how to cite a journal article in APA and how to cite a journal article in MLA.

Two authors

A webpage

The Style Center's current article-on-a-website example is William Deresiewicz in The Atlantic. APA italicizes a sentence-case page title, keeps https://, and puts the year in every citation. MLA puts the page title in quotation marks, usually drops https://, and cites the author without a year.

For webpage-only templates, see how to cite a website in APA and how to cite a website in MLA. A missing date or a missing author is a different problem: use citing a source with no date or citing a source with no author.

Paper Setup That Changes the First Page

Citation style is also page style. APA 7th edition distinguishes student papers from professional papers. The official APA student paper setup guide (last updated 8 October 2025) is explicit about the header and about who wins when a syllabus disagrees:

Student papers still need a title page and a page number in the top right on every page, including the title page. An abstract is required for many professional articles and only for student papers when the assignment says so. Chapter 2 of the Publication Manual is the chapter that separates those two paper types. It is also fine to use the default font of the word processor.

MLA 9th edition still expects a first-page heading — student name, instructor, course, and date — rather than a separate title page, unless the instructor requires one. The running header is the author's last name and the page number. Headings are allowed; they are not a five-level system. The MLA Handbook added updated advice on headings, lists, and group-project title pages in the ninth edition. For shared margin, font, and spacing rules, see how to format academic papers.

Field Defaults — and the Exceptions That Catch People

A discipline default is a prediction, not a permission slip. Use it when the assignment is silent. Confirm it when a journal, lab, or cross-listed course might have its own house style. This page decides between APA and MLA. If the third option is Chicago notes, use APA vs Chicago or MLA vs Chicago. The broader map lives in which citation style should I use and citation styles by discipline.

High School, College, and "Any Style"

Many U.S. high-school English courses teach MLA first. That is a composition convention, not a claim that MLA is the college default. APA's own analysis of college majors is blunt:

That sentence is from "How many U.S. college students use APA Style?". If you already know MLA, the useful move is not to abandon it. It is to learn what APA adds: the year in the citation, sentence-case titles, initials instead of given names, and a title page. APA also publishes a free APA Style and MLA Style Reference Comparison Guide for the same source types side by side.

"Any style" on a prompt is not a license to invent a hybrid. It usually means any complete, current academic style — APA 7, MLA 9, or Chicago — applied consistently. Pick one, say which one you picked, and keep the in-text citations and the end list in the same family. If the paper later moves to a journal, restyle the whole manuscript. Do not patch a few entries.

How to Switch Without Mixing Styles

Students lose marks less often from picking the "wrong" popular style than from submitting a paper that is half APA and half MLA. Restyle as a batch.

1. Lock the target style before you format the first citation. If the instructor has not named one, send a one-line question rather than guessing.
2. Change the in-text citations first. APA needs a year in every citation; MLA needs a page for most quotations and many paraphrases. Those are different facts, not a find-and-replace on parentheses.
3. Rebuild the end list from the sources, not from the old list. An APA reference will not become a correct MLA works-cited entry if you only rename the heading.
4. Fix the first page and the header. A leftover running head or a missing title page is how mixed papers get caught in the first ten seconds.
5. If you already have a saved bibliography, restyle it in one pass with the APA generator or the MLA generator rather than editing entries by hand.

Mix-Ups That Make a Paper Look Unfinished

• Putting a year in an MLA parenthetical. (Morrison 1987, 3) is APA thinking in MLA punctuation. MLA wants (Morrison 3) unless you must tell two Morrison titles apart.
• Using an ampersand in MLA. APA uses & in parentheses and in the reference list. MLA spells out and.
• Writing p. or pp. in an MLA in-text citation. Those abbreviations belong in APA in-text locators and in an MLA Works Cited page range, not in (Author 23).
• Title-casing an APA article or book title. APA references use sentence case for those titles and title case for journal names. MLA uses title case for both.
• Calling the MLA list References, or the APA list Works Cited. The heading is part of the style.
• Using APA 6th running heads on a student paper. APA 7 dropped the running head for student papers unless the instructor requires it.
• Leaving a `doi:` prefix or a bare DOI string. Both current styles prefer https://doi.org/ plus the identifier.
• Naming JSTOR in an APA journal reference. MLA keeps the database as a second container when there is no DOI. APA cites the journal of record and omits most database names (§9.30).
• Keeping Grady et al. (2019) as "the" official APA journal sample. The 3 March 2026 handout sample is Niepel et al. (2025). Grady remains a real five-author Style Center example; it is no longer the current common-examples lead.
• Mixing quotation habits. Humanities papers quote more and cite pages more. APA papers paraphrase more and still need a page on a direct quotation. See paraphrasing vs quoting.

Official Sources to Verify Against

A generator is a draft. The manuals and their official websites are the authority. Use this page to choose a style and to see the same source both ways; then check an unusual source against the primary documentation.

• APA Style — the American Psychological Association's official site for the 7th edition, including student paper setup and reference examples.
• APA Style basic principles of citation — the author–date definition quoted above.
• APA Style, "Why learn APA Style if you already know MLA style?" — Chelsea Lee, 12 February 2024.
• Common Reference Examples Guide — last updated 3 March 2026; Niepel and Levenson live here.
• APA student paper setup guide — last updated 8 October 2025.
• APA Style and MLA Style Reference Comparison Guide — APA's own side-by-side handout.
• MLA Style — the Modern Language Association's description of the 9th edition and MLA Handbook Plus.
• MLA Style Center — free official examples, the core-elements template, and Ask the MLA.
• MLA Style Center citations by format — Mantel, Beowulf, Goldman, Deresiewicz, and the other official samples.
• For Chicago or a third style in the same decision, see APA vs Chicago, MLA vs Chicago, and when to use APA.

Related guides

• APA vs MLA comparison table
• When to use APA style
• Which citation style should I use?
• APA vs Chicago
• MLA vs Chicago
• How to cite a book in MLA
• How to cite a book in APA
• Citation styles by discipline