Various Writing Styles in the World of Academia

There are several writing styles that have been developed over time. Each of these formatting styles for scholarly documents has a set of unique standards that distinguish them from others. Writing styles such as American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), and any other kind of writing formats impose a set of guidelines that needs to be applied while writing your academic paper. 


 The first formatting style that will be tackled is the American Psychological Association (APA). Those writers who use sources associated with social sciences may prefer this formatting style and instructors will most likely require a student to utilize this format when a lot of social sciences sources will be used. Probably this writing style has the most number of sections and the first part to provide is the APA title page which consists of a byline and affiliation, and a running head for publication. It is very important to put in mind as well that at the top right hand corner of each page must present at least one to two word version of your title along with the pagination five spaces after. Some instructors might also require a precise summary or quick overview regarding what the study is all about. If you are going to provide visuals such as tables, charts and graphs, be sure that they are very simple and easy to comprehend and must be correctly labeled along with the visual’s title. The very last section that you will be presenting in your paper is the References; this is considered one of the most difficult parts for lots of rules should be applied while doing this. A manual book in hand will going to help you a lot during this process.

 When your paper has something to do with liberal arts and social sciences, then most likely you will be asked by your professor to make use of Modern Language Association (MLA) as your writing style. To begin, you must set your text double space and must utilize a legible font like Times New Roman or Arial. In addition a one space should be provided right after every punctuation mark. Dissimilar to APA, MLA doesn’t necessitate title page. However, a need for the writer to provide headers for each page containing pagination along with their last name is a must. Similar to References in APA, a citation list should also be provided when using MLA, but this time it is called Works Cited List which is arranged alphabetically like References. Endnotes can also be provided if it is required, it must be in a separate sheet of paper and presented before the Works Cited List.

Obviously, both styles tackled above have similarities, differences, pros and cons. The usage of these formatting styles are considered essential in the academic world for it controls unethical acts when it come to authoring like stealing other’s ideas. In addition it also makes your document appear organized and professional thus gaining positive impression not only from your instructor but from the world of academia as well.

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