What Type Of Writing Styles Can I Use In My Paper?

There are three types of writing styles that are used for most papers, APA, MLA, and Chicago Style.  Each one of these styles are different but are used by most universities.  You will probably know what style you will have to use because your instructor usually assigns the style you are supposed to use for the paper, however, if you have a choice, I will explain each style to you. 

APA Style

The first thing you should know is that all these styles are written in double space, with Times New Roman, 12pt font. 

  • The title page in APA style is always centered with the title of your paper, name, and school’s name. 
  • The header should be a shortened title if it is long and have the page number to the right hand top corner.
  • For each section of this paper you start on a new page starting with your abstract and then whatever other subtitles are need for your paper.
  • The last page is your reference page, which is set up like this: author’s name, the date the source was published, title of the source, where it was retrieved.  Lastly, don’t forget the in text citations, (author’s last name, year of publication, page number). 

MLA Style

  • There is no title page for this kind of style but you do have to put you name, instructor’s name, course title, and date aligned left all under each other at the top of the first page. 
  • The header for this kind of paper is just your last name and page number in the top right hand corner of the paper. 
  • This kind of paper has subtitles for each section of your paper and doesn’t require you to start a new page for each section. 
  • The reference page is the last as it is in all papers, MLA is set up like this: author’s name, “title,” publication date, where you got the source, i.e. web, book, article, etc., and the date you accessed it.  The in-text citations are usually the author’s last name and page number but can be used singular if not known, or just the name of the source if both are not known.

Chicago Style

  • The title page is set up with the title centered with your name underneath it and at the bottom centered are the class name, instructor’s name, and date. 
  • The header starts on the second page with your last name and the number two but there is no number on the title page. 
  • The references are different in this type of paper. You use a section called notes, which is the page before the references to put you text citations in.  These are numbered with information from the source, which includes the author’s name, title of work, (publication city and company, year), page number.  Then you put the numbers in the text to the corresponding citation. 
  • The references are written like this: Last name, first name of author, “title of source” Name of where you go the source, volume number if needed. (year published): page numbers.  This can be changed a little depending on the source. 
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