From Inquiry to Academic Writing A Practical Guide, 3rd edition

344 APPENDIX | CITING AND DOCUMENTING SOURCES

Although you’ll need the manuals for complete style information, both

the MLA (http://www.mla.org/style_faq/) and the APA (http://www.apastyle

.org/learn/faqs/) maintain Web sites for frequently asked questions. Again,

before you start your research, check with your instructor to find out whether

you should use either of these styles or if there’s another style he or she prefers.

MLA and APA styles have many similarities — for example, both re -

quire short citations in the body of an essay linked to a list of sources at

the end of the essay. But it is their differences, though subtle, that are cru-

cial. To a great extent, these differences reflect the assumptions writers in

the humanities and in the social sciences bring to working with sources.

In particular, you should understand each style’s treatment of the source’s

author, publication date, and page numbers in in-text citations, and verb

use in referring to sources.

Author. MLA style requires that you give the author’s full name on first

mention in your paper; APA style uses last names throughout. The human-

ities emphasize “the human element” — the individual as creative force —

so MLA style uses the complete name at first mention to imply the author’s

importance. Because the social sciences emphasize the primacy of data in

studies of human activity, in APA style last names are deemed sufficient.

Publication Date. In-text citations using MLA style leave out the date of

publication. The assumption is that the insights of the past may be as use-

ful as those of the present. By contrast, APA style gives the date of the study

after the author’s name, reflecting a belief in the progress of research, that

recent findings may supersede earlier ones.

Page Numbers. MLA style requires that page numbers be included with

paraphrases and summaries as well as quotations (the written text is so

important that a reader may want to check the exact language of the origi-

nal). By contrast, APA style requires attribution but not page numbers for

paraphrases and summaries (it is the findings, not how they are described,

that are most important).

Verb Use. MLA style uses the present tense of verbs (“Writer X claims”) to

introduce cited material, assuming the cited text’s timelessness, whether

written last week or centuries ago. By contrast, the verbs introducing

citations in APA style acknowledge the “pastness” of research (“Writer X

claimed” or “Writer Y has claimed”) on the assumption that new data may

emerge to challenge older research.

Although it is useful to understand that different citation styles reflect

different attitudes toward inquiry and research in different disciplines, for

the purposes of your writing it is mainly important to know the style you

have to follow in your paper, and to stick to it scrupulously. Whenever you

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