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APA vs. MLA vs. Chicago — When to Use Each

The three major citation styles serve different communities with different emphases:

• APA (American Psychological Association) — psychology, social sciences, nursing, education, business. Emphasizes author and date because recency matters in scientific fields. Format: Author (Year). Title. Publisher.
• MLA (Modern Language Association) — literature, humanities, film, cultural studies. Emphasizes author and page number for close reading and quotation. Format: Author. "Article Title." Book Title, Publisher, Year, p. #.
• Chicago — history, arts, professional publishing. Two systems: Notes-Bibliography (footnotes) for humanities, and Author-Date (similar to APA) for physical and social sciences.

How to Cite a Website in APA 7th Edition

APA 7th edition website format: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the webpage. Site Name. URL

• No "Retrieved from" before the URL (removed in 7th edition)
• Include the site name unless it matches the author organization
• Use "n.d." (no date) if no publication date is visible
• Use the specific page URL, not the homepage
• For frequently updated pages (Wikipedia), add a retrieval date

In-Text Citations — Parenthetical vs. Footnote Systems

• APA in-text: (Author, Year) or (Author, Year, p. #) for direct quotes. Example: (Smith, 2022). Direct quote: "exact words" (Smith, 2022, p. 45).
• MLA in-text: (Author page#). No comma between author and page. Example: (Smith 45).
• Chicago footnote: Superscript number in text¹, full citation in footnote. Second reference: shortened footnote (Author, Short Title, page).

Parenthetical systems (APA, MLA) are faster to write; footnote systems (Chicago) interrupt reading flow less.

Citing Books, Articles, and Online Sources

• Books: Author, Year, Title, Publisher. For chapters in edited volumes, add chapter author and title before the book.
• Journal articles: Author, Year, Article title, Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pages, DOI.
• YouTube videos: Channel. (Year, Month Day). Title [Video]. YouTube. URL
• Social media: Author [@handle]. (Year, Month Day). First 20 words [Tweet/post]. Platform. URL

DOIs and Persistent Links

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a permanent ID assigned to academic documents. Unlike URLs, DOIs never change. In APA 7th edition, always include the DOI if available, formatted as a URL: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx. If no DOI exists, use the journal homepage URL — not a database URL like JSTOR, which readers without subscriptions can't access.

Common Citation Mistakes to Avoid

• Missing DOI — always check; the most common APA error
• Citing the database — cite the journal, not JSTOR or EBSCOhost
• Wrong capitalization — APA uses sentence case for titles (only first word); MLA uses title case (major words)
• No page number on direct quotes — required in both APA and MLA
• Inconsistent formatting — mixing elements from different styles within one paper
• Over-citing — common knowledge needs no citation; over-citing makes writing choppy

Why Citation Matters

Citations serve three purposes beyond avoiding plagiarism: giving credit to people who did the work; enabling readers to find and verify your sources; and building a traceable web of scholarship showing how ideas develop over time. Plagiarism — taking ideas or words without attribution, even unintentionally — is treated seriously by most universities. When in doubt, cite.

APA 7th Edition Quick Reference

• Double-space the entire reference list; no extra space between entries
• Hanging indent: second and subsequent lines indented 0.5 inches
• Alphabetical by first author's last name
• List all authors up to 20; for 21+, list first 19, ellipsis, last author
• Sentence case for article and book titles (first word and proper nouns only)
• Italicize journal names and book titles; do not italicize article or chapter titles
• Include issue number only when each issue begins at page 1