Introduction:In recent years, the Academy of Modern Languages and the American Psychological Association have launched their respective dissertation guidelines, and their rules for citing works have attracted the attention of many teachers. This paper will analyse in detail the similarities and differences between these two formats in the citation process, aiming to help teachers better understand and apply these methods to guide students in scientific research and academic writing.
I. Similarities and differences between MLA and APA formats in the citation process
The Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA) are both well-known academic institutions, providing scholars with a wealth of authoritative dissertation guidance documents. The HM process used in them is specifically divided into in-text embedded notes and footnotes/endnotes. However, it should be clear that MLA and APA have in common that they do not advocate the use of footnotes or endnotes, and prefer the use of in-text embedded notes.
Embedded notes in the text
MLA and APA on the citation markup are proposed strict norms, such as to contain the author’s name, the full name of the book, the place of publication, the publisher, the year and month of publication, as well as specific page numbers and other content. For quotes of varying lengths, the requirements are differentiated: indentation of five characters, no need to apply border symbols; if the author is not shown in the original text, there is no need to list it in the notes; if the quote is too long, it is recommended to list it in subsections while planting it in the correct grammatical hierarchy. It is worth noting that MLA emphasises the need to include the author’s surname and the corresponding page number, but these are not separated by a semicolon, while APA practice is to include the author, the year of publication, and the corresponding page number of the citation in parentheses, with the rest of the information available in the references section.
Third, footnotes / endnotes application scenarios and comparison
Footnotes are located in the last paragraph of the page four lines below, if you need to explain more information, can be continued to the next page. When more than one footnote is applied, it is necessary to space out the lines of the new page. Citation in the main text is preceded by an Arabic numeral, and the corresponding footnote is also indicated by this numeral. Ensure that the font size is the same as the main text and that single spacing is set appropriately. Under MLA guidelines, footnotes are used only for nutty information (important but not affecting the structure of the text) or obscure references (references that do not fit in parentheses). Within the framework of APA, it is limited to the former condition. As for endnotes, they are placed on a separate page at the end of the chapter and begin with the capital letter “NOTES”, which is printed separately. The chapter numbers are given sequentially to make it easier to find the cited information.
The MLA and APA citation formats are the essence of academic papers and an important reflection of academic integrity. By understanding these details and norms, we believe that teachers will be able to guide students more accurately in the teaching process and make them successful in their future research.
