7 Easy Steps on How to Convert MLA to APA Format

When you need to write a research paper, it’s essential to follow the given formatting guidelines. The MLA (Modern Language Association), and APA (American Psychological Association) styles are some of the popular documentation styles of academic and research papers.

Both formats have no impact on how you write the research paper or conduct research. However, they do affect the visual presentation of your research. So, when it comes to how to convert MLA to APA, these are the areas to focus on:

Pro tips for turning MLA format to APA

• Include a Title Page

You aren’t required to create a Title page in the MLA format. However, this is an integral part of the APA documentation style. It’s where you include the title of the paper, your name (first and last name), and any additional information requested by your professor.

Remember to use double spacing after noting down the title of the paper. Also, ensure all information is page and line-centered.

• Referencing Books

MLA refers to the reference section as, Works Cited. It’s the Reference section in APA. In both cases, the title of the book is italicized.

Place the date of publication of the book, after the name of the author and not the information of the publisher. Please put it in parenthesis.

• Use of Capitalization in the Title of your sources

Also, you only need to capitalize the first word, after a colon, the first letter of the first word, and any proper nouns. As opposed to the MLA format where you capitalize every word in the title of a publication.

It doesn’t apply to articles, however.

• Use “&” to connect multiple authors

You won’t need an MLA format calculator to execute this. When displaying multiple authors, you need to replace the word “and” with the symbol “&.” It applies in APA style.

However, in MLA, you use the word “and” in addition to inverting the name of the subsequent author. Whereby, you display their first name first.

Citation Guidelines When Converting MLA to APA

• Emphasis on Dates

In MLA citations you only need to include the last name of the author and a page number. The author’s last name is also crucial in the APA format, but it is followed by the year of publication of the resource. Thus, emphasizing how current the information you highlight, is.

When quoting material directly from the source, here’s where you include the paragraph or page numbers of the text. That is, in APA format. It’s what you do when you have to convert MLA citation to APA.

• Display of Authors names

Include the full last and first name of the authors (in that order), in MLA formatting. To change it into the proper APA formatting, you only need to indicate the full last name of the author, followed by the initials of their first name.

Follow it with a period.

• Listing Multiple Publications

When referencing multiple publications from the same author, MLA allows you to substitute the name of the author with three hyphens (—).

However, in APA formatting you need to use the publication date of your resources, to list the publications. Don’t arrange them alphabetically. Also, you have to repeat the name of the author in all entries.

Final Advice on Converting MLA to APA

The formatting styles of both standards are almost similar with minor differences. Pay attention to the areas highlighted above, to ensure you do a great job of converting an MLA documentation to the accepted APA standards.