Writing and citing · Free reference and builder
APA and MLA format
Build an APA 7 title page or an MLA 9 first-page heading from your own details, then see the two styles side by side, with citation examples for a website, an article and a book. Free, nothing you type is saved or sent, no sign-up needed.
- APA 7th edition
- MLA 9th edition
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Part 1 · Title page and first page
Build your APA title page or MLA heading
Pick a style, type your details, and watch the page lay itself out. Copy the lines or print the page. Nothing you type is saved or sent.
Month Day, Year
APA 7 student title page (scaled preview)
1
How Evening Study Habits Affect Recall in Adult Learners
Dana M. Whitfield
Riverbend Community College
ENG 101: Composition I
Professor Alan Okafor
October 14, 2026
How an APA 7 student title page is set up
- Page number only in the header, flush right. A student paper has no running head.
- The title is in boldface, upper and lowercase, centered in the upper half of the page. It can take one or two lines.
- Beneath the title: your name (first name, middle initial and last name, with no titles or degrees), then your institution.
- Also on the page: the course number and name, the instructor’s name and the assignment due date. Your instructor may set the exact order, so follow the assignment.
- Everything on the page is double-spaced, with 1-inch margins on all sides.
Based on the Purdue OWL APA general format page. Your instructor’s instructions come first. The page does not depend on any particular word processor: set the same spacing in whatever you write with.
1
How Evening Study Habits Affect Recall in Adult Learners
Dana M. Whitfield
Riverbend Community College
ENG 101: Composition I
Professor Alan Okafor
October 14, 2026
Part 2 · Side by side
APA 7 and MLA 9, row by row
The same paper, set up two ways. Check your assignment for which style your class uses.
| Part | APA 7th edition | MLA 9th edition |
|---|---|---|
| Title page | Yes: a student title page with title, name, institution, course, instructor and date. | No, unless your instructor asks or it is a group project. The heading sits at the top of page 1. |
| Page header | Page number, flush right, on every page. | Last name and page number, flush right, half an inch from the top. |
| Title | Boldface, centered, in the upper half of the title page. | Centered in Title Case, with no bold, italics, underline or quotation marks. |
| Margins and spacing | 1 inch on all sides, double-spaced throughout. | 1 inch on all sides, double-spaced throughout. |
| Abstract | Only if your instructor asks: a heading, then one paragraph, typically 250 words or fewer. | Not part of the format. |
| In-text citation | Author and year: (Reyes, 2022). Add p. for a direct quote: (Reyes, 2022, p. 14). | Author and page, no comma: (Reyes 14). |
| Two authors, in parentheses | (Whitfield & Reyes, 2024), with an ampersand. | (Whitfield and Reyes 52), with the word and. |
| Three or more authors | First author’s surname and et al.: (Marlow et al., 2019). | First author’s surname and et al.: (Delgado et al. 327). |
| List at the end | Called References. Entries start with the author’s last name and initials. | Called Works Cited, centered, not bold, italic or underlined. Entries start with last name, then first name. |
| Date in an entry | Year, with month and day for a web page: (2025, March 12). | Day, abbreviated month, year: 12 Mar. 2025. |
APA and MLA both change between editions and many instructors add their own rules. If your course gives a template, use it.
APA 7 heading levels
Levels 1 to 3 sit on their own line. Levels 4 and 5 run into the paragraph. Use only as many levels as the paper needs, starting at Level 1. MLA has no fixed heading levels in these sources; if you use headings, keep them consistent.
Level 1
Centered, boldface, Title Case
Sleep and Study Time
The paragraph text starts on a new line below.
Level 2
Flush left, boldface, Title Case
Evening Sessions
The paragraph text starts on a new line below.
Level 3
Flush left, boldface italic, Title Case
Sessions After Work
The paragraph text starts on a new line below.
Level 4
Indented, boldface, Title Case, ending with a period
Short Sessions. The paragraph text continues on the same line.
Level 5
Indented, boldface italic, Title Case, ending with a period
Single Sittings. The paragraph text continues on the same line.
Part 3 · Citations
Citation examples in both styles
Pick a kind of source. The authors, titles and addresses are made up; the punctuation and order are the point. In the entries, the words in italics are italic in your paper too.
APA 7 reference list entry
Okafor, A. R. (2025, March 12). Study habits of working adults. Riverbend Learning Center. https://example.edu/study-habits
In the text
(Okafor, 2025)
MLA 9 Works Cited entry
Okafor, Alan R. “Study Habits of Working Adults.” Riverbend Learning Center, 12 Mar. 2025, example.edu/study-habits.
In the text
(Okafor)
APA puts the page title in italics; MLA puts it in quotation marks and italicizes the website name. A web page has no page numbers, so the MLA parenthetical is the author alone. If the page has no author, the title leads the entry and the short title goes in the parentheses.
MLA Works Cited page
- Put it at the end of the paper, on its own page, with the same 1-inch margins and last-name-and-page header.
- Title it Works Cited, centered, with no italics, underline or bold. Only the title is centered.
- Double-space everything and add no extra space between entries.
- Keep the first line of each entry at the left margin and indent every later line half an inch (a hanging indent).
- Alphabetize by the first element, usually the author’s last name; a work with no author goes by its title.
- Every entry ends with a period, and every entry matches a source cited in the paper.
APA reference list
- List authors by last name and initials. With two authors, put an ampersand before the last one; with three to 20, list them all.
- Alphabetize by the first author’s last name. Entries by the same first author go by the second author’s last name; the same author’s works go by year, earliest first.
- Every source cited in the text appears in the list, and the other way around.
Quoting a source
- APA, quotation of 40 words or more: set it as a block indented half an inch, with no quotation marks, and put the citation after the closing punctuation.
- APA, a quotation from a source with no page numbers: use another locator such as a paragraph number, for example (paras. 4–5).
- MLA: the page number goes in the parentheses, not in your sentence, and a sentence that names the author needs only the page: Okafor discussed sleep (14).
Part 4 · Parts of a paper
Abstract, annotated bibliography, outline, literature review
Four pieces of writing that come up in college courses, what each one is and how it is set up. The examples are made up.
What is an abstract?
An abstract is a short summary of a paper that sits at the front of it. In APA style it goes on its own page after the title page, and student papers do not usually need one unless the instructor asks.
- Start on a new page with the same header. The word Abstract is centered and in boldface on the first line, with no italics, underline or quotation marks.
- Write one double-spaced paragraph with no first-line indent. It should typically be no more than 250 words.
- Cover the topic, the research questions, who took part, the methods, the results, how the data were analyzed and the conclusions. Implications and future work are optional.
- Optional keywords: indent, type Keywords: in italics, then list them.
Made-up example
Abstract
Adult learners often fit study into the evening, after work and family tasks. This study asked 40 adult college students to log study sessions for four weeks and then recalled a short reading from each session. Recall was higher after short sessions than after long ones. The results suggest that adult learners may benefit from planning several short sessions. Limits and ideas for future research are discussed.
Keywords: adult learners, study habits, recall
Part 5 · Practice questions
Ten practice questions
One question at a time, each answer explained. Your score is free and needs no sign-up.
Question 1 of 10
What goes in the upper right header of an MLA 9 paper?
Bonus
Four printable templates
Locked until you enter your email in the box above
APA 7 student title page
A blank page with the page number, a bold centered title line and a ruled line for each item beneath it.
MLA 9 first page
A blank first page: the last-name-and-number header, the four heading lines, the centered title and room to start writing.
Citation patterns, APA and MLA
One sheet with the website, journal article and book patterns and the in-text forms in both styles.
Research paper outline
A blank outline with four main sections, and the I, A, 1, a levels marked, to fill in by hand.
Everything above this box stays free: the title page and first page builder, the side-by-side comparison, the citation examples, the parts of a paper and the practice questions.
Sources
Where the rules come from
Everything here is written in our own words from these public sources, using the 7th edition of APA and the 9th edition of MLA. This page is independent and is not affiliated with the organizations behind either style; APA and MLA appear only as the names of the styles. Your instructor or program may add its own rules; follow them over these.
- Purdue Online Writing Lab: APA General Format (student title page, header, spacing, abstract)
- Purdue Online Writing Lab: APA Headings and Seriation (heading levels 1 to 5)
- Purdue Online Writing Lab: APA In-Text Citations, The Basics, and Author/Authors
- Purdue Online Writing Lab: APA Reference List, Electronic Sources and Author/Authors
- Purdue Online Writing Lab: MLA General Format (first page, header, title, spacing)
- Purdue Online Writing Lab: MLA In-Text Citations, The Basics
- Purdue Online Writing Lab: MLA Works Cited Page, Basic Format and Electronic Sources
- Purdue Online Writing Lab: Annotated Bibliographies
- Purdue Online Writing Lab: How to Outline and Types of Outlines
- UNC Writing Center: Literature Reviews
More free tools: the essay writing kit and the confused words guide.
Questions
Common questions
For a student paper in the 7th edition: the page number in the header, flush right, and then the title in boldface, centered in the upper half of the page. Beneath it come your name, your institution, the course number and name, your instructor’s name and the due date. Everything is double-spaced with 1-inch margins. A student paper has no running head. The builder at the top of this page lays it out from your details.
Not unless your instructor asks for one or the paper is a group project. MLA puts a four-line heading at the top left of the first page (your name, your instructor, the course and the date), then the centered title, then the paper. The header in the upper right holds your last name and the page number.
Double-spaced and flush left, one item per line: your name, your instructor’s name, the course, then the date. Double-space again and center the title in Title Case, with no bold, italics, underline or quotation marks. Many university guides write the date as day, month, year, such as 14 October 2026; use your instructor’s preference if it differs.
They are two citation and formatting styles. APA 7 is built around the author and the year, uses a title page and calls its source list References. MLA 9 is built around the author and the page number, has no title page and calls its source list Works Cited. The comparison table on this page puts the two side by side, row by row.
A short summary of the whole paper that sits at the front. In APA style it is one double-spaced paragraph with no first-line indent, typically 250 words or fewer, on its own page under a centered, bold Abstract heading. Student papers do not usually need one unless the instructor asks for it. MLA papers do not have one.
An annotated bibliography is a list: each source in APA or MLA form, followed by a short note that summarizes or evaluates it. A literature review is organized around themes or ideas that connect the sources, so it does not go through them one at a time.
No. What you type stays in your browser until you leave the page; nothing is sent anywhere or stored. Copy the lines into your own document or print the page before you close the tab. The only thing you can send from this page is the email address for the bonus, if you choose to enter it.
Yes. The title page and first page builder, the comparison, the citation examples, the parts of a paper and the practice questions need no sign-up. An email unlocks the bonus: four printable templates, which open on this page right away and stay open on this browser.