Types of Formatting and Citation Styles

Different Types of Formatting and Citation Styles

Academic formatting styles bode troubles for students because there are a lot of them and each formatting style has its own rigorous requirements. In order to follow them, it is necessary to find complete information about the smallest particulars and be utmost attentive to follow all the guidelines. For the vast majority of students this is, in fact, as tedious as it sounds.

In order to make your college paper worthy an A, you should keep in mind which of the multiple writing format styles is required for a particular essay and consistently comply with it. Often the styles are contradictory, so it can be tricky and confusing to work on a number of papers, when each one demands a different style. In such case, just stick to our tips and don’t forget to proofread your essay at least twice before submitting it.

Guidelines on various paper formatting styles

• MLA FormatThis style is one of the most popular ones, as it is widely used in schools, colleges, universities and in over a thousand of scientific journals, newsletters, university presses and magazines.In order to find more information on this style application, please, view the MLA formatsection.
• APA FormatThe style is mostly used in the social and behavioral sciences. Its main purpose is to help develop the idea with as little distraction as possible and along with that provide maximum of precision.Guidelines on this style usage can be found in the APA format section.
• Chicago/Turabian FormatThis style is considered to be a guide for the American English grammar, style and punctuation. It deals with different aspects of editorial practice and is widely used in the academic practice.Detailed guide on this style can be found in the Chicago/Turabian format section.
• ASA FormatASA style is a generally accepted format for academic assignments in universities and mostly specifies arrangement of bibliography and footnotes. It is mostly applied in the sociological sphere.In order to understand how to write in this style, make use of the ASA formatsection.
• Harvard FormatThis style is also known as parenthetical referencing, as according to it, partial citations are given in parentheses and are included in text, as opposed to footnote style.All the other peculiarities of this style can be found in the Harvard format section.
• Bluebook FormatThis citation system is mostly used in the legal sphere in the USA. It was approved by such prominent universities as Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania and others.In order to see the most peculiar features of the style, view the Bluebook format section.
• Vancouver FormatThis citation system is mostly popular for the physical sciences and is one of the two official styles used in medicine (the other one is Harvard).To see the guidelines on this system, visit the Vancouver format section.

Remember, meeting style requirements greatly influences the final grade of your essay. It is not reasonable to think that your teacher will not notice non-compliance with the style, as he or she has definitely learned all the style’s peculiarities to the dot. It is better to revise your work an extra time, than to regret about some accidental mistake for a long time.

Remember, it is better to use correct formatting from the stage of writing drafts. It is also recommended to write down all the information considering sources you take as a basis at the stage of literature research so as not to forget some important details.

If you want to find samples of works with proper referencing and bibliography formatting, you are welcome to view our Samples section.

In order to see brief characteristics of each style - view our Glossary.