MLA, APA or URM? Different Research Paper Styles
Understanding the Different Styles Used to Write Formal Papers
Oct 22, 2009
When writing papers authors and researchers look for ways to communicate their thoughts, ideas, discoveries and findings in a manner that is easy to understand. They need to communicate these ideas and findings in a clear, but concise manner.
Different organizations have developed writing styles that allow authors and researchers to standardize how papers are written allowing the ideas be read and easily understood.
Why Different Editorial or Paper Styles?
According to the American Psychological Association's APA Style website, one of the main reasons that the APA formatting was developed was to ensure that scientific writing is uniform and straightforward. "Editorial style consists of a series of rules or guidelines that a publisher observes to ensure clear and consistent presentation of written material used in journal publication." Furthermore, when using a specific editorial style, the spotlight is on the "ideas being presented, not the manner of presentation."
The different styles – MLA, APA or URM – provide guidelines for authors so they can properly format a paper. The styles also ensures for uniform use of elements such as selection of headings, punctuation and abbreviations,construction of tables, citation of references and presentation of statistics and other elements that are often included in more formal manuscripts.
MLA, APA or URM?
MLA or the Modern Language Association style is the one that many high school and college students are familiar with; this is the style of writing often learned to write their papers in English and humanities courses.
Science, medical and research journals use different formatting styles than MLA. Some use APA (American Psychological Association) and many of the biomedical journals use URM (Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts) determined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE.org).
Which style or format to use depends on the requirements of the journal where the paper or manuscript is being submitted. For more on writing a formal paper see, "How to Write a Scientific Research Paper."
MLA Style – Modern Language Association
The MLA (Modern Language Association) style is one of the main style guides used by graduate students, teachers, and scholars in the liberal arts and humanities as well as for professional writers in many fields. According to the MLA's website, "the MLA style has been widely used by schools, academic departments, and instructors for over half a century." MLA guidelines are currently used "by over 1,100 scholarly and literary journals, newsletters, and magazines and by many university and commercial presses."
The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) MLA 2009 Formatting and Style Guide offers a concise view of MLA, "MLA style specifies guidelines for formatting manuscripts and using the English language in writing."
More information on how to use the Modern Language Association (MLA) Format can be found at the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) section on MLA and the MLA's website, http://www.mla.org.
APA Style – American Psychological Association
The APA (American Psychological Association) style is the style established by the American Psychological Association for use in all of the books and journals that it publishes. It is the main writing style used by those in the social sciences. According to the APA Style website, "APA Style was first developed 80 years ago by a group of social scientists who wished to establish sound standards of communication."
Details for the APA's style rules and guidelines are in the reference book, Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association and should be followed by those publications asking authors to submit their papers in the "APA style." According to the APA Style website, the APA style offers "sound guidance for writing with simplicity, power and concision."
More information on Using American Psychological Association's (APA) Style Format can be found at the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) section on APA and the APA's website.
URM Style – Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts
One of the styles used by many of the medical and biomedical journals the URM or Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts. This style of writing was developed and adopted by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in 1997. Many of the current major medical journals utilize the ICMJE's URM requirements or some variant of the URM.
According to the ICMJE's website, "Journals that agree to use the Uniform Requirements are encouraged to state in their instructions to authors that their requirements are in accordance with the Uniform Requirements and to cite this version." They advise that, "Authors therefore need to become familiar with the Instructions to Authors specific to the journal they have chosen for their manuscript—for example, the topics suitable for that journal."
More information on the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts can be found at the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' website, and at the various journals that have adopted this writing style.
Choosing a Writing Style
Authors and researchers submitting their papers and manuscripts for publication will need to choose the style that is used by the journal or text being targeted for publication.
Educators developing assignments for their students may want to introduce different writing styles – MLA, APA or URM – depending on the type of course being taught and consider adopting the writing style that is reflective of their field of study.
Resources
Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) (Last edited October 14th 2009). APA Formatting and Style Guide. Retrieved October 21, 2009 from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/.
Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) (Last edited October 7th 2009). MLA 2009 Formatting and Style Guide. Retrieved October 21, 2009 from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/.
Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Manuscript Preparation and Submission: Preparing a Manuscript for Submission to a Biomedical Journal. ICMJE.org
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
