APA essays begin with a title page, which includes the paper title and the author's name and institutional affiliation. MLA omits the title page and includes the author's name, his professor's name, the class number and the date before the title on the first page of the essay. Both styles use a running header throughout, but the APA header contains the title of the paper to the left and the page number on the right, while the MLA header right-aligns the author's name and the page number. APA section headings are made bold or italicized, depending on the level of header; MLA recommends numbering section headers.
APA style employs the author-date system of in-text citation, while MLA style uses the author-page system. In the author-date system, a parenthetical citation includes the author's last name and date of publication separated by a comma; for example, (Jones, 2000). The page number is included only for direct quotations. In the author-page system, a parenthetical citation includes the author's name and the page number the information came from; for example, (Jones 118). If there are multiple authors, APA uses an ampersand between the final two names, but MLA spells out the word "and."
The reference list title is "References" for APA style and "Works Cited" for MLA style. APA uses the author's last name and first initial, while MLA uses the last name followed by the first name. Both lists are ordered alphabetically, but follow different conventions for multiple works by the same author or authors. APA lists these chronologically, but MLA lists them alphabetically by title. Web references include the URL in an APA-style reference list. MLA lists the medium of publication for all references, but omits the URL. The order of the information given in each reference also differs between styles.
Both styles recommend avoiding footnotes and endnotes, but they are necessary in some cases. APA and MLA allow content notes, which provide further explanation to the main text, and bibliographic notes, which point the reader to sources containing further information. APA also mandates placing copyright permission notes in the footnotes. A notes page appears before the references in MLA, but after in APA; the page is titled "Notes" or "Footnotes," respectively. Numbers in the notes list are put in superscript in APA style; MLA style uses numbers in normal type followed by a period.