APA and MLA format for a thesis: quick reference guide

You know the style you have to use, and now you need the concrete examples and formatting rules. This quick reference guide covers the essentials of the APA (7th edition) and MLA (9th edition) formats for the most common source types in a thesis.

If you are still unsure which of the two styles to choose, or if you want to understand their fundamental differences, read our comparison article: APA vs MLA: differences, contexts of use and how to choose.

APA format: 7th edition

In-text citations

The APA system uses the author-date format. The parenthetical reference in the text points to the matching entry in the reference list.

Situation	Format	Example
One author, paraphrase	(Name, year)	(Dupont, 2020)
One author, direct quotation	(Name, year, p. X)	(Dupont, 2020, p. 45)
Two authors	(Name1 & Name2, year)	(Martin & Bouchard, 2020)
Three authors or more	(First name et al., year)	(Dupont et al., 2019)
Organization	(Acronym, year)	(WHO, 2023)
Author in the text	Dupont (2020) showed that…	-

APA reference examples

Scholarly journal article:

Dupont, M. (2020). Blended learning in the Quebec context. Canadian Journal
   of Education, 43(2), 112-134. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Book:

Martin, J., & Tremblay, L. (2019). Qualitative research methodology (3rd ed.).
   Presses de l'Université de Montréal.

Edited book chapter:

Bouchard, C. (2021). The conceptual framework in qualitative research. In M. Roy
   (Ed.), Research guide in education (pp. 78-104). Presses universitaires du Québec.

Doctoral dissertation:

Bergeron, S. (2022). School inclusion and differentiated teaching practices
   [Doctoral dissertation, Université du Québec à Montréal]. Archipel.
   https://archipel.uqam.ca/xxxxx

Website:

Government of Quebec. (2023, March 15). Guide to submitting theses and dissertations.
   https://www.example.gouv.qc.ca/guide-depot

APA formatting rules

• Double spacing throughout the reference list
• Hanging indent: first line at the margin, following lines indented by 1.27 cm
• Section title: “References” (centred, in bold)
• DOIs (digital object identifiers) are mandatory when available, format: https://doi.org/10.xxxx
• Titles of articles and chapters: lower case except first word, first word after a colon, and proper nouns
• Titles of journals and books: in italics

MLA format: 9th edition

In-text citations

The MLA system uses the author-page format. There is no year in the parentheses.

Situation	Format	Example
Paraphrase	(Name number)	(Dupont 78)
Direct quotation	(Name number)	(Dupont 45)
Author in the text	Dupont states that… (45)	-
Two authors	(Name1 and Name2 number)	(Martin and Bouchard 22)
Three authors or more	(First name et al. number)	(Dupont et al. 15)
Source without pagination	(Name)	(Government of Quebec)

Note that in MLA there is no comma between the name and the page number, nor the abbreviation “p.”.

MLA reference examples (Works Cited)

Journal article:

Dupont, Marie. "Blended learning in the Quebec context." Canadian Journal
   of Education, vol. 43, no. 2, 2020, pp. 112-134.

Book:

Martin, Jean, and Louise Tremblay. Qualitative research methodology. 3rd ed.,
   Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 2019.

Edited book chapter:

Bouchard, Caroline. "The conceptual framework in qualitative research." Research
   guide in education, edited by Marie Roy, Presses universitaires du
   Québec, 2021, pp. 78-104.

Website:

Government of Quebec. "Guide to submitting theses and dissertations."
   www.example.gouv.qc.ca/guide-depot. Accessed 15 March 2023.

MLA formatting rules

• Double spacing throughout the list
• Hanging indent (same principle as APA)
• Section title: “Works Cited” (centred, without bold or quotation marks)
• Titles of articles and chapters: in quotation marks
• Titles of books and journals: in italics
• URLs and DOIs are optional but recommended

Other common styles in theses

If your program uses neither APA nor MLA, you may encounter:

• Chicago / Turabian: history, philosophy, theology. Two variants: footnotes + bibliography (N-B), or author-date (A-D).
• Vancouver: health sciences and medicine. Numbered citations in superscript in the text.
• IEEE: electrical engineering, computer science. Numbers in brackets [1].
• AMA: clinical medicine and biomedical sciences.
• CSE: biology and natural sciences.
• McGill Guide: Canadian law.

Always check your program’s guidelines and your supervisor’s expectations. If nothing is specified, look at recent theses in your program to see which style is used.

Manage your references with Zotero

Whatever style you use, managing dozens or hundreds of references by hand is a source of errors. Zotero (free) is the best tool to automate this work:

1. Install the Zotero plugin for Word (or integrate it with Overleaf through BibTeX export)
2. Choose the APA 7th, MLA 9th or another style in the preferences
3. Insert your citations directly from Zotero into your document
4. The reference list is generated and updated automatically

Zotero has official APA and MLA styles that are regularly updated by the community.

Common mistakes to avoid

In APA:

• Forgetting the year in the in-text citation
• Not italicizing the journal name
• Putting article titles in quotation marks (incorrect in APA, article titles are not emphasized)
• Forgetting the DOI when available

In MLA:

• Putting a comma between the author’s name and the page number in the parentheses
• Confusing the rules: article titles in quotation marks, book and journal titles in italics
• Omitting the journal volume and issue number

Standards compliance with Uniformat

Beyond the bibliography, your thesis must follow all of your university’s formatting standards: margins, fonts, spacing, numbering, heading styles. Uniformat automatically checks your document’s compliance and generates correct formatting, including the format of your reference list, whether you work in Word or in LaTeX.

Try Uniformat for free →

Conclusion

Consistency is the absolute rule: choose one style and apply it rigorously throughout your document, from start to finish. Use this guide as a quick reference, Zotero to automate the management of your references, and Uniformat to make sure the overall formatting of your thesis meets your institution’s requirements.

Questions about formatting your thesis? Visit uniformat.ca.