Why So Many Writing Styles?

You may know that instructors from different disciplines will prefer different writing styles for your assignments. For example, your English teacher will most likely prefer that you write according to Modern Language Association (MLA) rules as you construct your essay, while your history teacher might prefer papers written in Turabian Style.

Another writing style is American Psychological Association (APA). This is the style that many instructors prefer when teaching in the social sciences, like psychology and social studies.

Teachers aren't being picky when they prefer different writing styles; there are reasons for the different types of paper styles. Turabian Style fits with history papers because it allows for footnotes, and history papers require the use of many explanatory footnotes or endnotes.

APA is appropriate for social sciences, because it is designed to allow for highly structured reports, and that is perfect for describing the experiments and results that you often find in this type of scholarship. APA papers contain specific sections and subsections, according to the process used in research.