PART VI. ACADEMIC FORMATTING

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In academic writing, the structure of a systematic format allows scholars to focus on content with an understanding that necessary components – publication dates, page numbers, citations, etc. – will always be in the same location. For students, these requirements often seem overly particular and unnecessary, but the craft of learning a format can be an effective precursor to writing in the work world. Even though you may never use APA formatting again once you earn your diploma, your chosen field likely has expectations and accepted best practices if you hope to be fully heard. The most common scholarly formats include APA style (from the American Psychological Association), MLA (from the Modern Language Association), and Turabian style (from the University of Chicago).