The main thing about academic writing is that it generally rigid. Other than formal language, another aspect of that rigidity is format, with APA and MLA being among the most common academic paper formats.

Here are tips for writing a good paper in APA and MLA formats:

This is the American Psychological Association’s (APA) official style of publication. It also happens to be the official citation style used across many disciplines, including education, psychology and various social science disciplines. And below are some of the main tips on how to write a paper in APA format:

Title Page: The title page is separate from the rest of the paper, and it contains the paper’s title, author’s name, institution they are affiliated with, and date of publication

Header: There is a header in every page, which should contain the paper’s title or a section of the title. And it is indented left.

Spacing and Margin: Normally double-spaced and with 1-inch margin unless otherwise stated.

In-text Citation and Quotation: Information should be properly cited, with authors surname and year of publication appearing in parenthesis, i.e. (Surname, 2017). Page number is included where quotation is used, i.e. (Surname, 2017, p.1).

References: This is a list of sources used and authors’ names appear in the order of surname, followed by abbreviation of the other names. Then these appear in alphabetical order.

The Modern Language Association (MLA) citation is commonly used in language and literature, and at times history, among others. Below are tips on how to write a paper in MLA format:

Title Page: Typically, it has no separate title page. The

Header: The header is indented right, and it contains the surname of the author.

Spacing and Margin: Normally double-spaced and with 1-inch margin unless otherwise stated.

In-text Citation and Quotation: Information must be properly cited or else it constitutes plagiarism. In-text citation are written parenthesis and in the order of authors’ surname, followed by the page from which the information is picked, i.e. (Surname 5).

Works Cited: This is a list of used sources. The author’s names appear in the order of surname, first name (and when it is there, the abbreviation of the second name). Also, the sources are arranged in alphabetical order, depending on author surname.

This is only introductory, and reading more on how to write a paper in these formats is important.