Which citation styles are commonly required for ELA 291, and what are basic differences?

• A. APA and Chicago; APA uses author-date; Chicago uses footnotes.
• B. MLA and APA are common; MLA emphasizes author-page in-text citations; APA emphasizes author-date; both require a works-cited or references list.
• C. MLA and Chicago; both ignore in-text citations.
• D. APA only; it uses numerical citations.

Answer: (B)

Understanding how sources are credited within an essay involves knowing common citation styles and their in-text formats. The best choice lists MLA and APA as common styles, with MLA using author-page in-text citations and APA using author-date in-text citations; both require a full list of sources at the end—works-cited in MLA and references in APA. This reflects how students typically handle source material in ELA courses: you’ll cite with the author and page for literary analysis in MLA, and you’ll use author and year for APA when the discipline leans toward a research-report approach, always pairing those in-text citations with a complete end-of-paper list. The other options don’t fit: one mentions Chicago as a required style in ELA, which isn’t usually the primary focus there; another incorrectly states that in-text citations aren’t used; another limits to APA only and to numerical citations, which isn’t accurate for these courses.