APA 7 vs MLA 9: How to Know Which Style Your Canadian Course Wants
A simple decision tree for picking APA 7 or MLA 9 in any Canadian university course.
Use APA 7 for social sciences, education, nursing, business, and STEM courses in Canada; use MLA 9 for English literature, modern languages, philosophy, and most humanities courses. When the syllabus is silent, follow your faculty's default: Faculty of Arts (English departments) defaults to MLA 9; Faculty of Social Sciences, Education, Nursing, and Business default to APA 7.
Quick decision tree: (1) Does your syllabus name a style? Use it. (2) Does your faculty publish a default? Use it. (3) Is your discipline science/social-science/business/nursing/education? Use APA 7. (4) Is your discipline English literature, modern languages, or classical humanities? Use MLA 9. (5) History or philosophy with footnote tradition? Use Chicago.
Key APA 7 changes vs APA 6: no running head on student papers, DOIs as full https:// URLs, Indigenous Knowledge Keeper citation guidance added, up to 20 authors listed before ellipsis.
Key MLA 9 changes vs MLA 8: clearer container model, in-text citation page format unchanged, no DOI requirement but recommended.
Where Canadian students lose marks: forgetting running-head removal on APA 7 student papers, citing Statistics Canada releases without the catalogue number, using URLs instead of DOIs, ignoring Indigenous citation guidance in education and nursing programs.
Featured-snippet answer: use APA 7 for social sciences, education, nursing, business, and STEM in Canada; use MLA 9 for English literature and humanities courses.
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