In my writing experience, I have had the opportunity to utilize MLA and APA style guides when completing written assignments.

I have always been most comfortable with MLA as I used it in highschool for writing assignments and then as well in my university English courses. Adjusting from highschool to university, it was nice to continue with a style guide that I was familiar with to assist with the adjustment and success at the university level. I was required to use APA for a few of my psychology courses in my undergraduate degree and feel as though during that time I didn't quite understand how to use it. I have recently become more familiar with APA and feel comfortable flipping between the two different styles as there are so many resources to assist with formatting. 

By using only two of the many style guides available, I can see why there are many different ones that are utilized and assigned with different written assignments. MLA works well with a course like English and is quite simple to follow. APA works well with a course such as Psychology when many sources are required and has a few differences from MLA that are important to note and follow. 

I understand the importance of the different style guides in order to allow for consistency across different areas of study. While some style guides indicate writing out the number, others will always use the actual number as that fits better with the audience or message that the writing is portraying. I found this link that provides a little summary about each of the different styles: http://workingwritersandbloggers.com/2013/06/28/the-major-differences-between-writing-style-guides/

I am very thankful for resources that assist with formatting citations within the paper and for citing them on a works cited or references page. It has been extremely helpful for me dating back to highschool to utilize these resources in order to ensure that I have correctly formatted my references on the final page, as well as in my paper. I find this part very important as I don't want to be accused of plagarism for poor citing.