APA writing style is one of the basic writing styles which one can choose. APA style research paper format is one of the most simple citation styles apa vs mla that can be used for writing your research papers. Different research paper writing styles represent different ways to format and write a research paper. These are basically standardizing the format of your writing according to a pre-existing writing style. The need for doing this had originated from healthcare, science and technology thesis writing which requires citation of specific research sources.