What do you mean… My instructor tells me that my references page is not complete. It clearly states I got my information from What more do they want!

APA Formatting: An Introduction Created by Christine Seideman ITT Learning Resource Coordinator Boise Campus ITT Technical Institute

What is APA? APA stands for the American Psychological Association APA formatting is the widely recognized formatting process for research papers in scientific or advanced academic fields.

Why should I use APA? –First, it gives credit to whomever you quote in your writing –Second, it provides a universal ‘look’ for all academic papers (making it much easier for your instructor to grade!) –Finally, it is required for this class (or by your instructor) and others here at ITT.

The nuts and bolts of APA… APA formatting uses ‘in text’citations, meaning that when you quote something you immediately state who you are quoting (or paraphrasing, in your paper.

Example : Recent research on sleep and dreaming indicates that “dreams move backward in time as the night progresses” (Dement, 2000, p. 72). Notice that only the last name is used for in-text citations, followed year the publication was published, and then by the page number.

Example continued… You can also cite things indirectly if you are not using a direct word for word quote, this is also known as paraphrasing. When Ledy (2005) compared the reaction times among students, he noticed an increase in errors. For this type of citation you list the author’s last name in your writing followed publication year in parentheses

What if…there is no author? If you are quoting an article and cannot find an author/creator name then cite the source internally by using a few words from the article title.

Example: The World Wide Web is a helpful source for community groups seeking information on how “to protest projects that damage the local environment” (“Environmental Activism, 2001”). This article did not have a stated author, instead we shortened the title of the article to cite it followed by the year of publication.

Listing References The ‘References’ page is nothing more than a list of all the resources you quoted or used in your paper. The ‘References’ page should be the last page of your paper…it completely stands on its own. It is alphabetized by author last name or article title.

Works Cited Example Seideman 4 References Burroughs, A. (2003). Running with scissors. New York: Picador. Catch me if you can. (2004, June 21). Newsweek (pp ). Ledy, Tunnis. (2007, June). Too busy to smell the roses. Journal of the Obvious. Retrieved July 2, 2007 from

Breaking it Down… Let’s look at the pieces of how to cite sources. Burroughs, A. (2003). Running with scissors. New York: Picador. Author’s Last name, First initial. Title of publication is always italicized City name where Title was published Publishing Company Name Year Published or Copyrighted

Catch me if you can. (2004, June 21). Newsweek (pp ). Title of articleTitle of the periodical italicized The publication date of the periodical Year, Month Day format Page range of the article

Ledy, T. (2007, June 27). Too busy to smell the roses. Journal of the Obvious. Retrieved 31 July 2007 from Title of article. Author’s Last name, First initial. Title of the periodical Italicized The publication date of the periodical Year Month Day format The Date YOU accessed the material on the Internet: Retrieved on… The URL or web address to the article.

Back to … Before: After: Toyota Motor Sales (2008, December). Toyota Environmental Update. Retrieved January 22, 2009, from nvironment/environment_updates/index.html. nvironment/environment_updates/index.html

Additional Resources… This tutorial was not designed to cover all APA formatting criteria. So here are some other resources you can use to help you out with APA formatting. The LRC here on campus The Virtual Library KnightCite APA.org The Owl at Purdue