APA Style / Format: A Primer or Booster Psychology Dept. Occidental College

I. What is it? A set of rules & guidelines for presenting information in academic and professional settings –Developed by the American Psychological Association (APA) “Publication Manual” includes a complete account –Continually revised: 6 th edition6 th edition

II. Purpose To make the presentation of information* complete, clear, & efficient –Components to be included –Organization of components –General writing style tips * Stricter rules for empirical (data-based) works

Guidelines for papers Student papers –Why learn an artificial format of no general importance? Formal manuscripts intended for publication / dissemination among professionals –Learn a subset of guidelines for this type of paper

III. Common Components General formatting –1-inch margins, all around –Double-spaced –12-pt. font (or equivalent) –“Times New Roman” (or equally clear font)

III. Common Components Writing style –Succinctness “in order to”  “to” “four different categories”  “four categories” –3 rd person –Active voice –Unbiased language –Quotations used sparingly No plagiarism

Plagiarism Paraphrase points from sources unless completely obvious and simple “2 nd citing” (of another source cited within a reference source you have on hand) is not ideal, but permissible –You should know exactly what the original source says regarding your specific point; look up the original source whenever possible!

III. Common Components: Title Page Running head Page numbers Title Author Affiliation Make it look like it should! –See sample paper (APA)sample paper –See sample paper (OWL)sample paper

III. Common Components: Body Format the title properly Use references properly: … within the text In a 4-year study, Vrij and Secundo (1971) discovered… … within parentheses –Order multiple references … demonstrated a statistically significant effect (Borth, 1992; Lee & Park, 2004; Miettinen et al., 1934).

III. Common Components: Body “et al.” for multiple authors –3-5 authors: use et al. when citing a source after the first mention –6 or more: use immediately Miettinen et al. (1934) OR (Miettinen et al., 1934)

III. Common Components: Body Quotations: use page #s 2 ways to do this… before the quote or after it Place the page number close to the quote –El-bahim (2007, p. 196) claimed “all three factors…” –El-bahim (2007) surveyed college students and concluded that the groups “must be equalized” (p. 41)

III. Common Components: “References” Page Order alphabetically Hanging indent For 8 or more authors, list the first 6, use an ellipsis (…) and include last author: –Castillo, A. R. N., Thompson, C., Engler-Smith, F., Ricci, Q. H., … Ward, A. (2001).

“References” Page (cont.) Each type of source requires a uniquely formatted reference –Refer to publication manual At Oxy, you are expected to know just a few common ones –(see following slides)

IV. Empirical Work Components Abstract Section Headings –(Introduction) –Methods –Results –Discussion Statistics (PSYC 201) Figures & Tables Appendices (if needed) –Ex) survey items; “extra” data

V. Expectations for Oxy Students Reference types – Journal article: Men, X. A. (1964). Reply to critics: Bayesian may be best. Social Psychological Bulletin, 36, doi: / – Book: Patel, P. (1997). Cultural barriers. New York: Wiley.

V. Expectations for Oxy Students Reference Types – Book chapter (edited): Lightfoot, T. G., & Widmer, E. (1987). Tall tales. In G. Suri & L. O’Kachai (Eds.), Folklore in South America (pp ). Omaha, NB: University Press. – Internet Source: Nguyen, T. (2003, May 19). The p value. The New York Times. Retrieved from

V. Expectations for Oxy Students Note for journal articles: –Always include volume number –ONLY include issue number for journals that start page numbers from 1 for each issue of a volume Ex) …Journal of Personality Issues, 7(2), [Here issues 1 and 2 both start at page 1; articles cannot be identified solely by volume & page numbers]

VI. Supplemental Resources Oxy Psychology Website APA’s website –Sample paper (APA)Sample paper –Sample paper (OWL)Sample paper Purdue’s “The OWL” Daryl Bem’s writing guidewriting guide