Writing Your Research Paper

Using Sources Direct Quotations How many? Do not just string quotes together Integrate your notes into your own statements How many? Safe rule of thumb – unless the subject of your paper is an author’s style, quote no more than 10 percent

Documenting in the Social Sciences: APA Style Similar to MLA – uses Parenthetical Citations Works Cited (MLA) = Reference Sheet (APA)

Parenthetical Citations Author’s Name (comma) + Date of Publication (comma) Page Number(s) Parentheses = Parenthetical Documentation (APA)

Parenthetical Citations When including the author’s name in the sentence The date goes after the author’s name The page number goes after the quote According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).

Parenthetical Citations When placing the author’s name after the quote use this basic format (author’s name, date, page numbers) She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style," (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not offer an explanation as to why.

Parenthetical Citations When citing multiple authors Replace and with an ampersand (&) in a parenthetical citation (Gardner & Smith, 1991) Do not replace and if it is not a parenthetical citation Gardner and Smith (1991) believe…

Parenthetical Citations When citing works by three or more authors use all authors’ names (followed by the date) for the 1st reference but in the 2nd and subsequent references use the abbreviation et al. after the author’s name

Source APA Citation No Author (Short Title, 2000) (“Short Article,” 2000) 1 Author (Smith, 2000) (Smith, 2000, p.123) 2 Author (Adams & Baca, 2000, pp. 123-145) 3-5 Authors (Adams, Baca, & Car, 2000) Next Cite: (Adams et al., 2000) 6+ Authors (Jones et al., 2001) No Date (Smith, n.d.) Chapter (Smith 2000, chap. 3) Message (A.B. Smith, personal communication, January 23, 2001) Multiple (Able, 2000; Baca, 1950; Car 1975)

List of References Create your list of references on its own page after the last page of your text Center the title “References” one inch from the top of the page Double space Alphabetize the list of references by the last name of the authors If the work has no author or editor, alphabetize the work by the first word of the title (excluding A, An, or The).

Book with one author List of References Carter. J (2005). Our endangered values. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Book with two or more authors List of References Book with two or more authors Hick, S. P., & Donahue, J. G.

Anonymous or unknown author (common in newspapers): List of References Anonymous or unknown author (common in newspapers): Caffeine linked to mental illness. (1991, July 13). New York Times, pp. B13, B15.

Web page List of References Dewey, R. A. (2002). Psych Web by Russ Dewey. Retrieved January 25, 2003 from http://www .psywww.com/

Newsletter/newspaper articles List of References Newsletter/newspaper articles Brown, L. S. (1993, Spring). My research with oranges. The Psychology Department Newsletter, 3, 2.

Magazine article List of References Gardner, H. (1991, December). Do babies sing a universal song? Psychology Today, 70-76.

Footnotes Do not use footnotes to cite your references, use Parenthetical Citations Only use footnotes for explanatory (content) notes Would be distracting or inappropriate to include in the body of the paper The footnote should only express one idea.

Title Page Includes In the upper right-hand corner of each page, include a 1-2 word version of your title (running head). Follow with five spaces and then the page number. title, byline, and affiliation vertically and horizontally centered

Plagiarism “… use of facts, opinions, and language taken from another writer without acknowledgment.” Changing a few words or phrases is not enough to make it your own Quotation marks are necessary if using another writer’s language

Helpful Website The Owl at Purdue http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/