APA Style American Psychological Association

Where can you find information about APA format?  Libraries/Bookstore  Writing Style Manual  Purdue Owl  Tutorial Center

APA Stylistic Basics  Active voice  Clarity and Conciseness  Word Choice  Avoiding Poetic Language

Formatting your page  Header (aka: “running head”)  Four Sections: Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, References  Margins  Font & Font size  Margins

Title of Paper (This will be on every sheet) Page Number Title of Paper Author (first last) Do not include titles or degrees: Dr., Ph.D. Institutional Affiliation

The running head is a shortened version of the title which continues through the paper The abstract section will be a brief explanation of what your paper contains. You will present an overview of your experiment or thesis, basic findings, and short description of the method used. Abstract should be between words. Abbreviations and acronyms used in the paper should be defined in the abstract. The word “Abstract” will be centered and typed in 12 point font. Do not indent the first line of the abstract. All other paragraphs following this should be indented.

APA Headings Level 1: Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Headings 2: Left-aligned, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading 3: Indented, boldface, lowercase heading with a period. Begin body text after the period. 4: Indented, boldface, italicized, lowercase heading with a period. Begin body text after the period. 5: Indented, italicized, lowercase heading with a period. Begin body text after the period.

In-text Citations Need to include the author’s last name, the year of publication and the page number for the reference. Similar to MLA, there are a few ways to do this:

In-text citations Short quotations: According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199). She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not offer an explanation as to why. Long quotations: Jones's (1998) study found the following: Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to purchase a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)

In-text citations If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication in your in-text reference, but APA will encourage you to also provide the page number. According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first- time learners. APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (Jones, 1998, p. 199).

References Start the reference list on a new page, center the title “References,” and alphabetize the entries. Do not underline, italicize, or enlarge the font of the title. Double space every entry. Every source mentioned in your paper should have an entry here. (Retrieved from JCTC LibGuides)

Books Author, A. A. (Year of Publication). Title of Work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher. Ex: Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Online Sources Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number, page range. Retrieved from Bernstein, M. (2002). 10 tips on writing the living Web. A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 149. Retrieved from

Note: URLs are needed, especially if the reader cannot access the article, if it is hard to find, or your instructor simply requires it. APA will recommend you use DOIs (Digital Object Identifier) instead. DOIs are similar to a URL, but are a bit more permanent. They are unique to each document and consist of a long alphanumeric code. Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number, page range. doi: / or Brownlie, D. (2007). Toward effective poster presentations: An annotated bibliography. European Journal of Marketing, 41, doi: /

Taken from bedfordstmartin.com