.
APA style
was not invented to give you a migraine. Rather,
it allows you to acknowledge the resources you used in your paper
both to inspire and substantiate your ideas. If
the technicalities of the format are getting you down, please
discuss your questions with me your professor. Hopefully
this handout will help get you started on the road to successful
paper writing.
General
Format Guidelines:
1. Type
or word process your paper on 8.5” x 11” white paper
(keep a copy).
2. Double-space everything (quotations,
references, citations, etc).
3. All margins
should be a uniform 1-inch (Do not right justify).
4. When
typing numbers, single digits should be spelled out; anything
greater than nine may be left in numerical form (i.e., eight, nine,
10, 11).
5. Section
headings should be centered but not underlined.
6. Subheadings
within the sections should be flush left and italicized.
7. Proofread
to make sure your paper is error-free.
Page
Numbering:
As
a header, number the pages in the upper right-hand corner of all pages,
including title pages and referene pages.
Documenting
Your Sources:
To
document sources in the body of the paper, follow these general
guidelines:
1. If
you use the author’s name in the text, cite the year of
the article or book:
o Appleby
(1989) found that…
2. If
you do not refer to the author in the text, do so in your citation:
o In
a study of the nun archetype (Wittekind, 1987), …
3. If
(and only if)
you quote directly from the author’s words, include the
page number (if
you cite the author’s name in introducing the quote, include
only the date and page):
o “Every dream reveals a different facet
of an individual’s unique personality” (Wittekind,
1987, pp. 57-58).
o Wittekind
(1987) stated, “Every dream
reveals a different facet of an individual’s unique personality” (pp.
57-58).
4. If
you use more than one source to document your idea, list the
citation alphabetically by last name, separating the sources with
a semi-colon:
o Several
studies (Appleby, 1989; Wittekind, 1987) suggest that…
5. If
you quote a passage of more than 40 words, block indent the passage
five spaces from the left margin (double
space).
6. If,
in a parenthetical citation, there is more than one author of
a book or article, use the ampersand (&) between the names
(however,
spell out the word “and” if
referring to the authors in the text).
o (Appleby & Wittekind,
1987)
o Appleby
and Wittekind (1987) suggest that…
7. After
the first time you refer to authors by spelling our all their
names, you may subsequently refer to them using the first author’s
name:
o (Appleby,
et al., 1987)
8. If
you use more than one text by the same author and the two texts
in question were both published in the same year, attach a suffix
(a, b, c, etc.) to the date and make the appropriate notation
in the reference list:
o (Wittekind,
1987a)
Reference
Page:
1. Center
reference one double-space below your page number.
2. Present
bibliographic entries in alphabetical order by last name.
3.
The first line should be flush left; indent the second line five
spaces.
An example of a reference page (for
the exact formatting, please click the links and view the word file
or the PDF files)
References
Mitchell, T. R. & Larson,
J. R. (1987). People in organizations:
An Introduction to organizational behavior (3 rd ed.). New York:
McGraw-Hill. (Citation for a book)
Fredrickson, B. L. (2000, March
7). Cultiviting positive emotions to optimize health and well-being.
Prevention & Treatment, 3, Article
0001a. Retrived November 20, 2000, from http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/pre0030001a.html.
(Citation for an article in an Internet-only Journal)
Massaro, D. (1992).
Broadening the domain of the fuzzy logical model of perception. In
H. L. Pick Jr. P. ven den Broek, & D. C. Knill
(Eds.), Cognition: Conceptual and methodological issues (pp. 51-84).
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. (Citation for
an article or chapter in an edited book)
Saywitz, K. J. & Mannrino,
A. P. (1993). Treatment of sexually abused children and adolescents. American
Psychologist, 55,
1040-1049. (Citation for a journal article)
Webs, J. T. & Huang,
L. N. (Eds.). (1995). Children of Color: Psychological interventions
with minority youth. San Franscisco: Jossey-Bass. (Citation
for edited book).
For
details how to do citations for a book, journal article, magazine
article, internet source, and an article from an edited book, please
refer to your textbook: Concise Rules of APA Style.
Note: This
style sheet is only a start! All
the preceding guidelines, which are typically used in the preparation
of research papers for the social sciences, were compiled with
assistance of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association, Fifth Edition. If
you’re not certain
what style you should use to format your paper, please consult
your professor. These
guidelines are not exhaustive; for the many reference and citation
formats not listed here, consult your textbook the Concise
Rules of APA Style. If that is not good enough, consult the Publication
Manual. Reserved
copies are available at the Memorial library.
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