APA GUIDELINES

General Format

• All submitted work, homework and final papers, is typed, double-spaced on standard paper (8.5”x11”) with 1” margins on all sides, left justification.• APA recommends using 12 pt. Times New Roman font.• On final papers, include a page header or running head at the top of

every page. The running head or page header is a shortened version of the paper’s title and cannot exceed 50 characters including the spacing and punctuation. Papers should be written in third person unless otherwise instructed.

Homework: Weekly Written Assignments• All weekly written assignments must follow the general format. This

includes typed, double-spaced on standard paper with 1” margins on all sides, 12pt. Sans Serif font.• APA formatting for citations must be followed. Always cite and list

your textbook as a weekly reference.• Points will be deducted for failure to follow guidelines.

Final Paper: Major Sections

• The final paper should include FOUR major sections: TITLE PAGE

INTRODUCTION MAIN BODY

REFERENCES

Running Head: A PRACTICAL GUIDE to the APA (Left, up to 50 characters)

Title centered in the middle of the page

A Practical Guide to the APA

Jayne Q. Public

January 29, 2016

Don Q. Public

Organizational Theory

Corporate College Services, Inc.

Affiliation (CCS)

Double-space Title, Your Double-space Title, Your Name, Date, Instructor, Name, Date, Instructor, Course Name, and Course Name, and AffiliationAffiliation

TITLE PAGE

INTRODUCTION

• On the first line of the page, center the word INTRODUCTION. (no bold, italics, underlining or quotation marks)

• The introduction introduces the problem, topic(s), subject that the paper addresses.• A list of keywords or course concepts can be included in the

introduction. Indent as if to start a new paragraph, type Keywords or Course Concepts: (italicized) and then list them. • The section should be no longer than a page.

MAIN BODY

• The title of the page is centered, 12-point Times New Roman font, and should not be bolded, underlined or italicized.• In-text citations that are direct quotes should include:

Author (s) Name (s)

Publication Name

Publication Year

Page Number (s)

• If paraphrasing, include pages numbers: (Dyer, 2015, p. 97).

REFERENCES

• The Reference Page appears at the end of the paper and is separate from the final project. This page as well as the Title page are not part of your minimum required pages.• Label the page: References• It is centered at the top of the page.• Do not bold, underline, or use quotation marks for the title.• All text should be double-spaced consistent with the rest of the

written project.

Basic Rules of Referencing

• All lines after the first line of each entry in the reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin.• Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the

author of each work.• Present journal titles in full.• Maintain the punctuation and capitalization that is used by the

journal in its title.• Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.• Capitalize all major words in journal titles.

Basic Rules of Referencing

• Author’s names are inverted (last name, first); give the last name and first initial for all authors of a particular work for up to and including seven authors. If the work has more than seven authors, list the first six authors and then use ellipses (…) after the sixth author’s name. After the ellipses, list the last author’s name of the work (…Dyer, A.).• For multiple articles and books by the same author, or authors listed

in the same order, list the entries in chronological order from earliest to most recent.

Basic Rules of Referencing

• When referring to books, chapters, articles, or Web pages, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do not capitalize the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word.• Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter

works such as journal articles or essays in edited collections.

Sample References

Single Author:

Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development.

Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 7 - 10.

Two Authors:

Wegner, D. T. , & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across effective states: The

hedonic contingency hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66,

1034 – 1048.

Organization as Author:

American Psychological Association. (2003).

Two or More Works by the Same Author:

Berndt, T. J. (1981).

Berndt, T. J. (1999).

Sample References

More than Seven Authors:

Miller, F. H., Choi, M. J., Angeli, L. L., Harland, A. A., Stamos, J. A., Thomas, S. T., . . . Rubin, L. H. (2009).

Website usability for the blind and low-vision user. Technical Communication, 57, 323 -335.

Article in a Magazine:

Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade in today’s schools. Time, 135, 28 - 31.

Government Document:

National Institute of Mental Health. (1990). Clinical training in serious mental illness (DHHS Publication No. ADM 90 – 1679).

Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Encyclopedia Entry:

Bergman, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The New Encyclopedia Britannica. (Vol. 26. pp. 501 – 508).

Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica.

Sample References

Report From a Private Organization:

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Practice guidelines for the treatment of patients with

eating disorders (2nd ed.) . Washington, DC: Author.

Article in a Newspaper:

Schultz, S. (2005, December 28). Calls made to strengthen state energy policies.

The Country Today, pp. 1A, 2A.

Kindle Books:

Stoker, B. (1897). Dracula [ Kindle DX Version] . Retrieved from Amazon.com

Electronic Book With a DOI (Digital Object Identifier):

Davis, J. (n.d.). Familiar birdsongs of the Northwest. Available from

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=1-9780931686108-0

Sample References

Article From an Online Periodical with DOI Assigned:

Brownlie, D. (2007). Toward effective poster presentations: An annotated bibliography. European Journal

of Marketing, 41, 1245-1283. doi:10.1108/03090560710821161

Article From an Online Periodical with no DOI Assigned:

Kenneth, I. A. (2000). A Buddhist response to the nature of human rights. Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 8.

Retrieved from http://www.cac.psu.edu/jbe/twocont.html

Emails are not included in References. They are parenthetically cited in the main text:

(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001).

Wikis are considered to be collaborative projects that cannot guarantee verifiability or expertise on their entries according to the APA Style Guide to Electronic References and warns against using them.

Article from a Database:

Smyth, A. M., Parker, A.L., & Pease, D.L. (2002). A study of enjoyment of peas. Journal of Abnormal Eating, 8 (3), 120-125.

Retrieved from http://www.articlehomepage.com/full/url/

Sample References

Blog (Weblog):

J Dean. (2008, may 7). When the self emerges: Is that me in the mirror? [ Web log comment ]. Retrieved from

http://www.spring.org.uk/the1sttransport

Online Forum or Discussion Board Posting:

Frook, B. D. (1999), July 23). New inventions in the cyberworld of toylandia [ Msg 25 ]. Message posted to

http://groups.earthlink.com/forum/messages/0025.html

Video Podcasts:

Scott, D. (Producer). (2007, January 5). The community college classroom [ Episode 7]. Adventures in Education.

Podcast retrieved from http://www.adveeducation.com

Online Presentation Slides:

Robert, K.F. (1998). Federal regulations of chemicals in the environment [ PowerPoint slides ]. Retrieved from

http://siri.uvm.edu.ppt/40hrenv/index.html

Tips for Figures, Charts, Graphs

Is the figure simple, clean, and free of extraneous detail?

Are the data plotted accurately?

Are the terms spelled correctly?

Are all abbreviations and symbols explained in a figure legend or figure caption?

Are the figures numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals?

Are all figures mentioned in the text?

Tips for Figures, Charts, Graphs Is the entire table single-or double-spaced including the title, headings, and notes?

Is the title brief but explanatory?

Are all of the abbreviations explained?

If the table or its data is from another source, is the source properly cited?

Are all of the probability level values correctly identified?

Is the table referred to in the text?

ParaphrasingA Paraphrase is…•One legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate documentation) to borrow from a source.

Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because…•It helps to control the temptation to quote too much.

Steps to Effective Paraphrasing include:•Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.•Check your version with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses the key points in a new form.•Record the source (including the page) on a notecard so you can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper.

In-Text Citations

• When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation, for example, (Jones, 1998).• Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials.• When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word:

Natural-Born Cyborgs.• Capitalize the first word after a dash or colon.• Italicize or underline the titles of longer works such as books, edited collections,

movies, television series, documentaries, or albums.• Put quotation marks around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles.• A complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

In-Text Short and Long Quotations

Short Quotations•Include the author, year of publication, and page number.

Example: According to Jones (1998), “Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially

when it was their first time” (p. 199).

Long Quotations•Place direct quotations that are 40 words, or longer, in a free-standing block of typewritten lines and omit quotation marks.

•Start the quotation on a new line, indented ½ inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph.

•Maintain double-spacing throughout.

Sample In-Text Citations

A Work by Two Authors:

Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports…(Wegener & Petty, 1994)

A Work by Three to Five Authors:

(Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993)

In subsequent citations, only use the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” (Kernis et al., 1993)

Six or More Authors:

(Harris et al., 2001)

Unknown Author:

If the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in the signal phrase or use the first word or two in parenthesis. Titles of books and reports are italicized or underlined, titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks.

Example: A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers (“Using APA,” 2001)

Sample In-Text Citations

Organization as an Author:

If the author is an organization or a government agency, mention the organization in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source.

Example: According to the American Psychological Association (2000), . . .

Sources Without Page Numbers:

When an electronic source lacks page numbers, you should try to include information that will help readers find the passage being cited. When an electronic document has numbered paragraphs, use the abbreviation “para.” followed by the paragraph number (Hall, 2001, para.5).

Example: According to Smith (1997),. . .(Mind over Matter section, para. 6).

Electronic Sources:

Kenneth (2001) explained. . .

Personal Communication:

For interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-to-person communication, cite the communicator’s name, the fact that is was a personal communication, and the date of the communication. Do not include personal communication in the reference list.

Example: (E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001).

APA Style Basics and Abbreviations

APA Citation Abbreviations

Book Part Abbreviation

edition ed.

revised edition Rev. ed.

Second Edition 2nd ed.

Editor(s) Ed. or Eds.

Translator(s) Trans.

No date n.d.

Page(s) p. or pp.

Volume(s) Vol. or Vols.

Number No.

Part Pt.

Technical Report Tech. Rep.

Supplement Suppl.

Use the following abbreviations within citations (take note of capitalization):

Avoid labeling whenever possible. In general, you should call people what they prefer to be called, especially when dealing with race and ethnicity.

Avoid Gendered Pronouns and Poetic Language.

Third Person. Refers to the use of he, she, they, and it. This point of view has a wide range of uses and is the preferred point of view used for APA.

First Person. The use of I or We; sometimes it is allowed in APA , for example, when you explain your own data or primary sources.

APA style encourages using the Active Voice. (We interpreted the results. . .)

RESOURCES

APA style.org electronic references (2015). Retrieved July 29, 2015, from

http://www.apastyle.org/elecsource.html

Google Images APA charts and figures (2015). Retrieved July 28, 2015, from

https://www.google.com/search?q=images+apa+charts+and+figures&biw=1280&bih=878&tbm=

isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CB0QsARqFQoTCNb17e2cgccCFYI_PgodqNgHqA

The Writing Lab and the OWL at Purdue (2015). Retrieved July 29, 2015,

https://owl.English.purdue.edu/owl/resource/977/2/ *

*Purdue Owl ©1995-2015 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.