Formatting Your Thesis or Project Report Using APA 6th EditionA Guide for CSULB Master’s Degree Candidates

Thesis and Dissertation Office

University Library, Room 501email: lib-thesis@csulb.edu

phone: (562) 985-4013web:http://www.csulb.edu/library/

guide/serv

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday

Format Evaluators:Vivian Reed and Laurie Welch

Administrative Assistant:Sue Joshee

Role of the Thesis and Dissertation Office

We’re here to help you prepare your manuscript according to the University Guidelines Manual and the formatting style guide approved by your department.

Plan to submit as soon as possible if your official transcript with degree posting is required by a specific date for a graduate school application, a job or a raise, or if you’re leaving the country or anticipate some other major change in your life.

The Format Evaluation Process

Submit your manuscript to the Thesis and Dissertation Office before 5 p.m. of the submission deadline date. Be sure that: your manuscript is printed on standard printer paper, your signature page is complete with all signatures, your manuscript is in a manuscript (or thesis) box, and all three sections of the AUTHOR LOGIN are complete.

Formatters read through manuscripts on a first come first served basis. Pages are flagged and corrections are noted on the pages. It may take up to 6 weeks from when you submit your manuscript to when you receive an email to pick it up.

Once you’ve made corrections, return the revised manuscript to the Thesis and Dissertation Office. Set a 2 week turnaround time for yourself to insure completing the process within the term deadline.

Once the formatting is “cleared,” you take the manuscript to the Copy Center, located on the south side of the University Bookstore building. You will be asked to fill out the UMI/ProQuest Open Access Publishing Agreement Form and to pay fees for reproduction of your manuscript in microfiche and online. The University Library now maintains permanent copies of theses and dissertations on microfiche in the library archives and on an online database rather than keeping bound copies.

IMPORTANT LAST STEP: Email or call the Thesis and Dissertation Office and tell us your receipt number. We cannot send out the clearance letter to you, your thesis advisor, and Enrollment Services until we receive the receipt number. Until your clearance letter has been sent, your requirements for graduation will be incomplete.

Thesis and Dissertation Office Web Pages

NEW!

Thesis and Dissertation Office Web Pages

The easiest access to our web page is from the University Library homepage. Click on the link on the list on the left side of the page. From our homepage, link to the “Format Guide” webpage, which gives access to a pdf of the newest version of the official University Guidelines Manual

Besides the official University Guidelines Manual, there is a mini-manuscript with examples of formatted pages and a guidelines checklist that includes most of the points made in this slide show

The pages of the mini-manuscript can be hard to navigate. See page 7 (of the pdf, NOT the page numbers in the document) for a title page, page 10 (of the pdf) for a signature page, and pages 15 and 16 (of pdf) for a table of contents

The Thesis and Dissertation Office now has Research Guide web pages with PowerPoints. From the University Library homepage, click on “Research Guides,” then click on gold-colored “Other Guides” tab, and click one more time on “Formatting Your CSULB Master’s Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation.”

Templates for a signature page, a title page and a table of contents (still in the testing stage) are available to download on the Research Guides page—look for the gold tabs.

Current Edition Style Manuals

APA Manual (2010) 6th Edition

University Style and Format Guidelines for Theses, Project Reports, and Dissertations

The University Guidelines Manual takes precedence over the APA Manual, notably in how margins are set, and in how subheads, tables and figures are formatted

APA Rules for Numbers

General Rule

Numbers nine and below are formatted as a word

Numbers 10 and above are formatted as a numeral

Exceptions to APA Numbers Rules

Use numerals for:

Numbers that represent time, dates, or ages

EXAMPLES: 2 months 5-year-olds

Numbers that represent scores and points on a scale

Each number in a list of four or more numbers

EXAMPLE: Four groups were designated: One group had 8 members, another had 9 members, the next had 10 members, and the last group had 12 members.

Exceptions to APA Numbers Rules

Use numerals for:

Numbers before a unit of measurement

Numbers that represent mathematical expressions

EXAMPLES: 3 times as many 1 out of 20 people voted

PercentagesEXAMPLE: 8%

Numbers in a numbered series like chapters or gradesEXAMPLES: Grade 8 (but eighth grade)

Chapter 5

Exceptions to APA Numbers Rules

Use words for:

Numbers that begin a sentence, title or subhead

EXAMPLE: Forty-eight percent of the sample showed an increase.NOTE: Normally the percent sign (%) is used. Only write out the word percent if the number is written out.

Common fractionsEXAMPLES: one fifth of the class

two-thirds majority

In-Text Rules Write out United States when it is used as a nounEXAMPLE: The United States ranks fourth in that category.

Commas and periods go inside quotation marksEXAMPLE: Even if not part of a “direct quote,” include these two basic types of punctuation inside the “quotation marks.”

Ellipsis is formatted as 3 dots with a space between each dot and a space before and after the group of dots

EXAMPLE: a number of years . . . before the study ended

Replace back-to-back parentheses with a semicolonEXAMPLE: Change (CDC)(2003) to (CDC; 2003)

Use italics for statistical symbols like N or SD and leave a space before and after mathematical symbols like =, <, and >.

EXAMPLE: M = 137

In Text Citations: General Rules

Generally, cite sources by author surname and the publication year of the work

If author is cited within parentheses, separate the author name and the year with a comma

EXAMPLE The results were reported (Flowers, 2010). If the author is named in a sentence include the year

in parenthesesEXAMPLE Flowers (2010) reported the results. Within parentheses, use an ampersand to join

multiple authors and separate more than two names with commas.

EXAMPLE (Flowers, Starr, & Mason, 2009) If multiple authors are named in a sentence, use the

word “and” and separate more than two names with commas.

EXAMPLE Paine, Cash, and Town (2011) surveyed 100 people.

In-Text Citations: Author GroupsOne or two authors—List all authors every timeFIRST TIME, EVERY TIME (Flowers, 2010; Flowers & Mason, 2009) If named in sentences Flowers (2010) and Flowers and Mason (2009)

Three, four, or five authors—List all authors the first time cited, and then subsequently, list only the first author and “et al.” FIRST TIME CITED (Paine, Cash, & Town, 2011) If named in sentence Paine, Cash, and Town (2011)SUBSEQUENT CITATIONS (Paine et al., 2011) If named in sentence Paine et al. (2011)

Six or more authors—List only the first author and “et al.” FIRST TIME, EVERYTIME (Linder et al., 2010) If named in sentence Linder et al. (2010)

Author Groups: ExceptionThere is an important exception to the author groups rules.

For groups of three or more authors, if two (or more) groups of authors have the same lead author and the publication year is the same, include as many authors as needed to distinguish between the groups.EXAMPLEFIRST TIME CITED(Kosslyn, Koenig, Barrett, Cave, & Gabrielli,1996)(Kosslyn, Koenig, Gabrielli, Tang, & Daly, 1996) SUBSEQUENT CITATIONS(Kosslyn, Koenig, Barrett, et al., 1996)(Kosslyn, Koenig, Gabrielli, et al., 1996)

In-Text Citations: Same Author, Same Year

If there is only one author or if the names and order of names in an author group are exactly the same AND if that author or identical author group has more than one work with the same publication year, add a letter after the year to distinguish between the works

EXAMPLESSINGLE AUTHOR (U.S. Department of Labor, 2001a)(U.S. Department of Labor, 2001b)IDENTICAL AUTHOR GROUPFIRST TIME CITED (Ferguson, Friend, & Sloan, 2009a) (Ferguson, Friend, & Sloan, 2009b)SUBSEQUENT CITATATIONS (Ferguson et al., 2009a)Ferguson et al., 2009b)

In-Text Citations: ParentheticalIf there are several citations inside parentheses, arrange them in the same order as they appear in the references list, usually alphabetically by the lead author. Separate citations with semicolons.EXCEPTION: For an author with two or more works, use commas to separate the years (indicated by arrow).

EXAMPLE(Anderson, 2000; Jefferson, 1999; Rutherford, 2000, 2005; Simpson, 1995)

In-Text Citations: Direct Quotations

Surround direct quotations of less than 40 words in quotations marks and cite author, year and page number with period following citation (indicated by arrow).EXAMPLE“The participants were impossible to trace” (Marks, 2010, p. 350).

If the quotation is 40 or more words, cite author, year and page number, but omit quotation marks. Instead, indent each line the same amount as paragraphs (indicated by arrow), and place end punctuation before the citation (indicated by arrow).EXAMPLE The participants were impossible to trace. Many sailed to Antarctica. Others sold everything they had and joined monasteries. Some were said to have resorted to identity theft, and a tragic few were last seen formatting their theses . (Marks, 2010, pp. 350-351)

In-Text Citations: Same Surname

If two or more lead authors listed in the references list have the same surname, include the lead authors’ initials in in-text citations.

EXAMPLEBoth M.A. Smith (2008) and T.W. Smith and Smith (2009) relied on survey groups.

In-Text Citations: Author Repeatedly Cited in Sentences Within Same Paragraph

Within a paragraph, the first time that an author is named in a sentence, include the publication year. If the author is named in a sentence again within the same paragraph, omit the year. Always include the year if an author is cited inside parentheses.

EXAMPLE One study proved to be important in many different areas (Kessler, 2003). Reviewing samples, Kessler (2003) found the results to be conclusive. Kessler also found two important corollaries . . . The study also linked depression and alcohol abuse (Kessler, 2003).

EXCEPTION: If an author has more than one work in the list of references, always include year to avoid confusion as to which work by the same author is being cited.

References List: General Format

Format each citation with a hanging indent—first line begins at left margin with subsequent lines indented

Single line-space within each citation and leave a blank line between each citation

Do not break up a citation onto two pages. Move it to the next page if needed

Format spacing consistently: single spacing after periods or colons is accepted in this section; zero or one space between author initials

List all references used in your thesis (except personal communications)

The formatting of each citation is largely determined by the type of work being referenced. Look at the source and determine if it is a journal article, a book, a web page, a thesis, and so on.

References List: Authors

Invert all authors’ names (surname first). Write out surnames and use initials for all other

names.For 2-7 authors, list all authors with comma before

and after initials and use ampersand (&) before last author surname.

For 8 or more authors, list the first 6 authors followed by ellipsis (three dots with spaces in between), then last author.

Be consistent with author names. Use same initials for author with more than one citation and same wording for organization name with more than one citation.

Don’t invert organizational author names. The word “The” can be used before organization name, but alphabetize under the first significant word.

Add a period after organizational authors’ names.

References List: Book

Shotton, M. A. (1999). Computer addiction: A study of American computer dependency. New York, NY: Erdman.

Year in parenthes

es

Periods at end of

elements

Book title in italics

Book title in sentence style caps (first word

of title and subtitle and any proper nouns or adjectives are capitalized)

City and state in 2-

letter abbreviatio

n

Shorten publisher name (but keep Press and Books)

References List: Journal Article

Gilbert, F. G., McClerk, J. F., Rabin, N. E., Sugai, C., Plath, L. C., Asgaard, G., . . . Botros, N. (2004). Effects of quitting smoking on EEG activation. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 6(2), 249-267. doi:10.1080/14622

Use one space or zero

space between initials

consistently

Use sentence style caps and NO italics for article title

Use ellipsis for 8+

authors

Use headline style caps and

italics for journal title

No period after doi, URL or

accession #

Use italics for volume

number and NOT italics for issue number

References List: Chapter in Book

James, N. E. (1999a). Two sides of paradise. In K. Palumbo & T. Sturgeon (Eds.), Spectra of the fantastic (2nd ed., pp. 201- 223). Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Chapter title—Use

sentence style caps

and NO italics

Add the word “In”

before editor name

Editors’ names not

inverted and connected

with ampersand

Book title—Use

sentence style caps and italics

Letter added after year to distinguish

work by same author in

same year

Include page numbers of article after book title in parentheses

References List: Web Page

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (n.d.). Health information technology in the United States (NIH Pub. No. 467- 265rwjf). Retrieved from National Institutes of Health website: http://www.nih.gov. org/health/files/research/ hit.exsummary.pdf

Organizational name

not inverted

Use n.d. if nodate for

copyright or last update is indicated

Web page title in

sentence style caps and italics

Owner of website can be

indicated if different from

author

Don’t hyperlink

URLs; For long URLs, add a

space after dot or slash to

break URL and fill line

No retrieval date is required unless

material on web page changes

frequently

Citation Builders/GeneratorsCitation generators allow you to type in

information (such as author, title, publisher, etc.) and then have the generator format this information according to whatever formatting style you choose. Citation generators work well for formatting common citations like books.

Citation generators are NOT 100% accurate. Be sure to proofread all citations created via a citation builder and revise them if needed. Sometimes, the person using the citation builder can input information into the wrong field. Sometimes the citation generator categorizes the source incorrectly (such as a journal article from the journal website rather than a journal article from a database as illustrated on the next slide) and formats it according to the wrong rules.

Citation Builders/Generators

If you use the automatic citations generated by Social Services Abstracts, you may get a citation saying “Retrieved from www.csa.com,” e.g.:

Shannon, S. K. S. (2010). Dereliction of duty: Training schools for delinquent parents in the 1940s. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 37(3), 11-28. Retrieved from www.csa.com

Change the reference to:

Shannon, S. K. S. (2010). Dereliction of duty: Training schools for delinquent parents in the 1940s. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 37(3), 11-28. Available at Social Services Abstracts database.

NOTE: A database name only needs to be included if the document is not easily located through any other source except that database. If a database is included, include the full name of the database not just the corporation. EXAMPLE: ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database rather than just ProQuest