APA (American Psychological Association) is a widely used citation style for the social sciences. Here you can find some information on how to format a paper in APA and also how to format citations. All information is taken from the Purdue OWL webpage (Click here for more information). This page is designed to introduce students to the basics of APA and to address the more common features of APA that they will be expected to know. For information on more specific rules or types of citations, please address the above webpage or an APA citation manual.
Setting Up Your Paper
Citations
**Much of this material was taken directly from the Purdue OWL webpage. All credit is given to this organization.
Setting Up Your Paper
- Essay should be typed, double-spaced with 1" margins on all sides. It is recommended that you use 12 pt. Times New Roman font.
- Page Header- In APA, this is referred to as a "Running Head." This should be included on the top of every page. Insert Page numbers flush to the right. On the first page, you will type "Running head: TITLE OF PAPER" and flush that to the left. On the top of every other page, you will include "TITLE OF PAPER" flush to the left, leaving off the "Running head" component. See the Purdue OWL webpage to see a sample cover page.
- Sections of Paper
- Title Page
- Align text to the center and space down about halfway down the page
- First line: Title of paper (do not bold, italicize, underline, or use quotation marks)
- Second line: Author of paper (Your name)
- Institutional Affiliation (Oxford High School)
- Abstract
- On the first line, center the word "Abstract" (no bold, formatting, italics, underlining, or quotation marks)
- Do not indent the next line. Write a concise summary of the key points of your research. Your abstract should at least contain your research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions. You can also include possible implications of your research and future work you see connected with your findings. This should be a single paragraph double-spaced. Should be between 150 and 250 words.
- You can also include keywords from your paper to help other researchers search for your paper in databases. Indent the next line after your abstract and type Keywords: (italicized), and then list a few keywords
- Use the abstract to let your reader get a quick overview of what your paper is about and what your findings were. Think of it as a sparknotes version of your paper!
- Main Body
- You can use uniform headers to separate the different sections of your paper (ex. Participants, Method, Results, Conclusion, etc.)
- References
- This is the last section of your paper. Type "References" on the top line and center it (same as the Abstract page header)
- The information included in each citation helps the reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper.
- Every source you cite within the paper MUST be included in the reference sheet.
- All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation. The first line of each new citation is not indented.
Citations
- In-Text Citations
- When addressing another study or specific researchers by name, describe the earlier research using the past tense or present perfect tense. For example, Jones (1998) found or Jones (1998) has found
- Follow the author-date method of in-text citations. For example, (Jones, 1998)
- For two or more authors, your text will read "Jones and Smith (1998)" or (Jones & Smith, 1998). Take note of when to use "and" and when to use "&"
- For three to five authors: include all the authors in the signal phrase or in the parentheses the first time you cite.
- In subsequent citations, only use the first author's last name followed by "et al." in the signal phrase or in parentheses. (Ex. Kernis et al., 1993)
- For six or more authors: use the first author's name followed by et al., in the signal phrase or in the parentheses. For example, (Harris et al., 2001).
- 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. For example, "According to the American Psychological Association (2000)..."
- Short quotations:
- If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and the page number for the reference (preceded by "p.").
- You can choose to include the authors name in a signal phrase before the quotation or you can include it in parentheses after the quotation.
- Ex. According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).
- Ex. She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199).
- Long quotations:
- These quotations are 40 words or longer, and should be placed in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks.
- Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from the margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.
- Paraphrasing:
- 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 guidelines encourage you to also provide the page number (although it is not required)
- Ex. According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners.
- Reference List Citations
- For first time APA learners, properly formatting a reference sheet is a daunting task! However, once you learn the right format, it quickly becomes easy to complete an entire reference page.
- In your reference page, all citations should be ordered alphabetically by the last name of each author
- Here are sample citations for journal articles. We will go through specific rules to demonstrate how these citations were made.
Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 7-10.
Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 1034-1048.
- Invert the authors name (last name first) and use the initials for the author's first and middle names
- With two or more authors, separate the names with a comma and use an ampersand instead of "and" prior to listing the final author's name.
- If you are citing multiple works by the same author, order them by publication year, starting with the earliest
- Follow name with publication year in parentheses followed be a period.
- Include the title of the article. Only capitalize the first word in the title (unless the title contains a proper name or organization). End the title with a period.
- Italicize the journal name where the article was published. Capitalize all major words in the journal title.
- Italicize the edition of the journal being cited
- Include page numbers (these are the numbers designated in the journal the article comes from)
- BOOK CITATION
- Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.
- Location is the city and state where the publisher is located (Ex. New York, NY)
- Sample:
- Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
- Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.
- ONLINE SOURCE
- Include all information that online host makes available, including an issue number in parentheses
- Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Online Periodical, volume number(issue number if available). Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
- Sample:
- Berstein, M. (2002). 10 tips on writing the living Web. A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 149. Retrieved from http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving
- Visit the Purdue OWL webpage for many other citation samples. This site also demonstrates how to cite chapters, newspapers, citing sources without an author, and so much more. This blog is simply meant to show you the beginning steps of learning APA and to highlight citation samples for common sources (journal articles, books, and online materials).
**Much of this material was taken directly from the Purdue OWL webpage. All credit is given to this organization.