APA Formatting style

General APA Guidelines

• Your essay should be typed, double-spaced on

standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11") with 1"
margins on all sides.
• Use a clear font that is highly readable. APA
recommends using 12 pt. Times New Roman
font.
• Include a page header  (also known as the
"running head") at the top of every page.
• To create a page header/running head, insert
page numbers flush right.
• Then type "TITLE OF YOUR PAPER" in the header
flush left using all capital letters.
**The running head is a shortened version of your
paper's title and cannot exceed 50 characters
including spacing and punctuation.
 Major Paper Sections
• Your essay should include four major sections:
the Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and
References.
Title Page
• The title page should contain the title of the
paper, the author's name, and the institutional
affiliation. Include the page header (described
above) flush left with the page number flush
right at the top of the page.
• Type your title in upper and lowercase letters
centered in the upper half of the page.
• APA recommends that your title be no more
than 12 words in length and that it should not
contain abbreviations or words that serve no
purpose.
• Your title may take up one or two lines.
• All text on the title page, and throughout your
paper, should be double-spaced.
• Beneath the title, type the author's name:
first name, middle initial(s), and last name. Do
not use titles (Dr.) or degrees (PhD).
• Beneath the author's name, type
the institutional affiliation, which should
indicate the location where the author(s)
conducted the research.
 Abstract
• Begin a new page. Your abstract page should
already include the page header (described above).
• On the first line of the abstract page, center the
word “Abstract” (no bold, formatting, italics,
underlining, or quotation marks).
• Beginning with the next line, write a concise
summary of the key points of your research. (Do
not indent.)
• Your abstract should contain at least your research
topic, research questions, participants, methods,
results, data analysis, and conclusions.
• You may also include possible implications of your
research and future work you see connected with
your findings.
• Your abstract should be a single paragraph double-
spaced.
• Your abstract should be between 150 and 250
words.
• You may also want to list keywords from your paper
in your abstract. To do this, indent as you would if
you were starting a new paragraph,
type Keywords: (italicized), and then list your
keywords. Listing your keywords will help
researchers find your work in databases.
 In-Text Citations: The Basics
• APA In-Text Citation: Indirect Quotes / Reported Voice
•  
• Author’s last name, year of publication, page number recommended. If you are
using specific information, data or figures you must give the page number.
• Example:
• Smiley (2006, p.56) asserts that the fact that a writer attempts to reference is more
important than whether their referencing is technically correct.
• or
• According to Smiley (2006), the mechanical aspects of referencing are less
important than the attempt to reference (P...).
• or
• The fact of providing a citation is more important than the technicalities of how it is
done (Smiley, 2006, p.56)
• All sources (books, journals, news articles, websites etc) are cited this way in-text.
• APA In-Text Citation: Direct Quote / Direct Voice
•  
• Direct quotes: Author’s last name, year of publication, page number. Put the
author’s exact words in quotation marks
• Example:
• Smiley (2006, p.56) claims that “the mechanics of referencing are secondary, it is
the fact of referencing that matters.”
• or
• According to Smiley “the mechanics of referencing are secondary, it is the fact of
referencing that matters” (2006, p.56).
• or
• “The mechanics of referencing are secondary, it is the fact of referencing that
matters”(Smiley, 2006,p.56)
• All sources (books, journals, news articles, websites etc) are cited this way in-text.
• In-Text Citation: Author / Authors
Sometimes a source does not simply have one
author. The table below explains how to deal with
different types of authored source.

• A Work by Two Authors: Name both authors in the

signal phrase or in the brackets each time you cite
the work. Use the word "and" between the authors'
names within the text and use the ampersand in
the brackets.
• Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...
• (Wegener & Petty, 1994)
• A Work by Three to Five Authors: List all the
authors in the signal phrase or in brackets the
first time you cite the source.
• (Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993)
• In subsequent citations, only use the first
author's last name followed by "et al." in the
signal phrase or in brackets.
• (Kernis et al., 1993)
• In et al., et should not be followed by a full
stop.
• Six or More Authors: Use the first author's name
followed by et al. in the signal phrase or in brackets.
• Harris et al. (2001) argued...
• (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 the brackets.
Titles of books and reports are italicized; titles of
articles and chapters are in quotation marks.
• A similar study was done of students learning to
format research papers ("Using APA," 2001).
• Organization as 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.
• According to the American Psychological Association
(2000),...
• If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, include
the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is
cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations.
• First citation: (Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MADD],
2000)
• Second citation: (MADD, 2000)
• Two or More Works in the Same Brackets:
When your bracketed citation includes two or
more works, order them the same way they
appear in the reference list, separated by a
semi-colon.
• (Berndt, 2002; Harlow, 1983)
• Authors With the Same Last Name: To
prevent confusion, use first initials with the
last names.
• (E. Johnson, 2001; L. Johnson, 1998)
• Two or More Works by the Same Author in
the Same Year: If you have two sources by the
same author in the same year, use lower-case
letters (a, b, c) with the year to order the
entries in the reference list. Use the lower-
case letters with the year in the in-text
citation.
• Research by Berndt (1981a) illustrated that...
• In-Text Citation: Indirect Sources

• If you use a source that was cited in another

source, name the original source in your signal
phrase. List the secondary source in your
reference list and include the secondary
source in the brackets.
• Johnson argued that...(as cited in Smith, 2003,
p. 102).
• In-Text Citation: Electronic Sources
• As far as possible, electronic documents are
cited in the same way as any other source.
• If no date is given, write n.d. for ‘no date’
• Smith (n.d.) explained that…
• If no author is given, use the document title in
your signal phrase or the first word or two of the
title in the brackets.
• Another study of students and research
decisions discovered that students succeeded
with tutoring ("Tutoring and APA," 2009).
 APA REFERENCE LIST
• Your reference list should appear at the end of your
paper. It provides the information necessary for a
reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in
the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the
paper must appear in your reference list; likewise,
each entry in the reference list must be cited in your
text.
• Your references should begin on a new page
separate from the text of the essay; label this page
"References" centered at the top of the page (do
NOT bold, underline, or use quotation marks for the
title). All text should be double-spaced just like the
rest of your essay
Basic Rules
• Begin the reference list on a new page.
• Do not bold, underline or italicize the title ‘references’.
• Double-space the reference list.
• 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.
• Authors' names are inverted (last name first); give the last
name and initials for all authors of a particular work if it has
three to 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.
• Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last
name of the first author of each work.
• If you have more than one article by the same author,
single-author references or multiple-author references with
the exact same authors in the exact same order are listed in
order by the year of publication, starting with the earliest.
• When referring to any work that is not a journal, such as a
book, article, or Web page, 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.
• Capitalize all major words in journal titles.
• Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.
• Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of
shorter works such as journal articles or essays in edited
collections.
 Reference List Format for Books
 

• Authored Book
• Author, A. A., & Author, B.B. (Year of publication). Title of
work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.
 
• Note: For "Location," of American publications, list the
city and the state using the two letter postal
abbreviation without full stop (New York, NY). For
publications from other countries, list the city.

• Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to

preparing manuscripts for journal publication.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
• Edited Book, No Author
• Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997).
Consequences of growing up poor. New York,
NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
• Edited Book with an Author or Authors
• Plath, S. (2000). The unabridged journals. K.V.
Kukil, (Ed.). New York, NY: Anchor.
• Edition Other Than the First
• Helfer, M. E., Keme, R. S., & Drugman, R. D.
(1997). The battered child (5th ed.). Chicago,
IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Unknown Author
• New concise world atlas. (2007). London.
Oxford University Press.
• A Translation
• Laplace, P. S. (1951). A philosophical essay on
probabilities. (F. W. Truscott & F. L. Emory,
Trans.). New York, NY: Dover. (Original work
published 1814).

• Note: When you cite a republished work, like the

one above in your text, it should appear with
both dates: Laplace (1814/1951).
• Article or Chapter in an Edited Book
• Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of
chapter. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of
chapter). Location: Publisher.

• Note: When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in

brackets after the book title, use "pp." before the numbers:
(pp. 1-21). This abbreviation, however, does not appear
before the page numbers in periodical references, except for
newspapers.

• O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender

role journeys: Metaphor for healing, transition, and
transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across
the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York, NY: Springer.
• Multivolume Work
• Wiener, P. (Ed.). (1973). Dictionary of the
history of ideas (Vols. 1-4). New York, NY:
Scribner's.
 Reference List for Printed Periodicals
• APA style dictates that authors are named last name
followed by initials; publication year goes between
brackets, followed by a full stop. The title of the
article is in sentence-case, meaning only the first
word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized.
The periodical title is run in title case, and is
followed by the volume number which, with the
title, is also italicized or underlined.
• Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year).
Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume
number(issue number), pages.
• Article in Journal Paginated by Volume
• Journals that are paginated by volume begin
with page one in issue one, and continue
numbering issue two where issue one ended,
etc.
• Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for
preparing psychology journal articles. Journal
of Comparative and Physiological Psychology,
55, 893-896.
• Article in Journal Paginated by Issue
• Journals paginated by issue begin with page
one every issue; therefore, the issue number
gets indicated in brackets after the volume.
The brackets and issue number are not
italicized or underlined.
• Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The
New Criterion, 15(30), 5-13.
• Article in a Newspaper
• Unlike other periodicals, p. or pp. precedes page
numbers for a newspaper reference in APA style.
Single pages take p., e.g., p. B2; multiple pages
take pp., e.g., pp. 2, 4 or pp. 1, 3-4.
• Schultz, S. (2005, December 28). Calls made to
strengthen state energy policies. The Country
Today, pp. 1-2.
Article in a Magazine
• Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the
grade in today's schools. Time, 135, 28-31.
• Reference List Format for Online Sources
• When citing an online article, include
publication information as for a print periodical
and add information about the online version.
• Online articles and books sometimes include a
DOI (digital object identifier). APA uses the DOI,
when available, in place of a URL (universal
resource locator) in reference list entries.
• Note that in JSTOR the DOI is referred to as an
Article Stable URL.
• Use a retrieval date for an online source only if
the content is likely to change.
Article From an Online Periodical with no DOI Assigned

• Online scholarly journal articles without a DOI require

the URL of the journal home page.

• Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title

of article. Title of Journal, volume number. Retrieved
from http://www.journalhomepage.com/full/url/
 
• 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
Reference List Format for Other Online Sources
 Electronic Books
• Electronic books may include books found on personal websites,
databases, or even in audio form. Use the following format if the book you
are using is only provided in a digital format or is difficult to find in print.
• If the work is not directly available online or must be purchased, use
"Available from," rather than "Retrieved from," and point readers to
where they can find it. For books available in print form and electronic
form, include the publishing date in brackets after the author's name.
 
• De Huff, E. W. (n.d.). Taytay’s tales: Traditional Pueblo Indian tales.
Retrieved from
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/dehuff/taytay/taytay.html
 
• Davis, J. (n.d.). Familiar birdsongs. Available from
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=1-9780931686108-0
• Nonperiodical Web Document, Web Page, or Report
 
• List as much of the following information as possible. You sometimes have to
hunt around to find the information - don't be lazy!
• If there is a page like http://www.somesite.com/somepage.htm, and
somepage.htm doesn't have the information you're looking for, move up the
URL to http://www.somesite.com/):
 
• Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of document. Retrieved
from http://Web address 
 
• Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderland, L., &
Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). General format. Retrieved from
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

• NOTE: When an Internet document is more than one Web page, provide a URL
that links to the home page or entry page for that document. If an author is not
available, begin with the document title followed by the date in brackets. If
there isn't a date available for the document use (n.d.) for no date.
Online Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
• Often encyclopedias and dictionaries do not
provide authors' names. When no author
name is present, move the entry name to the
front of the citation. Provide publication dates
if present or specify (n.d.) if no date is present
in the entry.

• Feminism. (n.d.). In Encyclopaedia Britannica

online. Retrieved from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/
724633/feminism
Newspaper Article
• Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article.
Title of Newspaper. Retrieved from
http://www.address.com

• Parker-Pope, T. (2008, May 6). Psychiatry

handbook linked to drug industry. The New York
Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

• Note: Give the URL for the newspaper’s home

page, not the URL for the specific article.
Wikis
• The APA Style Guide to Electronic References warns
writers that wikis (like Wikipedia, for example) are
collaborative projects which cannot guarantee the
verifiability or expertise of their entries.
• Begin with the title of the article and the date it was
posted. Next, add your retrieval date, the name of the
wiki, and the URL for the wiki.
• Include the date of retrieval because wiki entries often
change from day to day. If an author or an editor is
identified, put their name at the start of the entry.
• Psychology. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 14,
2009, from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology
• Language in an APA paper is:
– clear: be specific in descriptions and explanations
– concise: condense information when you can
– plain: use simple, descriptive adjectives and
minimize figurative language
Reference List Format for Online Scholarly Journals
• Because online materials can potentially change
URLs, APA recommends providing a Digital Object
Identifier (DOI), when it is available, as opposed to
the URL.
• DOIs are an attempt to provide stable, long-lasting
links for online articles. They are unique to their
documents and consist of a long alphanumeric
code.
• Many publishers (including JSTOR) will provide an
article's DOI on the first page of the document
• Article From an Online Periodical with DOI
Assigned
• Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of
publication). Title of article. Title of Journal,
volume number. doi:0000000/000000000000

• Brownlie, D. (2007). Toward effective poster

presentations: An annotated bibliography.
European Journal of Marketing, 41(11/12),
1245-1283. doi:10.1108/03090560710821161