APA Help for your Academic Paper

APA style and formatting guide- A WordsRU Resource

WordsRU can help with APA citation style and related formatting issues. APA style was established by the American Psychological Association (APA) and refers to the conventions for documenting sources and formatting used in academic papers. It is one of several such citation styles that include MLA, AMA, Chicago, Turabian, Harvard and others although APA style is one of the most commonly used.

As a help to our customers who may be concerned with citation and formatting in general and APA style in particular, APA has two principal elements – in-text citations, and reference list (bibliography), with document formatting representing a third consideration. These two key elements identify and accredit sources consulted in the preparation of an academic paper, and thus allow others to access and retrieve the same resources. The following information is intended as a helpful resource to APA style guide requirements. It is a general overview guide to the implementation of the style not a comprehensive reference on the subject.

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In-text citations

In APA style, citations sources are placed in the text of academic (and other) documents as a brief identification for the reader and to facilitate locating the more specific details about the source of the cited information in the reference list at the end of the paper. In-text references include the author's last name and the year of publication (enclosed in parentheses), making it clear what information is being cited or paraphrased, and the author or source of that information.

Examples

Works by a Single Author

The last name of the author and the year of publication are inserted in the text at the appropriate point; e.g.

In a recent study of reaction times (Walker, 2000)

If the name of the author appears as part of the narrative, cite only the year of publication in parentheses.

Walker (2000) compared reaction times

Works by Multiple Authors

When a work has two authors, always cite both names every time the reference occurs in the text. In parenthetical material join the names with an ampersand (&).

. . . as has been shown (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1989)

In the narrative text, join the names with the word "and"

. . . as Nightlinger and Littlewoord (1993) demonstrated

When a work has three, four, or five authors, cite all authors the first time the reference occurs.

Wasserstein, Zappulla, Rosen, Gerstman, and Rock (1994) found . . .

In all subsequent citations per paragraph, include only the surname of the first author followed by ‘et al.,’ (Latin for ‘and others’) and the year of publication.

Wasserstein et al., (1994) found . . .

Works by Associations, Corporations, Government Agencies etc.

The names of groups that serve as authors (corporate authors) are usually shown in full each time they appear in a text reference.

(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 1999)

When appropriate, the names of some corporate authors are spelled out in the first reference and abbreviated in all subsequent citations. The general rule for abbreviating in this manner is to supply enough information in the text citation for a reader to locate its source in the Reference List without difficulty.

(NIMH, 1999)

Works with No Author

When a work has no author, use the first two or three words of the title of the work (omitting any initial articles) as your text reference, capitalizing each word.

. . . the book College Bound Seniors (1979)

Place the title in quotation marks if it refers to an article or chapter of a book, or italicize it if it refers to a book, periodical, brochure, or report.

. . . on free care ("Study Finds" 1982)

General APA formatting guidelines

Papers should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5 X 11 inches) with margins of 1 inch on all sides. The final version should include, in the order indicated below, as many of the following sections as are applicable, each of which should begin on a separate page:

Title page: includes a running head for publication, title, and byline and affiliation, as well as horizontally centered title of the paper (all in caps), its author and affiliation. .

Page numbers and running head: in the upper right-hand corner of each page, include a 1-2 word version of your title. Follow with five spaces and then the page number.

Abstract: If your supervisor requires an abstract, write a 75-100 word overview of your essay, which should include your main idea and your major points. You also may want to mention any implications of your research. Place the abstract on its own page immediately after the title page. Center the word Abstract and then follow with the paragraph.

Headings: Although not absolutely necessary, headings can be helpful. For undergraduate papers, only one level of heading is necessary. Major headings should be centered. Capitalize every word in the heading except articles (a, the), short prepositions (in, by, for), and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or).

Visuals: Visuals such as tables and figures include graphs, charts, drawings, and photographs. Try to keep the visuals as simple as possible and clearly label each with an Arabic numeral (ex: Table 1, Table 2, etc.) and include the title of the visual. The label and the title should appear on separate lines above the table, flush left. Below the table, provide details of the source.

Reference List: Create your list of references on its own page after the last page of your text. Center the title References one inch from the top of the page. Double-space. Alphabetize the list of references by the last name of the authors. If the work has no author or editor, alphabetize the work by the first word of the title (excluding A, An, or The).

Reference list formatting:

References cited in the text of a research paper must appear in a Reference List or bibliography. This list provides the information necessary to identify and retrieve each source.

Entries should be arranged in alphabetical order by authors' last names. Sources without authors are arranged alphabetically by title within the same list.
Write out the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work.
Capitalize only the first word of a title or subtitle, and any proper names that are part of a title.
Use an ampersand (&) instead of the word "and" when listing multiple authors of a single work.
Use the abbreviation p. or pp. to designate page numbers of articles from periodicals that do not use volume numbers, especially newspapers. These abbreviations are also used to designate pages in encyclopedia articles and chapters from edited books.
Indentation: The first line of the entry is flush with the left margin, and all subsequent lines are indented (5 to 7 spaces) to form a "hanging indent."
Underlining vs. Italics: It is appropriate to use italics instead of underlining for titles of books and journals.

APA style has special formatting standards for the use of indentation and italics in manuscripts or papers that will be typeset or submitted for official publication. For more detailed information on these publication standards refer to the APA resources given at the bottom of this article, or consult with your supervisor to determine individual style preferences.

Please note that within each of the specific citation styles, individual institutions may have variations in their requirements. It is strongly recommended that authors of academic papers check for such variances and individual requirements with their supervisors. Further information about citations and formatting in APA style is available at http://www.apastyle.org
and http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

Help with APA—A Case Study:

Luisa’s dissertation was almost complete but she was running out of time to do the fine tuning with the required APA citation style and formatting and was becoming very anxious that this could affect the result of her work. She wrote to WordsRU asking for an editing quote and also whether we could make sure the APA citation and formatting requirements were in order. Fortunately, Luisa had studiously recorded all her sources (although she was not sure that she had picked them all up in her Reference List).

WordsRU’s edit of Luisa’s paper included a check for compliance with formatting and references, picking up several in-text citations that had not been listed in the references, as well as adjusting the formatting of the running head and several charts and tables.

Help with APA—Testimonial:

I want to say a big thank you to Maureen for her help in editing my dissertation. I am very pleased with the changes she made (and so is my supervisor), especially the APA style that I was so worried about – he even complimented me on the overall formatting! Thanks a million – I will be telling my friends about you!
Luisa

* All testimonials have been supplied with the approval of the writers.

WordsRU Academic Services:

WordsRU will ensure that your academic documents are edited to attract the highest possible quality outcomes.

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