APA Style for College Students

1. APA Style for College Students Xi Shi Sarah Levy Rockland Community College November 2008

2. Key Elements of APA Style • Order of pages • Title page • Abstract • Body • References • Appendixes

3. Order of Pages • Title Page, first page of the paper. • Abstract, one-paragraph, self-contained summary of the most important elements of the paper. • Body, introduction followed by other parts of the paper. • References, citations documenting your research in the literature for your paper. • Appendixes, descriptions of certain materials, such as a survey instrument.

4. Title Page • Title of the document, (academic paper, experiment, report, etc., centered, upper case and lower case) • Author (first name, middle initial(s), last name, centered, upper case and lower case) • Institutional affiliation (institution, college, or class for which the assignment is conducted) • Running head (abbreviated title printed at the top of all pages)

5. Body of the Paper • Introduction • Introduce the problem, • State the purpose of the paper. • Levels of Heading • One level: for a short paper, one level heading is sufficient – centered, uppercase and lowercase. • Two level: for many articles, two levels of heading meet APA requirements – flush left, italicized, uppercase and lowercase. • Pagination • The Title Page is page 1, • Begin the abstract on a new page (page 2), • Page numbers appear in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

6. Body of the Paper (continued) • Abstract • Provides a brief and comprehensive summary of the content of the paper. • Body of Text • Type the title of paper centered at the top below the page header, • Double space text, • One tab indentation for the first line of each paragraph, • No additional spacing between paragraphs.

7. Body of the Paper (continued) • Citations in-text • One or two authors: last name(s) in the order of contribution, and year separated by a comma in parentheses, • Three or more authors: cite all authors for the first time, subsequently only cite the surname of the first author followed by “et al.” and the year in parentheses, • No author (including legal materials): cite the first few words of the title in double quotation marks followed by the year in parentheses.

8. References • Agreement of text and reference list • References cited in text must appear in the reference list • Order of references • Alphabetical by the surname of the first author, • Works by the same one author: by year of publication, the earliest first, • Group authors (association, government agencies): use full official names (e.g., American Psychological Association), a parent body precedes a subdivision (e.g., Rockland Community College, Nursing Department)

9. Referencescontinued • Periodical: Author, A.A., Author, B.B., & Author, C.C. (1994). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume, page-page. • Nonperiodical: Author, A.A. (year). Title of work. Location: Publisher. • Online periodical: Author, A.A., Author, B.B., & Author, C.C. (year). Title of Article. Title of Periodical, volume, page-page. Retrieved month, day, year, from source. • Online document: Author, A.A. (year). Title of work. Retrieved month day. Year, from source.

10. Referencescontinued • For other miscellaneous print and non-print sources, see guidelines provided in: Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). (2003). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

11. Referencescontinued • Citation tools from databases • Ebsco • Gale • ProQuest • Wilson • Other suggested citation tools: • Microsoft Office2007 Word • http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/