General formatting
What are the four major sections of an APA paper
Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References
Two BASIC pieces of information for in text citation
Author name and publication date
A Work by Three to Five Authors (in-text)
FIRST CITATION: (Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993)
SUBSEQUENT CITATION: (Kernis et al., 1993)
Basic formatting for a reference
indented one-half inch from the left margin:hanging indentation.
Double spaced
Edited Book, No Author
Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
Article in Journal Paginated by Issue
Issue number gets indicated in parentheses after the volume.
(The parentheses and issue number are not italicized)
Title page should include
Running head and page number
Title of the paper, the author's name, and the institutional affiliation.
When will you NOT need to include the page number
NOT directly quoting the material, making reference to an entire book article or other work
Six or More Authors (in-text)
Harris et al. (2001) argued...
(Harris et al., 2001)
What order are references listed?
Alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.
Edited Book with an Author or Authors
Author, A. (Publication year). The book title. Editor (Ed.). City, State: Publisher.
Article with volume number
Volume number gets indicated after the journal title, italicized.
Journal Title, Vol Number.
What does the abstract contain
Center the word Abstract (no bold)
A concise summary of the key points of your research. (Do not indent.)
Single paragraph, double-spaced. Your abstract should be between 150 and 250 words.
Long quotes
40 words or longer in a free-standing block & omit quotation marks
indent 1/2 inch from the left margin
Page number at the end of quote
A Work by Two Authors (in text)
Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...
(Wegener & Petty, 1994)
What gets italicized?
Titles of longer works such as books and journals
Edition Other than the first
Author, A. (Publication year). The book title (5th ed.). City, State: Publisher.
Online periodical
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Online Periodical, volume number(issue number if available). Retrieved from
https://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
A running head is
a shortened version of your paper's title and cannot exceed 50 characters including spacing and punctuation.
Short quote includes
The author, year of publication, and page number for the reference (preceded by "p.")
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 parentheses.
Titles of books and reports are italicized; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks.
Capitalize important words in titles (but not when they are written in reference lists).
What should be capitalized in a reference?
Capitalize all major words in journal titles
Titles of books, chapters, articles, or web pages, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle
First word after a colon or a dash in the title
Proper nouns.
Article or Chapter in an Edited Book
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.
Online periodical with DOI
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number if available), page range. doi:0000000/000000000000 or https://doi.org/10.0000/0000
General format of paper
Typed and double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11")
1" margins on all sides.
12 pt. Times New Roman font.
Capitalizing, italicizing and quotations for in text citation
If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater within the title of a source. (Note: in your References list, only the first word of a title will be capitalized: Writing new media.)
Italicize the titles of longer works such as books, edited collections
Put quotation marks around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles, articles from edited collections
Two or More Works in the Same Parentheses
Order them the same way they appear in the reference list (viz., alphabetically), separated by a semi-colon.
(Berndt, 2002; Harlow, 1983)
Format for multiple authors in a reference
Two: Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E.
Three to Seven: (List all) Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., Harlow, T., & Bach, J. S.
Seven or More: After the sixth author's name, use an ellipsis in place of the author names. Then provide the final author name.
Multi-work volume, where do/does volume #(s) go?
Wiener, P. (Ed.). (1973). Dictionary of the history of ideas (Vols. 1-4). New York, NY: Scribner's.
No author or date listed
If the page's author is not listed, start with the title instead. If the date of publication is not listed, use the abbreviation (n.d.).