Writing Your Paper in APA Style

Transcription

1 Writing Your Paper in APA Style The guidelines and examples in this tutorial are from the 6 th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). APA guidelines were developed to standardize scientific publishing. APA style designates: proper citation of your sources, both within the text of your paper and in the list of references at the end of your paper the format of your paper, including margins, type font, and pagination stylistic elements of your writing This tutorial will address some basic aspects of the APA style. The entire Manual is more than 250 pages. Refer to a copy of the Manual as you write your papers. You may purchase one at the bookstore or online, or check one out from the library. Crediting Your Sources As you gather information to learn and write about your topic, you may consult a wide variety of materials, including books and articles published in academic journals. According to the directions of your professor, you might also glean information from conference papers, newspapers, magazines, government publications, or credible internet sources. You might also view films, conduct interviews, or read unpublished diaries and manuscripts. You must credit the authors of these sources as you incorporate their ideas into your paper, whether you quote them directly or paraphrase their ideas into your own words. You will do this in the body of your paper with brief in-text citations and at the end of your paper with a detailed list of References. This tutorial will provide examples for the most common citations of books and journal articles. For other types of source material or exceptions to the rule, consult the APA Manual. In-text citations When you restate the ideas of an author in your own words, acknowledge your source by providing the author s last name and the year of publication of the material. Type the author s name and the year, separated by a comma, in parentheses following your text, or include the information within your text: Early onset results in a more persistent severe course (Kessler, 2003). Kessler (2003) found that among epidemiological samples... In 2003, Kessler s study of epidemiological samples showed that... When you quote an author directly, put quotations marks around the quoted portion of the text, and provide the page number, in addition to the author s last name and year of publication: Interpreting these results, Robbins et al. (2003) suggested that the therapists in dropout cases may have inadvertently validated parental negativity about the adolescent without

2 adequately responding to the adolescent s needs or concerns (p. 541), contributing to an overall climate of negativity. For direct quotations from online sources without pagination, include the paragraph number if it is visible: Basu and Jones (2007) went so far as to suggest the need for a new intellectual framework in which to consider the nature and form of regulation in cyberspace (para. 4). Or, if paragraph numbers are not visible, provide the section heading and count the paragraphs to determine the number: In their study, Verbunt, Pernot, and Smeets (2008) found that the level of perceived disability in patients with fibromyalgia seemed best explained by their mental health condition and less by their physical condition (Discussion section, para. 1). If the section heading is long, you may use a shortened version of the heading enclosed in quotation marks: (Golan, Kuchler, & Krissof, 2007, Mandatory Labeling Has Targeted, para. 4) Place direct quotations more than 40 words long in a block of text, without quotation marks, indented ½ inch from the left margin and provide the author s name, year of publication, and page or paragraph number in parentheses after the closing punctuation: Others have contradicted this view: Co-presence does not ensure intimate interaction among all group members. Consider large-scale social gatherings in which hundreds or thousands of people gather in a location to perform a ritual or celebrate an event. In these instances, participants are able to see the visible manifestation of the group, the physical gathering, yet their ability to make direct, intimate connections with those around them is limited by the sheer magnitude of the assembly. (Purcell, 1997, pp ) Alternatively, reference the author and year in the introductory comment and provide only the page numbers in parentheses. Some professors prefer that you paraphrase the ideas you present, rather than quoting directly from your source materials. Be sure to follow the specific directions of your professor. To cite two authors, include both last names. Use an ampersand between their names inside of the parentheses, as well as in tables and captions, and in the Reference list,

3 Confusing this issue is the overlapping nature of roles in palliative care, whereby medical needs are met by those in the medical disciplines: nonmedical needs may be addressed by anyone on the team (Csikai & Chaitin, 2006, p. 112). But, if you reference the authors in the body of your text, spell out the word and : as Kurtines and Szapocznik (2003) demonstrated... For works with three to five authors, list all of them in the first citation: Kisangau, Lyaruu, Hosea, and Joseph (2007) found... Thereafter, list the first author and replace the others with et al. : Kisangau et al. (2007) If a work has six or more authors, use the surname of only the first author followed by et al. and the year for all in-text citations, unless more than one surname is required to distinguish one work from another published the same year: Kosslyn, Koenig, Barrett, et al. (1996) Kosslyn, Koenig, Gabrieli, et al. (1996) If your Reference list includes two authors with the same surname, include the authors initials in all in-text citations. (M. A. Light, 2008) (I. Light, 2006) If no author is named, use the first few words of the title by which the source appears in the Reference list. Enclose titles of articles, book chapters, and websites in quotations marks. Italicize titles of periodicals, books, and brochures. If the source is Anonymous, use Anonymous in the in-text citation, and list the source with Anonymous as the author in the Reference list, as well. For groups as authors, write out the group name in the first citation. Thereafter, if the name is long and the group is easily recognizable by an acronym, you may use the acronym. For each source cited in the text of the paper, create a full bibliographic entry in the list of References at the end of the paper. Reference List The basic format for a book in the Reference list is author name, last name first, followed by a comma and first and middle initials, the year of publication in parentheses, the title of the book italicized, the city and state of the publisher, or city and country if the book is published outside of the U.S., followed by a colon, and the name of the publisher. Author, A. A. (year). Title of the book. Location: Publisher.

4 Here is an example: Shotton, M. A. (1989). Computer addiction? A study of computer dependency. London, England: Taylor & Francis. Each element is closed with a period followed by only one space. For an electronic version of a book, include a notation as to the form placed in brackets after the title and provide the digital object identifier (DOI), if available. (The DOI is an alphanumeric identifier assigned by the International DOI Foundation to provide a persistent link to online content.): Schiraldi, G. R. (2001). The post-traumatic stress disorder sourcebook: A guide to healing, recovery, and growth [Adobe Digital Editions version]. doi: / If no DOI is available, provide the retrieval path: O Keefe, E. (n.d.). Egoism & the crisis in Western values. Retrieved from Note that there is no closing period for a reference with an electronic path at the end. Neither is it necessary to provide a retrieval date for most online resources, but do include the retrieval date for sites that are likely to change over time, such as Wikis. To reference one chapter of a book, include the author of the chapter, the date, he chapter title, the names of the editors of the book, the title of the book, the page numbers of the chapter, and the location and name of the publisher: Haybron, D. M. (2008). Philosophy and the science of subjective well-being. In M. Eid & R. J. Larsen (Eds.), The science of subjective well-being (pp ). New York, NY: Guilford Press. An entry in an online reference book is similar: Graham, G. (2005). Behaviorism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2007 ed.). Retrieved from

5 For a source with no named author or date, move the title to the author position and type n.d. for no date in parentheses: Heuristic. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster s online dictionary (11 th ed.). Retrieved from Note that the word in precedes the editors and the title of these works since the reference is for only a portion of the work. The basic format for an article reference is author name, year of publication, title of the article, title of the periodical (in italics), volume number (also in italics), inclusive page numbers and DOI: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Title of article. Title of Here is an example: Periodical, xx, pp pp. doi: xx.xxxxxxxxxx Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, doi: / If an article retrieved online does not have a DOI, type Retrieved from and provide the URL for the home page of the journal: Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, Retrieved from If each issue of a journal begins with page 1, include the issue number in parentheses after the volume number. Do not put the issue number in italics: Light, M. A., & Light, I. H. (2008). The geographic expansion of Mexican immigration in the United States and its implications for local law enforcement. Law Enforcement Executive Forum Journal 8(1),

6 The reference list is typed double-spaced beginning on a new page at the end of the paper. Entries are alphabetized according to the authors last names, or the first significant word of the title if there is no author name. Graham, G. (2005). Behaviorism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.)... Haybron, D. M. (2008). Philosophy and the science of... Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer... Heuristic. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster s online dictionary... Light, M. A., & Light, I. H. (2008).... O Keefe, E. (n.d.).... Schiraldi, G. R. (2001).... Shotton, M. A. (1989).... Don t let the length of the APA Manual overwhelm you. Much of it pertains to manuscripts submitted for publication in academic journals rather than research papers completed for class assignments. You will not need to read the entire manual to use the guidelines properly in your academic work. Use the page and section numbers provided within this tutorial and the index at the back of the book to focus on the portions that are applicable to writing a research paper. In addition to the APA Manual, the library also has copies of An Easy Guide to APA Style by Beth Schwartz available for checkout and a brief handout in PDF that you can download. You might also find the website for Research & Documentation Online, 5 th edition, useful. Click the icons for access to these resources.