Running head: SHORTENED TITLE 1 To center a line in Microsoft Word, select Format Paragraph from the Microsoft Word menu bar. Then, on the Indents and Spacing tab, choose Centered from the drop-down list next to the word Alignment. APA papers require a title page. In the top half of the page, include all information shown below, centered and double-spaced. Please note that Ashford University APA guidelines require title pages to include the course instructor s name and date. This requirement is specific to Ashford and is not included in the APA publication guidelines as outlined in the APA Publication Manual (6 th edition). Title Your First Name Your Last Name Course Title Instructor s Name Date Submitted Margins should be one inch on all sides. To change your margins, select File Page Setup from the Margins tab on the Word menu bar. (Header and Footer margins, on the Layout tab, should always remain at 0.5 inches.) To insert a header in Microsoft Word, select View Header and Footer from the Word menu bar. Then, left justify the line and type Running head and a shortened version of the title of your paper in all caps. Next, insert an automatic page number by choosing the Insert Page Number button on the Header and Footer toolbar. Be sure to select Different on First Page.
2 Title [Centered, Upper and Lowercase] Use a 12-point Times New Roman font throughout your paper. (This text is 12- point Times New Roman.) Double-space after the title and begin the text of your paper. Indent the first line of text in each paragraph in the paper. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text Your here entire more paper text here. should More be text double-spaced. here more text Use the automatic double-spacing command (accessible here more text here. More text here more through text here Format more text Paragraph here. More from text the here Word more menu bar, under Line Spacing. (Do not press the Enter text here more text here. More text here more key twice text here at the more end text of each here. line.) The automatic double-spacing will make it much easier to revise More text here more text here more text here. More your text paper here later! more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here Align your text along the left margin by selecting more Format text here. Paragraph More text here from more the text Word here menu more bar. text Then, here. More text here more text on the Indents and Spacing tab, choose Left from the here more drop-down text here. More list next text to here the more word text Alignment. here more text here. More text here more text here more text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more Use a ragged right margin (left justified) rather than an text here more text here. More even text right here margin more (full text here justified). more To text do here. this, More place text your here cursor in the paragraph and select Format Paragraph more text here more text here. from More Microsoft text here. Word s More text main here menu, more and text in the here dropdown box beside Alignment, choose Left. more text here. Whenever you include ideas that are not your own or are not common knowledge, whether you quote or paraphrase, you must cite your source. More text here more text here more text here. More Generally, text here more citations text here should more have text the here. last More name text of the here author more and the year of publication. Direct quotations should include text here more text here. the page number as well.
3 When you want to insert a short quotation (fewer than 40 words), include it as part of the current line. For instance, one of my favorite quotes by C. S. Lewis (1984) is from his book Till We Have Faces. It goes, Why should your heart not dance? (p. 96). After quoting, you need a citation. If you have already mentioned the author in your text, then you need only the year of publication and the page number for a direct quote. If you have not mentioned the author in text, then include the author s last name in the citation. For example, I also like this quote, I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road (Lewis, 1963, p. 6). More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text This example shows block/displayed quotation style. Block quotes here more text here. should be double-spaced. Now I want to discuss chocolate. Chocolate is one of my favorite topics. I have this book called 10,000 Dreams Interpreted, and it talks about what it means if you dream about chocolate: To dream of chocolate, denotes you will provide abundantly for those who are dependent on you. To see chocolate candy, indicates agreeable companions and employments. If sour, illness or other disappointments will follow. To drink chocolate, foretells you will prosper after a short period of unfavorable reverses. (Miller, 1997, p. 143) When you want to include a quotation of 40 words or more in length, then you indent the entire quotation one-half inch, or five to seven spaces, in block/displayed quotation style. Do not use quotation marks around a quotation displayed this way. Note that with other
4 citations you put the period after the citation, but with block/displayed quotations, you place the period before the citation. In my further studies of dreams and chocolate, I checked out a Web site to see if it agreed with the Miller book. The site said, To see chocolate in your dream signifies selfreward. It also denotes that you may be indulging in too many excesses and need to practice some restraint (Dream Moods, 2003, p. C3). In this case, the only author listed is the group author of the Web site, an organization called Dream Moods. The group does not use page numbers on their site, so I wrote C3 because I found the information under page 3 of the C entries. More Remember, text here more the purpose text here of more citations text and here. the More text References page at the end of your paper is to here more text here more text here. More give the text reader here more enough text information here more to text locate here. More the information in the source. text here. You should start a new paragraph whenever you begin to write about a new idea. Paragraphs have no specific minimum or maximum length, but make sure to try to cover each topic adequately without boring your reader or inserting irrelevant information. A good general rule of thumb is to have no more than ten typewritten lines in a paragraph. Additional APA Format Tips: More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here more All terminal punctuation (e.g., period, question mark) is followed by two spaces. One space is used in reference citations, initials, abbreviations, and text here. more text here more text here more text here. More text here more text here with commas, colons, and semicolons. Do not hyphenate words at the end of a line. more text here. More text here more text here more text here. More text here more text Always have at least two lines of a paragraph at the top or bottom of a page. (Select Format Paragraph from the Word menu bar. Then, on the Line and here more text here. Page Breaks tab, check Widow/Orphan control.) Now, what if you want to use a quotation from the Ashford University Online Library? For instance, this quotation is interesting: Indiana teacher Richard Beamer trusts his students with his life. Last fall Beamer fulfilled his longtime dream of flying
5 west at treetop level in a plane built by his fifth-grade students at Southward Elementary School (Arce, 2003, p. 38-39). If you want to reference a work that has two authors, you list both authors in your citation. For instance, I often use Mad Libs to teach basic grammar concepts to my students. After all, sentences like Who could really [VERB] that there were two [PLURAL NOUN] in space? (Price & Stern, 2001, p. 25) are much more fun than diagramming sentences. You should not always include direct quotations. In most cases, try to put the author s ideas in your own words (paraphrase). When you paraphrase, you still need a citation. For instance, if I am thinking about attitudes towards education, I could tell you that Bunt and Yang (2002) examine the Adult Attitude Toward Continuing Education Scale (AACES) to determine its effectiveness. This parenthetical reference requires only the year because I mentioned the authors in the text, I followed the mention directly with what they said, and I listed the source on the References page. However, if I tell you that the attitudes of college students are more easily influenced by peers than faculty norms (Milem, 1998), then this reference requires the author s name in a citation because I did not mention the author in the text. Neither reference requires a page number because the references are not direct (word-for-word) quotations. I hope this sample paper is a useful aid in helping you prepare your Ashford University student papers. Remember to check the Ashford Writing Center for more detailed information about APA style. Also, please remember that your instructor has the right to modify these guidelines for a specific class.
If the author is a group rather than an individual, list the work with the group name. SHORTENED TITLE 6 Online library entry References should be cited the same as a print article. If a Arce, I. (2003). Flying high. NEA Today, 21 (4), 38-39. Digital Objective Identifier (DOI) is Bunt, A., & Yang, B. (2002). Factor structure of the adult attitudes available, toward it adult should and be used in place of the URL. continuing education scale and its capacity to predict participation behavior: Evidence for adoption of a revised scale. Adult Education Quarterly: A Journal of Research and Theory, 52(4), 299-314. Dream Moods. (2003, January 6). Dream dictionary. Retrieved January 14, 2003, from http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/c2.htm Lewis, C. S. (1963). The great divorce. New York : Macmillan. Lewis, C.S. (1984). Till we have faces. San Diego, CA: Harcourt. Microsoft Word 2000 [Computer Software]. (1999). Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation. Use a hanging indent. Select Format Paragraph from the Word menu bar and Hanging under Special. Milem, J. F., (1998). Attitude change in college students: Examining the effect of college peer groups and faculty normative groups. The Journal of Higher Education, 69(2), 117-140. Miller, G. H. (1997). 10,000 dreams interpreted or what s in a dream. Chicago : Rand McNally. Price, R. & Stern, L. (2001). Mad libs: The original #1 mad libs. New York : Price Sloan. If you have more than one entry with the same author AND published in the same year, add a lowercase letter after the year both here and in your in-text citations, for instance, (2001a) and (2001b). Alphabetize your references by author. Abbreviate first and middle names.