APA Writing Style

1
APA Writing Style

• American Psychological Association. (2001).
  Publication manual of the American Psychological
  Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC APA.

2
Citations and References

• Reference citations in text are found in sections
  3.94 through 3.103
• Reference list guidelines are found in sections
  4.01 through 4.16

3
Reference citations in text

• Document your study throughout the text by citing
  by author and date the works you used in your
  research.
• This style of citation briefly identifies the
  source for readers and enables them to locate the
  source of information in the alphabetical
  reference list at the end of the article.

4
Citing One Work By One Author

• APA journals use the author-date method of
  citation that is, the surname of the author (do
  not include suffixes such as Jr.) and the year of
  publication are inserted in the text at the
  appropriate point

5
Citing One Work By One Author

• If the name of the author appears as part of the
  narrative, cite only the year of publication in
  parentheses.
• Example Walker (2002) compared reaction times

6
Citing One Work By One Author

• If the name of the author does not appear in the
  narrative, place both the name and the year,
  separated by a comma, in parentheses.
• Example In a recent study of reaction times
  (Walker, 2002)

7
Citing One Work By Multiple Authors

• When a work has two authors, always cite both
  names every time the reference occurs in text.
• Example In a recent study of marsupial behavior
  (Johnson Starling, 1999)

8
Citing One Work By Multiple Authors

• When a work has three, four, or five authors,
  cite all authors the first time the reference
  occurs in subsequent citations, include only the
  surname of the first author followed by et al.
  and the year if it is the first citation of the
  reference within a paragraph.
• Examples on next page

9
Citing One Work By Multiple Authors

• Example of first citation in text Wasserstein,
  Zappa, Rosen, Gerst, and Rock (1994) found..
• Example of subsequent first citation per
  paragraph thereafter Wasserstein et al. (1994)
  found
• Omit year from subsequent citations after first
  citation within a paragraph. Example Wasserstein
  et al. found

10
Citing One Work By Multiple Authors

• When a work has six or more authors, cite only
  the surname of the first author followed by et
  al. and the year for the first and subsequent
  citations.

11
Reference List

• The reference list at the end of a journal
  article documents the article and provides the
  information necessary to identify and retrieve
  each source. Authors should choose references
  judiciously and must include only the sources
  that were used in the research and preparation of
  the article. Note that a reference list cites
  works that specifically support a particular
  article.

12
Reference List

• Start the reference list on a new page. Type the
  word References (Reference, if there is only one)
  in upper case and lower case letters, centered,
  at the top of the page.
• Double space all reference entries.
• APA publishes references in a hanging indent
  format, meaning that the first line of each
  reference is set flush left and subsequent lines
  are indented.

13
Reference List

• Arrange entries in alphabetical order by the
  surname of the first author.
• Excellent examples of Reference lists can be
  found in sections 4.04-4.16, 5.18, and 5.29 in
  the APA manual.