APA Style Guide
(A compendium of information gathered from various web sources by Demetri Orlando)

CONTENTS
FORMAT FOR YOUR PAPER
 CREATING YOUR REFERENCE PAGES
ABBREVIATIONS
 EXAMPLES of PRINT SOURCES IN REFERENCE LIST
EXAMPLES of ELECTRONIC SOURCES IN REFERENCE LIST
EXAMPLES OF CITATIONS IN TEXT
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Sources for this Document

 

FORMAT FOR YOUR PAPER
  • Margins should be one inch on all sides (left margin may be greater when using a binding). 
  • Preferred typeface: Times New Roman, 12pt. 
  • Each page must have a header in the top right-hand corner. The header consists of one or two words of your title and the page number... Pages are numbered 1, 2, 3... starting with the title page, and including the reference page(s).
  • All lines including titles and subtitles must be double spaced. Your reference pages may be single spaced if they are extensive. 
  • In-text citations of more than 40 words should be indented 5-10 spaces without quotation marks. If only one paragraph, do not give the first line an additional indent.  If quoting more than one paragraph, indent the first line of each paragraph five additional spaces from the left margin (for a total of ten spaces).

CREATING YOUR REFERENCE PAGES

  • When writing authors' names, use the author's last name, first initial, and middle initial, if any.
  • If there is more than one author, use an ampersand (&) before the last author's name.
  • Place date of publication in parenthesis after the name information (if no available date, put n.d.). For magazines and newspapers, give the year followed by the month and date, if any.
  • For book and article titles, capitalize only the first word of the title, and the first word after a colon.
  • Italicize the titles of longer works, like books, magazines, newspapers, periodicals or journals that contain the cited articles. Include volume numbers as part of the italicized title.
  • Do not underline, italicize, or put quotes around titles of shorter works, like article titles.
  • Do not abbreviate publication months; write out the full month name. 
  • Use the abbreviation p. or pp. before newspaper page numbers only. Do not use p. or pp. before page numbers for magazines, journals, or books.
  • List all pages used, even if they are not continuous (32, 46-47).
  • Double space between citations. Single space in the citations.
  • Give volume numbers for magazines, journals, and newsletters. Include the issue number for journals if and only if each issue begins on page 1.

ABBREVIATIONS

  • chap. chapter
  • ed. edition
  • rev. ed. revised edition
  • Ed. edited by
  • Eds. multiple editors
  • p. page number (single)
  • pp. page numbers (plural)
  • vol. volume
  • no. number
  • Suppl. Supplement

EXAMPLES of PRINT SOURCES in your REFERENCE LIST

Journal Article, One Author

 
Simon, A. (2000). Perceptual comparisons through the mind’s eye. Memory
& Cognition, 23, 635-647.
 

 

Journal Article, Two Authors

 

Becker, M. B., & Rozek, S. J. (1995). Welcome to the energy crisis. Journal

of Social Issues, 32, 230-343. 
 

 

Magazine Article, one author

 

Garner, H. J. (1997, July). Do babies have a universal song? Psychology

Today,102, 70-77. 
 

 

Newspaper Article, No Author

 
Study finds free care used more. (1982, April 3). Wall Street Journal, pp.
A1, A25.
 

 

Book, Two Authors

 
Strunk, W., & White, E. B. (1979).  The elements of style (3rd ed.). New
York: Macmillan.
 

 

Edited Book

 
Letheridge, S., & Cannon, C. R. (Eds.). (1980). Bilingual education. New
York: Praeger.
 

 

Entry in an Encyclopedia

 
Imago. (2000). In World Book Encyclopedia (Vol. 10, p. 79).  Chicago:
World Book Encyclopedia.
 

 

Report from a Private Organization

 
Kimberly-Clark. (2002). Kimberly-Clark (Annual Report). Dallas, TX: Author.

 

Dissertation

Olsen, G. W. (1985). Campus child care within the public supported post-
secondary educational institutions in the state of Wisconsin. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1985). Dissertations Abstracts International, 47/03, 783.
 

 

 

 

EXAMPLES of ELECTRONIC SOURCES IN REFERENCE LIST
 

Internet Article Based on Print Source

The citation is done as if it were a paper article and then followed by a retrieval statement that identifies the date retrieved and source.

Sahelian, R. (1999, January).  Achoo!  Better Nutrition, 61, 24. Retrieved
September 17, 2001, from Academic Index.
VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements
in the selection of resources by psychology undergraduates [Electronic version]. Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5, 117-123.
VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements
in the selection of resources by psychology undergraduates. Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5, 117-123. Retrieved October 13, 2001, from: http://jbr.org/articles.html

 

Web Page with Private Organization as Author
 

Midwest League. (2003). Pitching, individual records. Retrieved October 1,
 2003, from: http://www.midwestleague.com/indivpitching.html

 

Stand-alone document, no author identified, no date [begin with the title of the document.]

GVU's 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2000, from:
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/usersurveys/survey1997-10/


Document available on university program or department Web site

  • If a document is contained within a large and complex Web site (such as that for a university or a government agency), identify the host organization and the relevant program or department before giving the URL for the document itself.
Chou, L., McClintock, R., Moretti, F., Nix, D. H. (1993). Technology and
education: New wine in new bottles: Choosing pasts and imagining educational futures. Retrieved August 24, 2000, from Columbia University, Institute for Learning Technologies Web site: http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/papers/newwine1.html


Electronic copy of a journal article, three to five authors, retrieved from database

Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White,
L. A. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449. Retrieved October 23, 2000, from PsycARTICLES database.

 

Chapter or Section in an Internet Document

 

Thompson, G. (2003). Youth coach handbook.  In Joe soccer. Retrieved
September 17, 2001, from: http://www.joesoccer.com/menu.html

 

Web page, Government Author
 

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. (2001). Glacial habitat
restoration areas. Retrieved September 18, 2001, from: http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/hunt/hra.htm

ERIC Document

Peterson, K. (2002). Welfare-to-work programs: Strategies for success
(Report No. EDO-JC-02-04). Washington D.C.: Office of Educational Research and Improvement. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED467985)

Video Clip from the Internet

Hoff, Syd (Author) & Weston Woods (Publisher). (1990). Danny and the
Dinosaur [Motion Picture, streaming video]. Retrieved April 3, 2004, from Discovery Education: http://www.unitedstreaming.com

 

Videotape

 
Mass, J. B. (Producer), & Gluck, D. H. (Director). (1979). Deeper into
 hypnosis. (Motion picture). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 

Personal Communications

Personal communications may be things such as email messages, interviews, speeches, and telephone conversations.

Because the information is not retrievable they should not appear in the reference list.  In your text they should look as follows:  Example:  J. Burnitz (personal communications, September 20, 2000) indicated that .… or   In a recent interview (J. Burnitz, personal communication, September 20, 2000) I learned that ….

EXAMPLES OF CITATIONS IN TEXT

Include the author's last name, a comma, and the year of publication. For a source without an author, use a short form of the title within quotation marks; if there is no date, write n.d.

One author

  • Issac (2001) indicated in his research..

  • In a recent study, research indicates (Isaac, 2001) that the effect would be...

When a work has no authors

Give the first few words of the title of the article, book or webpage and the year.

  • (“New Student Center,” 2002)

  • ("Is this the end?" 1968, p.2)

Arrange multiple sources alphabetically (as they appear in the reference list) within parentheses, with each source separated from the next with a semi-colon (;)

  • (Burst, 1995; Turner & Hooch, 1982; University of Toronto, 1976).

Two authors, always cite both authors (using “&”).

Three to five authors, cite all authors in the first reference; in subsequent references include only the last name of the first author followed by et al.

Six or more authors--include only the first author's name followed by “et al.” (not italicized).

Multiple works by same author & year: If there is more than one reference by an author in the same year, suffixes a b are assigned to the year. Suffixes are included in the list of references which are listed alphabetically by title:

  • ....other researchers faced this problem (Stairs, 1992a; Stairs, 1992b)
Any Quoted Material: provide page numbers [abbreivate: page "p."  chapter "chap."]  A page number always immediately follows a quotation, even when the author and date precede it:
  • ... Lu (1990) found that "several hypotheses were supported" (page 48). 
  • ...as one writer put it "the darkest days were still ahead" (Weston, 1988, p. 45).

To cite a specific part of a source, indicate the page, chapter, figure, table, or equation at the appropriate point in text. Always give page numbers for quotations. Note that the words page and chapter are abbreviated in such text citations:

  • (Cheek & Buss, 1981, p. 332)
  • (Shimamura, 1989, chap. 3)
  • (Steurt, 2001, para 2) OR .. (Steurt, 2001, ¶ 2)

For electronic sources that do not provide page numbers, use the paragraph number, if available, preceded by the paragraph symbol or the abbreviation para. If neither paragraph nor page numbers are visible, cite the heading and the number of the paragraph following it to direct the reader to the location of the material (see section 3.39).

  • (Myers, 2000, ¶ 5)
  • (Beutler, 2000, Conclusion section, para. 1)

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
 

Q: How do I cite Web site material that has no author, no year, and no page numbers?

A: Because the material does not include page numbers, you can include any of the following in the text to cite the quotation (from p. 120 of the Publication Manual):

  1. A paragraph number, if provided; alternatively, you could count paragraphs down from the beginning of the document.
  2. An overarching heading plus a paragraph number within that section.
  3. Nothing. Just put quotation marks around the words you're using, which the reader can use as a search string.

Because there is no date and no author, your text citation would include the first couple of words from the title and "n.d." for no date (e.g., para. 5, "Style List," n.d.). The entry in the reference list might look something like this:

Style list for references. (n.d.). Retrieved January 1, 2001,
   from http://www.apa.org

Q: How do I cite a source that I found in another source?

A: To cite secondary sources, refer to both sources in the text, but include in the References list only the source that you actually used. For instance, suppose you read Feist (1998) and would like to paraphrase the following sentence within that book: Bandura (1989) defined self-efficacy as "people's beliefs about their capabilities to exercise control over events that affect their lives" (p. 1175).

In this case, your in-text citation would be "(Bandura, 1989, as cited in Feist, 1998)." Feist (1998) would be fully referenced within the list of References. Bandura (1989) would not be listed. For more information on citing secondary sources, see Example 22 on p. 247 of the Publication Manual.

 

 

 

Sources for this Web Page:
http://www.apastyle.org/
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/writing/apaguide.html
http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/vl/cite/apaex.htm
http://www.crk.umn.edu/library/links/apa5th.htm
http://www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/Web/efwr/apa.html
 http://bb6.spsbe.jhu.edu/login/APA.web.htm