APA

Rules for Format

& Documentation
What is APA style?
• APA style was created by social
and behavioral scientists to
standardize scientific writing.

• APA style is most often used in:

•psychology,
•social sciences (sociology, business),
•nursing.

• Publication Manual of the American

Psychological Association, 7th ed.
APA Style Affects Your Paper
in Three Places
• General format of the paper.
• margins, font, page numbers, line spacing, titles, headings, etc.

• bibliography.
• cumulative list of all sources used in your research.
• References list.

• In-text citation.
• Citing sources within the body of your paper
General Format Rules
• Use standard 8 ½” x 11” white paper
• Title page (also known as a cover page)
• Use a 12-point Times New Roman font or 11-
point Calibri.
• Place a running head and the page number ½”
from the tope of every page
• For the body of the text, apply 1” margins top,
bottom, and on both sides
• Double spaces throughout the text.
Final Term Paper APA style

• Title Page • Title page

• Introduction • Abstract
• Main Point • Main Body
• Conclusion • Introduction
• Method section
• Reference
• Result section
• Discussion section
(Please see “How to Write • Reference
Psychology Term Paper” for
more specific details)
Title page
Professional title page Student title paper
Title page YOUR TITLE 1

• Running Head, Page Title of the Paper

Number,
• Title of the Paper, Your Name
• the Author's Name (aka:
your name!), Berkeley City College

• Institutional Affiliation. Course Title

• Course Title (Psychology
1A, Psychology 6,or Professor Yu
Psychology 21)
Date submitted
• Professor Yu
• Submission Date

https://owl.purdue.edu or https://apastyle.apa.org
RUNNING HEAD (not exceed 50 characters )
Page number
Title

TITELE OF YOUR PAPER 1 TITLE OF YOUR PAPER 2

Title Title
(no “Introduction” header)
Your Name
The first body paragraph…
Institutional Affiliation

Course Title

Professor Name

Date submitted

Author Note:
 APA running head: title page

APA running head: subsequent pages

 Heading Levels
Seventh Edition (2.27)

APA Headings TITLE OF YOUR PAPER 3

Level Format
Main Point
Centered, Boldface, Title Case
1 Heading Social Factor
Text begins as a new paragraph.
Flush left, Boldface, Title Case
2 Heading Socio-economic Impact
Text begins as a new paragraph.
Flush Left, Boldface Italic, Title Case
3 Heading
Text begins as a new paragraph.
Method (Level 1)
Site of Study (Level 2)
Participant Population (Level 2)
Teachers (Level 3)
Students (Level 3)
Why Cite Your Sources?
• information and facts from a variety of resources to support
your own ideas or to help you develop new ones.
• Books, articles, videos, interviews, and Web sites
• Citing these sources of information in your work is essential
because:
• credit to the author of the original work
• allows your audience to identify and find the source material
• gives your paper more credibility
• helps earn your readers' trust
• helps you avoid plagiarism
In-text citation
• Purpose of In-Text Citations:
• show where you got your information from
• each in-text citation must appear in your reference list and each
entry in your reference list must be cited within the text of your
paper.
• What Do You Cite:
• Quote word-for-word
• Paraphrase - rewrite using your own words
• Summarize ideas - restate the main idea of the source in your own
words
• What Don't You Cite:
• Your original ideas and conclusions
• Information and ideas that are well-known
• basic biographical information about Abraham Lincoln or the dates of
World War II.
• Sayings and proverbs
• "the grass is always greener" or "the way to a man's heart is through his
stomach."
General guidance for in-text
citation
(author-date citation system)

Parenthetical
citation

Narrative citation
In-Text Citations Examples
• Paraphrase Example:
• Falsely balanced news coverage can distort the
public’s perception of expert consensus on an
issue (Koehler, 2016).
• Direct Quote Example:
• "Adjusted data from seven U.S. surveys
between 1968 and 1994 show a decline in
approval of discliplinary spanking from 94% to
68%, or 26 percentage points in 26 years"
(Santa Barbara, 2010, p. 243).
# of author Format Example
Work with no (Title of the (“College
author entry, Year) Years,” 2006)
(Anonymous, (Anonymous,
Year) 2002)

Group as (Name of the (National

author group, Year) Institute of
Health, 1990)
Secondary Sources
• A secondary source (also known as an indirect
citation) is when the ideas of one author are
published in another author’s text but you have
not read or accessed the primary author’s work.
• Basic Format: (as cited in Last name, Year)
• ex: (Smith, 2015, as cited in Jonson, 2019).

References List In-Text Citation

Jonson, S. (2019). On the origin of (Smith, 2015, as cited in Jonson,
sin. Penguin Books. 2019).

Narrative Citation:
Smith (2015, as cited in Jonson,
2019) believes that...
Direct quotation
• Use “p.” before single page numbers and
“pp.” before multiple pages
• (Brown 2006, p. 159)
• (Dailey, 2005, pp. 176-179)
In-text citations: Essential Elements for
Direct Quotations
• introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the
author's last name followed by the date of publication in
parentheses.

• According to Jones (1998), "students ……first time" (p. 199).

• Jones (1998) found "students …APA style" (p. 199); what
implications does this have for teachers?

• If you do not include the author’s name in the text of the sentence,
place the author's last name, the year of publication, and the page
number in parentheses after the quotation.

• She stated, "Students …using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but
she did not offer an explanation as to why.
Long Quotations
QUOTATIONS FROM SOURCES
WITHOUT PAGES
• When quoting a source that has no pages or page numbers, you can
include a chapter or paragraph number instead.

• If the source uses headings, cite the heading and the paragraph
number following it. Long headings may be shortened, but then they
should be enclosed in quotation marks.

• (Johnson, 2019, Chapter 3)

• (McCombes, 2016, para. 4)
• (Smith, 2014, Conclusion, para. 2)
• (Streefkerk, 2019, “No Page Numbers,” para. 2)
Formatting a Reference List
References: General information
• Your references should begin on a new page
separate from the text of the essay;
• label this page "References" in bold, centered at the
top of the page (do NOT underline or use quotation
marks for the title).
• All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of
your essay
• Sources cited in the paper are listed alphabetically,
by the authors' last name(s), on the reference page
References - example
References
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of
the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington,
DC: Author.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A
social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Cronbach, L. J., & Meehl, P. E. (1955). Construct validity in
psychological tests. Psychological Bulletin, 52, 281-302. doi:
10.1037/h0040957
Crowne, C. P., & Marlowe, D. (1960). A new scale of social desirability
independent of psychopathology. Journal of Consulting
Psychology, 24, 349-354. doi:10.1037/h0047358
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Reference Sample: Journal Article
Retrieved from an Electronic Database
• provide the author(s)' last name(s) and initials, the year of
publication (year and month in parenthesis), the title of the
work, the journal title (in italics) volume number (in italics),
issue number (in parenthesis),page number, and the URL of
the journal home page or, when available, the digital object
identifier (DOI).
• Author's Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial.
(Publication Year). Article title. Journal Title, volume
number(issue number), page number. doi:123456
• Cadigan, R. O., Stevenson, D. G., Caudry, D. J., &
Grabowski, D. C. (2015). Private investment purchase and
nursing home financial health. Health Services Research,
50(1), 180-196. doi:10.1111/1475-6773.12212
Reference Sample: Journal article
published online and in print

• The reference a journal article that is published both online

and in print requires the author(s)' last name(s) and initials,
the year of publication (year and month in parenthesis), the
title of the work, the journal title (in italics) volume number (in
italics), issue number (in parenthesis), page numbers of the
article, and the URL of the journal home page.
• Example: Author, A. (2011, June). Title of article. Title of
Journal, 12 (3). 46-67. Retrieved from http://www.url.org
• EX: Pritchard, D. (2007, April). Recent work on epistemic
value. American Philosophical Quarterly, 44 (2), 85-110.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20464361
Reference Sample: Constellation eBook

• The reference for an electronic requires the

author(s)' last name(s) and initials, the year of
publication (in parenthesis), the title of the book
(in italics), and the URL for where the book was
retrieved.
• Example: Author, A. (2011). Title of book.
Retrieved from http://www.url.org
• Ex: Witt, G.A., & Mossler, R.A. (2010). Adult
Development. Retrieved from
https://content.ashford.edu/books/4
E-book
• Last name, Initial(s). (Year). Title (ed.). Retrieved
from URL
• Ogden, J. (2007). Health psychology: A textbook
(4th ed.). Retrieved from
http://www.dawsonera.com
Book
• The reference for a book written by two authors
requires the authors' last names and initials, the
year of publication (in parenthesis), the title of
the work (in italics), the city and state of
publication, and the publisher.
• Author(s). (Year published). Title of Book:Captial
letter for subtitle. City Where Published, State (if
city can be confused): Publisher.
• Young-Bruehl, E. (1996). The anatomy of
Prejudices. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press.
General webpage
• Author’s Lame Name, First Initial. Middle Initial.,
& Author’s Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial.
(Publication Year, Month Day). Title of
document. Retrieved from URL
• Monteverde, M. (2011, October 5). Budgeting
and money management. Retrieved
from http://rosenpub.net/articles/budgeting.ht
ml
• Nevins, J. (n.d.). The andragogic approach.
Retrieved from
http://www.jnevins.com/andragogy.htm
References: Work discussed in an indirect
(secondary) source
• Within the text, name the original author and provide a
citation for the secondary source. Within the citation,
use the phrase "as cited in" followed by the citation for
the source you used. For example: According to Smith
"quote" (as cited in Jones & Harth, 2001). On the
reference page, include only the source where the
material was obtained (not the original source).
• Use the phrase "as cited in..." followed by the
secondary source citation.
• Basic Format: (as cited in Last name, Year)
• Example: Allport’s diary (as cited in Nicholson, 2003)
• Should I write out numbers?
• Use words for numbers below 10.
• one, two, nine percent
• Use figures to express numbers 10 and
above.
• 10%, 27 years old