APA Style (6 th edition)

Dr. David Burkholder

March 3rd 2010
 Purpose of this Presentation
The new manual is close to 250 pages in
length, so tonight is a condensed review of
important information for students
 Follow Along
At times during the presentation I will be
addressing points that are shown on the
sample paper.
 Generalities
Typed, double spaced; do not use extra
spaces between paragraphs; 8.5 X 11 paper
1 margins all around
Times New Roman 12 point font
Left justified
Three sections of papertitle page, body,
references (generally no abstract unless
otherwise specified by your professor)
Two spaces after a period at the end of a
sentence is recommended for ease of reading
comprehension (p. 88 in manual and APA
website)
Use of headings
 Generalities
Beginning of each paragraph indented 5 characters (1/2
inch)
Running head designation in the upper left hand
corner on title page followed by colon, followed by an
abbreviated version of your title in ALL CAPS (this is the
actual running head)
The running head is to be no more than 50 characters
On subsequent pages, only the running head in all caps
appears in the upper left corner, flush left (remove
Running head and colon)
Numberingpages are numbered consecutively
throughout your paper starting with 1 on the title page;
numbers are in the upper right corner, flush right
On first page after title page, restate the full title,
centered, uppercase and lowercase, double spaced
(NOT bold), at the top of the page
 Title Page
1. Title: A concise statement of the main topic of your paper
identifying the variables or theoretical issues under investigation
(no more than 12 words); centered, uppercase and lowercase
letters, positioned in the upper half of the page
2. Authors name: The preferred form is first name, middle
initial(s), and last name; centered, double-spaced below title
3. Institutional affiliation: Identifies the location where the author
or authors were when the research was conducted; centered,
double-spaced below authors name
4. Running head designation and running head: The running head
designation is simply Running head:; the running head is an
abbreviated version of your title, no more than 50 characters, in
all capital letters. Upper left-hand corner of title page, flush left
5. Page Number: Page numbering begins with 1 on the title page;
upper right hand corner, flush right
 Contents (The Body)
Aim for smooth, clear and logical communication (having
someone else read it, putting your manuscript down and
returning to it later, and reading it aloud can help). Use
transitional language within and between paragraphs, and
use verb tense consistently. Past tense for literature review,
present tense for discussing implications.
Economy of expressionsay only what needs to be said
It is generally useful to organize your manuscript with
headingsheadings also help to track the development of
your paper. APA uses five levels of headings.
Paraphrasing is more desirable than direct quotations
 Contents (The Body)
Quotations must include reference AND page
number(s) (from the original source)
Quotations shorter than 40 words are in text, in
double quotation marks
Quotations 40 words or more require a block
quotation, indented 5 characters from the left margin
Periods and commas are placed inside quotation
marks
Use numerals to express numbers 10 and above. Use
words to express numerals below 10 and when
beginning a sentence:
Forty students improved, three did not improve, and
25 remained unchanged.
 In Text Citations
Do not use footnotes or endnotes
Follow the author-date method of in-text citation: The authors last
name and year of publication should appear in text, and a complete
reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper
Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names
If referring to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words
that are four letters or longer
After a colon or dash in the title, capitalize the first word
Use italics for the titles of books, periodicals, films, videos, TV shows,
and microfilms publications (within text). In general, use italics
infrequently
In cases of multiple authors, join the authors names with the word
and if you are referring to them in the text; join the authors names
with an ampersand (&) if you are referring to them in a parenthetical
citation
Within a paragraph, when the name of the author/authors is part of the
narrative, the year is not needed if it has already been referenced.
However, parenthetical references need to include the year.
 In Text Citations
One work, one author:
Johnson (2010) found that locus of control
Student retention at doctoral level institutions (Jones, 2008)

One work by two authors: Cite both names every time the reference occurs in
the text:
Smith and Jones (2008) reported that
Epidemiological samples were found to be consistent (Packer & Rupert, 2004).

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:
Hall, Parker, and Paul (2010) found that
Hall et al. (2010) found that

When a work has six or more authors, cite only the surname of the first author
followed by et al. and the year. In the reference list, include all authors.

Final note: Table 6.1 on page 177 gives many basic citation styles
 In Text Citations
Two or more works with the same parentheses:
Order the citations alphabetically in the same
order they appear in the reference list, separated
by a semicolon:
Several studies (Smith & Reed, 2003; Walter, 2004)
showed that
Secondary sources: Use secondary sources
sparingly (e.g. when the original work is out of
print or not available in English). Give the
secondary source in the reference list. In text,
name the original work and give a citation for the
secondary source:
Murphys diary (as cited in Forman, 2002),
revealed
 Reference List
In the back of the paper, on a separate page
titled References (NOT Works Cited,
Bibliography), list all the sources cited and
quoted in the paper
Make sure you list ALL your sources referred
to in the body of the paper
All references listed alphabetically, by first
author
Only authors last name and initials are
provided (invert all authors names)
 Reference List
The title of a journal article is not capitalized
(except the first word and any word after a colon)
or italicized; the full name of the journal IS
italicized and uppercase/lowercase
The volume number IS italicized
The name of a book is italicized and not
capitalized (except the first word and any word
after a colon)
One author entries by the same author are
arranged by year of publication, earliest first:
Jones, C. (2002).
Jones, C. (2008).
 Reference ListDOI
Digital object identifiers
Developed by a group of international publishers
Provides a means of persistent identification for
managing information on digital networks (see
http://www.doi.org/).
The DOI is a unique alphanumeric string assigned to
identify content and provide a persistent link to its
location on the Internet
All DOI numbers begin with 10 and contain a prefix
and a suffix separated by a slash
The APA manual recommends that when DOI
numbers are available, use them in the reference list.
Examples (there are 77 in the manual)
1. Journal article with DOI
2. Journal article
3. Magazine article
4. Newspaper article
5. Entire book, print version
6. Book chapter
7. Paper presentation or poster session
8. Dissertation or thesis, unpublished
9. Review of a book
10.Online journal article (no DOI)
 Examples
11. Video
12. Podcast
13. Music recording
14. Blog post
15. Video blog post
 Reducing Bias in Writing
Issues such as gender, sexual orientation,
racial and ethnic identity, disabilities, and age
are found on pp. 71-77. Please examine.
 Resources
1. The manual itself (available for purchase
and available at the library)
2. www.apastyle.org: This website has many
resources including sample papers and
tutorials
3. The Owl at Purdue:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/
560/01/