American Psychological Association

Nina Campagna

Student ID: 20171554

University of Notre Dame, Fremantle

ED1113 Nina Campagna, 20171554

Table of Contents

Introduction ....................................................................................... 2
Discussion .......................................................................................... 2
Examples ............................................................................................ 3
Format ............................................................................................... 3
Summary ............................................................................................ 4
References ......................................................................................... 5

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ED1113 Nina Campagna, 20171554

American Psychological Association Style

Sample

Introduction

The American Psychological Association (APA) style is primarily used in the

social science disciplines. It is formatted like Modern Language Association (MLA),

and shows many similarities, but is unique in several key points. This paper discusses

the APA in detail. A major challenge in education is addressing plagiarism, which

can be overcome through educating students in regards to correctly referencing using

the APA 6th. (Bretag, 2013; Manar & Shameem, 2014).

Discussion

APA uses parenthetical (or in-text) citations within sentences, but rather

than indicating the author's name and page number, APA includes

author's name and date of publication. The page number, represented

with a p. or a pp., is only added to the citation when using a direct quote

(not a summary or paraphrase). If the author's name is mentioned in the

sentence, then place the date of publication in parentheses directly after

the name. If the name is not mentioned include the author's name and

date in parentheses at the end of the source material. And, if you use a

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direct quote, place the page number after the publication date within the

parentheses.

Examples

Note the difference between the following three examples:

Terrence (2007) has presented poignant examples from 150 interviews. However, it

has been pointed out that the research was conducted in a selective, highly biased,

way. (Strong & Porter, 1998). All of the interviewees have been called exceptions

to the norm (Strong & Porter, 1998, p. 5).

Note the first example paraphrases an author that is named in the sentence, the

second example paraphrases authors that are not named in the sentence, and the third

example provides a direct quote (thus the inclusion of the page numbers) but also

does not identify the authors within the sentence. If the authors were identified

within the sentence in the third example, the authors' names would be followed by

the year of publication and only the page numbers would be in the parentheses at the

end of the quote.

Format

Finally, the bibliographic page in APA style differs from MLA, what APA

calls the Reference page. You will notice a few immediate differences from the MLA

Works Cited format. With APA you include the initial of the author's first name

rather than the complete name, the publication date immediately follows the author's

name in parentheses, and titles of articles are not surrounded with quotation marks.

The lists are still alphabetized by author's last name (or title in the absence of an

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author) and the first line is flush left while subsequent lines in the same entry are

indented in (approximately 5 spaces or one tab). A good resource to help you with

referencing is Notre Dames referencing guide at

http://library.nd.edu.au/referencing/apa#s-lg-box-3040351. There is also a summary

downloadable help document available at:

http://library.nd.edu.au/ld.php?content_id=8053459. In APA Style, you include a

reference list rather than a bibliography with your paper (APA, Bibliography Versus

Reference List, n.d.). A reference list consists of all sources cited in the text of a

paper whereas a bibliography may include resources that were consulted but not

cited in the text as well as an annotated description of each one.

Summary

The School of Education, University of Notre Dame Australia, uses the APA

6th referencing style for all written documents. In addition to in text referencing and

the reference list there are a number of formatting requirements to ensure your essay

complies with APA standards. Get to know the APA 6th.

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References

APA. (2017) Bibliography versus reference list. Retrieved from

http://www.apastyle.org/learn/quick-guide-on-references.aspx#Bibliography

Terrence, H. S. (2007, November 1). Student success in community colleges. The

West Australian, p. 6-7.

Strong, R. L., Porter, M. (1998), Grammatical Combinations. In S. Parker & K.

Gibson (Eds.), Language and Literacy (p 540-578) Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

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