APA Formatting

USE THIS PRESENTATION AS A GUIDE

WHEN YOU ARE WRITING YOUR ARTICLE
REVIEW

American Psychological
Association (APA) Formatting

Developed in order to standardize

research documents submitted for
publication.

Publication Manual of the American

Psychological Association, 6th ed.

APA Styles Essential handout

This PowerPoint

APA Formatting addresses:

The style of writing

The overall formatting of a paper.
Citations within the text of the paper.
The reference page.

Overall Style of writing

USE 3rd person

He, she, it , him, her, his, hers

They, them their, theirs

DO NOT USE 1st person

I, me, my, mine

We, us, our, ours

DO NOT USE 2nd person

You, your, yours

Verb tense

Active voice

To clarify who is doing what

Respondents completed the questionnaire in
15 minutes.
NOT The questionnaire was completed in
15 minutes by the respondent.

Passive voice

To clarify who or what received the action, not

the person or people responsible.
Traditional IQ tests were administered as part
of the admissions process.

The use of the tests is emphasized, not the givers

of the tests

Past tense

To place an action in the past or to describe

previous research

Bradshaw and Hines (2005) summarized their

results in one incisive paragraph.

Present perfect tense

To describe an action that began in the past

and continues to the present

In the years since, researchers have incorporated

Piagets methods in a variety of studies of
children.

Word Choice

Choose words carefully to communicate

ideas effectively

Less is usually better

Jargon and or Slang

Dont use.

Colloquialisms

Write like a professional not like you talk.

Report vs. write-up

Reviewed vs. looked at
7% rather than a few
Meeting rather than get-together

Specificity

The credibility of research depends on using

language that communicates clearly.
Choose words that are as specific as
possible.

Biased Language

Dont use

Emotional - extreme

It is of the utmost importance.

Happiness depends totally on.

Biased

Racial
Gender

Formatting

NO UNDERLINING

Margins

1 margins top bottom side

Alignment

Left alignment
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Line Spacing

Double-spaced throughout the entire

document.

No additional spacing between paragraphs,

headings, etc.

Font Type & Size

Time New Roman or Courier

12 point

Paragraph Indentation &

Page Numbers

All paragraphs indented .5 (5 spaces)

Page numbers upper right corner

1
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Intext (Parenthetical)
Citations

NO DROPPED IN QUOTES!!

NO!
A traumatic response frequently entails a
delayed, uncontrolled repetitive appearance of
hallucinations and other intrusive phenomena
(Caruth & Green, 1996, p. 11).

YES!
Caruth and Green (1996) state that a traumatic
response frequently entails a delayed,
uncontrolled repetitive appearance of
hallucinations and other intrusive phenomena
(p. 11).

When Should You Use Parenthetical

Citations?

When quoting any

words that are not your
own

Quoting means to repeat

another source word for
word, using quotation
marks.

Citing Quotes in Your Text

Authors last name, publication year, and page

number(s) of quote must appear in the text or in
the citation.

Example
Authors last names in the text---Date and page
number are in the citation.
Caruth and Green (2006) state that a traumatic response
frequently entails a delayed, uncontrolled repetitive
appearance of hallucinations and other intrusive
phenomena (p. 11).
Note: only last names are used
Note: and is spelled out when in the text
Note: the period comes after the citation NOT inside of the
quotation marks

Example
Authors names, date, page number are all in the citation.

According to some studies a traumatic

response frequently entails a delayed,
uncontrolled repetitive appearance of
hallucinations and other intrusive
phenomena (Caruth & Green, 1996, p. 11).
Note: & is used in the citation.
Note again: the period comes after the citation NOT inside of the
quotation marks.

Examples of how citations noted with different

numbers of authors.

Work with one author

(Smith, 1998, p. 11)

Work with two authors

(Smith & Jones, 1998, p. 11)

Note: both authors will always be included.

Work with three to five

authors

First citation all authors listed

(Smith, Jones, White, & Green, 1998, p. 11)

Subsequent citations

(Smith et al., 1998, p. 11)

Note: the punctuation of et al.

Work with six or more

authors

(Smith et al., 1998, p. 12)

What if you quote a quote?

Example: You are reading an article by

Elwell (2012) and on page 13 you read the
following.
In a recent article Smith (2011) states 2013
will be the hottest summer this decade (p. 6).
If this is the case, the swimming pool industry
should make more money than it has in
recent years.

In YOUR paper you want to:

Use the quote by Smith

And also want to
Quote Elwell

IN YOUR PAPER you write:

Several experts have commented on the

summer of 2013. According to Smith 2013
will be the hottest summer this decade (as
cited in Elwell, 2012, p. 13). Elwell (2013)
adds the swimming pool industry should
make more money than it has in the recent
years (p. 13).

Note the following

As cited in is used because you are using a

direct quote made by Smith BUT you are
reading it in the article by Elwell (you are not
reading Smiths 2012 article).
Reference page will only include an entry
for Elwell, because that is the article you are
reading.

Reference Page

The reference page includes entries only for

citations that are included in the text of the
paper.
Note: Your reference page for your article
review will include only one entry that of the
article you are reviewing.

Formatting of Reference
Page

1 margins
Double Space
No underlining or Boldface
12 point Courier or New Times Roman Font

Formatting Reference Page

Alphabetize entries by last name of first

author.
First line of each entry flush left
Second line of each entry indent 5
Period at end of each entry UNLESS the
entry ends with a web address

Reference Page

All citations should

contain the following
information:
Authors name
Title of work
Publication
information

References: Some
Examples

Note

Capitalization
Punctuation
Authors Full Last Name
Authors Initial of first name
Authors Middle Initial if included
Use of italics

References: Some Examples

from Journals
Klein, J. (1998). Dizzy days. The
New Yorker, 15(7), 40-45.
Smith, J. O., & Klein, J. (1992). The study of
mind versus matter. Educational
Research, 12(15), 22 - 30.

Reference Page
Study the basics of APA
citation format. When
something odd comes
up, dont guess. Look it
up!
Use the reference pages
in the text as a guide.

Reference
American Psychological Association. (2010).

Publication manual of the American

Psychological Association (6th ed.).
Washington, DC.