APA Style (6

edition)

th

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, doublespaced 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.
12.
13.
14.
15.

Video
Podcast
Music recording
Blog post
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/res
ource/560/01/