APA Format(American Psychological Association)

What is APA?

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Used for social sciences (an umbrella term for geography, archeology, political science, economics, psychology, etc.)

Basically, any work that explores human society APA has three main types of essays:

Theoretical articles Reports of Empirical Studies Review Articles

APA cont.

Theoretical article: draws on existing research to examine a topic.

Report of an empirical study: used when field research is conducted and findings must be reported, charted and graphed.

Review article: critical evaluation of information examining the current state of the topic to find out if more research (or action) is necessary.

FORMATTING

1 inch margins Size 12 “Courier” font (Times New

Roman is also considered acceptable)

Double space “Running Head” (shortened version

of the paper’s title) on top left of every page.

Pg. # on top right of each pg.

TITLE PAGE: Page 1

“Running head” at the very top on the left

Page number on the right Double space- hit enter 5 times and

type:

Running Head…

Title Name

Institution

SAMPLE TITLE PAGE

ABSTRACT: Page 2

One paragraph synopsis (brief summary) of your essay covering the main points of the essay.

Not indented Between 80-150 words Acronyms or any difficult to

understand words should be clearly defined here

SAMPLE ABSTRACT

ESSAY: Page 3-???

Title goes at the top of the 3rd page “bolded!”

Essay can be broken down into subheadings: Issues, Causes, Consequences, Solutions

Use active voice instead of passive voice:

Good: “Johnny hit the ball.”Bad: “The ball was hit by Johnny.”Good: Burdine (2009) researched

that…Bad: It was research by Burdine

(2009) that…

REFERENCES PAGE: Last page

“References” centered at the top of the page.

Sources listed in alphabetical order Double spaced with a hanging indent Capitalize only the first letter of

article and book titles: Orwell, G. (1946). Animal farm. New

York, New York: Penguin Books.

SAMPLE REFERENCES

CITATIONS

BLOCK QUOTES (40 words or more) Direct quotes (less than 40 words)

Cite- Author, Year, and pg. # for direct quotes (Johnson, 1998, p. 32) or (Johnson, 1998, pp. 32-33) for multiple pages

If no pg.# is available…skip it. (Johnson, 1998).

CITATIONS cont. Paraphrase:

Cite- Author’s last name and year (pp. 345-356)-at end of paraphrase.

When citing, use past tense and present prefect tense Ex. : Johnson (1998) stated/has stated that all

children have the developmental ability to… When referring to your topic/issue, use

present tense Ex. : The danger of underage drinking exists

for all who….

CITATIONS cont.

Westover and Burdine (2009) reported that the long term effects of English classes prove 73% more beneficial for students planning on going to college .

Recent research (Westover & Burdine, 2009) has indicated that math classes taught by Marines are 89% more likely to scar students for life.