What does APA stand for?
- American Psychological Association
What are the Basic Formatting Guidelines?
- APA format requires a title page
- An abstract should come after the title page. Center the word “Abstract” one inch from the top of the page; double-space the abstract as would do for the body of the paper.
- An abstract is a 100-200 word paragraph that provides readers with a quick overview of your essay. It should express your main idea and your key points; it also may briefly suggest any implications or applications of the research you will discuss in your paper. In short, an abstract is a preface of sorts, a summary and brief analysis of your conclusions.
- 1″ margins, double-spaced text, single-spaced footnotes
- The page heading appears on all pages, even the title page
- In APA format, for references listed on the references page, the author’s last name comes first, followed by his/her initials. The year follows the name, instead of showing up at the end of the entry. The reason for this difference: When asked to use APA format, it is usually in those disciplines most concerned with the question of when your reference was published. Currency matters because information may become outdated and useless as new studies are conducted and new information is discovered. By contrast, MLA format usually appears in English class, a discipline that is more concerned with ideas than how important they are.
- APA in-text citations require the author or authors’ names and the year published (separated by a comma), instead of the author’s last name and page number (without a comma).
- Example APA in-text citation: (Marick, 1990) or (Marick & Nield, 1978)
- Example MLA in-text citation: (Marick 90)
- For subsequent in-text citations for the same source written by more than one author, replace the additional authors with “et al.”
- Example repeat APA multiple-author, in-text citation: (Marick et al., 1978)
- It is common for APA-style papers to be subdivided, with different sections of the paper under different headings. Major headings are centered, with all words capitalized except short articles, prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions.
-
Quotes longer than 40 words are indented ½ inch from the left margin; quotation marks are not needed if the quote has been indented as a whole.
-
Footnotes are common (for content notes and copyright permission notes), indicated by using a superscript number in consecutive order. At the end of the paper, create a footnote page for content and copyright permission footnotes, numbered according to the order in which they appear in the paper. Because APA is a format often requiring original research or statistical tables, pages for each of the tables should appear after the footnotes page(s) at the end of the paper. Only one table should be on a page.
-
After the footnotes and tables page(s), create a Figure Captions page and a Figures page. Captions should not be on the same page as the figures themselves. The figures should have vertical titles appended to their sides which correlate with the captions.
-
All references cited in text must appear on the reference list at the end of the document, and the author must ensure that both the in-text citation and reference list entry are formatted in the same way (same spelling, same year, same information).
