APA Style: 10 Tips and Troubles

The American Psychological Association (APA) style for writing, formatting, citations, and references has many details that are easily overlooked or forgotten.  In this post, Jessica DePalatis highlights ten key elements of the APA writing style elements.  More details can be found on the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) APA pages.

APA: 10 Tips and Troubles

1.     Little details

o   Two spaces are needed after every sentence. One inch margins are required for each page.

2.     Headers

o   On the first page in the upper left hand corner you must put “Running head:” as well as a logical condensed version of your title in caps.  For all proceeding pages just the condensed version in caps is needed. Every page must have a page number in the upper right corner. Unlike MLA, your last name never makes an appearance in the headers.

3.     Titles

o   The goal is to summarize your paper in no more than twelve words. Do not beat around the bush. Blunt, boring honesty is the key.

4.     Abstract

o   The abstract gets its own page right after the cover page. It is not indented and contains between 150-250 words. It is NOT the first paragraph of your paper. It is a summary of the whole paper, so that a potential reader can know what they are getting into. It must be short, sweet, and to the point.

5.     Introduction

o   At the top of the page after the abstract, a title is needed. In a research paper the word "Introduction" is use. However, most college undergrads are compiling a literature review, not a research paper. In this case the title presented on the cover page should be used.

6.     In-text Citation

o   The author’s last name and the year of publication need to appear in the text whenever you mention someone else’s ideas. This can take the form of a direct quote, paraphrase, or summary. Page numbers are only needed when using a direct quote.

7.     Quotes

o   Quotes should be avoided at all cost. They tell your professor that you did not understand the material enough to paraphrase. A paraphrase must have different words, sentence structure and meter from the original source. Anything else is a direct quote and must be cited as such to avoid plagiarism.

8.     Secondary Citations

o   If you want to use an idea from someone cited in another paper you have two options. First, it is best to find the original article of the person you want to cite. Second, if you can’t find the original article then you can cite the source as such: (Jones, as cited in Smith, 2009). In this example the idea you want to use belonged to Jones but you read about it in Smith’s paper. The year goes with Smith’s article.

9.     References

o   If you use someone else’s idea in your paper you must cite it. If you cite it, the reference must show up in the references section of your paper. If you have a source in your references section your must have read it AND cited it in your paper. 

10.  DOIs

o   DOIs are Digital Object Identifiers. Yes, you need them. They can be a pain to track down if they do not appear on the actual article. One tip is to find the DOI as soon as you select an article. Journal database websites often list the DOI among the stats with the abstract. If worse comes to worst and no DOI is to be found, you can use the homepage website of the journal that published the article (Retrieved from www.homepage.come). DO NOT use the database website.