Writing in APA Style

1. Writing in APA Style

2. The Writing Center at MSU

3. How the Writing Center Works

4. APA: American Psychological Association • About $30 • Amazon Reviews: • Unhelpful Guide about an Unenlightening Style, By doomsdayer520 (State College, PA USA) • Boring but Required, By A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com • Possibly Written by Beelzebub Himself,  Robert I. Hedges (Burnsville, MN USA)

5. Empirical vs. Literature Reviews • Empirical Reports: • *Title Page • *Abstract • *Introduction • Methods • Results • Discussion • *References • *Appendices • Literature Reviews: • A literature review follows APA citation style only • Most still use a cover page • Some professors may request an abstract • They will include a reference page * Indicates a new section/page and requires a level 1 heading.

6. Title Page • Header • Right-hand corner • 1-3 words • capitalization rules apply • Page number • five spaces from text of header • Running head • Type “Running head” • a colon • then an abbreviated version of the title in all caps • No more than 50 characters, spaces included • Title • Author • Institution

7. APA Page Setup - Headers • Headers appear at the top right-hand side of every page, including the title page. Example: Biology and Personality 12

8. Order of Pages: 

9. Levels LEVEL FIVE IS CENTERED AND CAPS LOCKED Level One is Centered and Capitalized Level Two is Centered and Capitalized Level Three is Left-Aligned and Capitalized Level four is tabbed once from the left and punctuated.

10. Order of Level Use Despite their numbering, Levels are not used in order. Which levels are used depends on the total number in the section. Levels appear in this order:

11. APA Page Setup - Margins

12. APA Page Setup - Spacing

13. Use Active Voice • As a general rule, use the active voice rather than the passive voice. For example, use "We predicted that ..." rather than "It was predicted that ..."

14. In-Text Citations

15. Avoiding Plagiarism • Plagiarism is… • …using someone else’s words or ideas as though they were your own. • …deliberately stealing someone’s work. • …paying someone to write a paper. • …a serious offense.

16. When to Use Citations • Quotations: • Using someone’s exact words • Unique Ideas: • Whenever you talk about, refer to, build on, or discuss a unique idea from someone else • Images: • Copying images

17. Common Knowledge vs. Unique Ideas • You don’t need to cite: • Ideas widely believed to be true. • Folklore, stories, songs, or sayings with an unknown author but are commonly known. • Widely-used and –known quotations. • Information shared by most scholars in your discipline.

18. In-Text Citation Methods

19. Types of Citations

20. Number of Authors

21. Number of Authors

22. Exceptions and Special Cases

23. More Citation Rules • *If one citation is more significant, it may be listed first, with a phrase such as “see also” inserted to • separate the others: (Zimmerman, 1993; see also Branch, 1980; Smith, 2001)

24. More Citation Rules

25. More Citation Rules

26. Citing Web Pages

27. Reference List

28. Reference List

29. Common Reference Entries

30. Journal Pagination: Volume or Issue?

31. Journal Pagination: Volume or Issue?

32. More Reference List Entries

33. More Reference List Entries • Chovil, I. (n.d.). What is schizophrenia? Retrieved November 6, 2005, from http://www.chovil.com/first.html If there is no author, use the title as the author, followed by the date in parenthesis.

34. More Reference Entries A complete list of types of sources, cross-referenced to examples, can be found in the APA publication manual on pages 232-239.

35. For more information… Michael Frizell, Director Contact Information: E-Mail: michaelfrizell@missouristate.edu Website: www.missouristate.edu/writingcenter Office: 836-5006 Center: 836-6398