APA Formatting Notes
To learn about APA formatting, I suggest the use of the
UMUC library. Go to http://www.umuc.edu/library/library.html.
Once there, look under link Writing Resources for Citing Electronic Resources:
APA Style or MLA Style.
Some other resources:
Writers' Handbook, Documentation Styles, APA Documentation Style: http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocAPA.html
The Purdue University Writing Lab, Using American Psychological
Association (APA) Format: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html
APA Reference Style by David S. Baker and Lynn Henrichsen: http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/apa/apa01.html
APA Style Resources: http://www.psychwww.com/resource/apacrib.htm
- APA formatting is not
the same as MLA formatting. MLA is probably the formatting style that you
used in high school. MLA formatting uses footnotes. With APA, references
need to be cited within your paper. The form is usually something like so
(Brown, 1992) or (Brown, 1992, pg 12).
- The References page
should be a separate page (the last page of the document). It is titled
References and the references used are shown in alphabetical order using
the hanging indent format. (To do a hanging indent, choose Format,
Paragraph, Special, Hanging Indent.). The MLA style uses single spaced
references on the reference sheet. The APA style uses double spacing for
all pages, including the References sheet.
- The APA style also uses
a right aligned header that shows the title (or if the title is a long,
the first words of the title) and the page number. APA page numbers all
pages including the title and the references pages.
To see samples of
APA styled papers, go to http://www.dianahacker.com/pdfs/Hacker-Shaw-APA.pdf
and http://www.thewritesource.com/apa/apa.pdf
General
Guidelines for APA formatted papers
- The paper will use 1" margins
- The entire paper, including the References page,
will be double spaced
- The paper will use left alignment
- The title of the paper is centered on the first
line of the body
- Subheadings are italicized and use left alignment
- The first lines of all paragraphs are indented 5
spaces via the tab key.
- After each paragraph, press enter only once,
press the tab key, and type the next paragraph.