| APA Format |
| The American Psychological Association publishes a large number of journals. To ensure that their journals all had similar formats, the Association published a set of standards or conventions for writers. Over time, these conventions have been adopted by many schools, colleges and universites to help students write and submit correctly written papers. This page is a very short set of notes taken from the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (4th ed.). (1994). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. For clarification or further information, read the book. |
| In general, for academic purposes, all papers should be typed and double-spaced on white paper, using a common 12-point font. Margins should be 1-inch. Do not right-justify lines. |
| The Title Page (center all the lines) Title, near the center of the page. Skip several lines and ... Author's name and Institutional Affiliation (School). Skip several more lines and ... Type the phrase "Submitted to" and then skip another line ... Type your instructor's name, skip another line, Type "University of Mass. / Boston" and skip two lines ... Type the date that the paper is due. |
| Typing your text: (left justify, indent the first word of each paragraph 5-7 spaces) Double space all your typing. If you know how to, place a header in the upper right corner of the page with the page number there. Don't worry about that if you are unclear about what a header is or how to put page numbers somewhere special. Citing someone else's ideas or facts: In parenthesis, right after you finish writing the idea or fact that you read about, place the author's last name and the year of publication of the book or article where you read it inside parenthesis. Use the examples below: " Former presidents (Bush, 2001) have discussed various difficulties of their offices." "The Sons of Liberty met at the tavern (Woodcock, 1996) and marched to the harbor." |
| Citing references in a Reference List (or "bibliography" as it used to be called) All references should be in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author. Authors go first, last name, comma, followed by the initials of the first and last name, such as Leno, J. or even Letterman, D. Then comes the publication date in parenthesis. Next comes the title of the article, with only the first letter of the title (and any proper names) capitalized. Husbands at home: Predictors of paternal participation in childcare and housework. Next comes the title of the journal or magazine, with only the first letter of the first word capitalized (just as before) and the whole thing underlines with a single, unbroken line, for example: Deutsch, F.M., Lussier, J.B., & Servis, L.J. (1993). Husbands at home: Predictors of parental participation in childcare and housework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1154-1166. If it is a book rather than an article, the book title is underlined. Robinson, D.N. (Ed.). (1992) Social discourse and moral judgement. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Finch, C.R. & Crunkilton, J.R. (1998). Curriculum development in vocational and technical education (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. |
| What a PAIN! There are many other formats that are used to write and submit formal papers in an academic setting. They include the Chicago Manual of Style (also called "Turabian," after its author), and the MLA Style Sheet. Individual colleges often have their own. The intent is to make things easier on everyone, reader and writer alike. Once you become used to the rules, they are actually less complicated than baseball. |
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