APA STYLE

APA Style Sample

Mitchell Di Virgilio

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APA STYLE

Contents
Overview............................................................................................2
Summary...........................................................................................3
References.........................................................................................4

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APA STYLE

Overview
APA (American Psychological Association) style is primarily used in
the social science disciplines. It is formatted like MLA, and shows many
similarities, but is unique in several key points.

APA uses parenthetical (or in-text) citations within sentences, but

rather than indicating the author's name and page number, APA includes
author's name and date of publication. The page number, represented
with a p. or a pp., is only added to the citation when using a direct quote
(not a summary or paraphrase). If the author's name is mentioned in the
sentence, then place the date of publication in parentheses directly after
the name. If the name is not mentioned include the author's name and
date in parentheses at the end of the source material. And, if you use a
direct quote, place the page number after the publication date within the
parentheses. Note the difference between the following three examples:

Terrence (1999) has presented poignant examples from 150

interviews. However, it has been pointed out that the research was
conducted in a selective, highly biased, way (Porter & Strong, 1998). All of
the interviewees have been called 'exceptions to the norm' (Porter &
Strong, 1998).

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Note the first example paraphrases an author that is named in the

sentence, the second example paraphrases authors that are not named in
the sentence, and the third example provides a direct quote (thus the
inclusion of the page numbers) but also does not identify the authors
within the sentence. If the authors were identified within the sentence in
the third example, the authors' names would be followed by the year of
publication and only the page numbers would be in the parentheses at the
end of the quote.

Summary
Finally, the bibliographic page in APA style differs from MLA, what
APA calls the Reference page. You will notice a few immediate differences
from the MLA Works Cited format. With APA you include the initial of the
author's first name rather than the complete name, the publication date
immediately follows the author's name in parentheses, and titles of
articles are not surrounded with quotation marks (however titles of books,
magazines, journals, etc. are still underlined). The lists are still
alphabetized by author's last name (or title in the absence of an author)
and the first line is flush left while subsequent lines in the same entry are
indented in (approximately 5 spaces or one tab). For journals and
magazines, publication title and volume number are both underlined,
followed by the issue number (not underlined) in parentheses. Only use a
p. or a pp. to indicate page numbers with newspapers. The only other time

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you would use a p. is to indicate what pages an article is on within a

collection or anthology. Again, if you have any questions or need further
assistance, come in to see us at the Writing Desk.

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References
Booth, W. (1979, November). Writing Essays: Secrets of the Trade. Composition Today, 13,
78-91.

Eckholm, E., & Gibbons, A. (1991). Guide to APA Style. Journal of Style Manuals, 18,
1561-1562.

Porter, M., & Strong, R. L. (1998), Grammatical Combinations. In S. T. Parker & K. R.

Gibson (Eds.), Language and Literacy (p 540-578) Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.

Terrence, H. S. (1999, November 1). Student Success in Community Colleges. Oregonian, p.

A6.

White, A., & Long, B. (Eds.). 1993). Praise for America's Literacy. Westport, CT:
Greenwood.