APA Style Research Paper

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GENERAL INFO

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What is the APA?
• American Psychological
Association
– scientific professional organization
that represents psychology in the U.S.

• APA writing style = rules for writing in

the social sciences

• apa.org

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APA Style: General Guidelines
• Times New Roman, 10-12
pt. font

• Double-spaced with 1"

margins

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Page Headers
• Included at the top of EVERY page
– Insert page numbers flush right

– Then "Running head: A FEW WORDS

THAT SUM UP YOUR TITLE”, flush left
• Can NOT be longer than 50 characters,
including spaces and punctuation
• Words “Running head” ONLY on title
page

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Instructions for Running Head in
MSWord
• Document needs at least two pages
• Click on “Insert”
– Select “Page number”, “Top of Page”
– Choose the one that puts number on right side
– Type "Running head: YOUR SHORTENED TITLE"
(without the quotes).
– Push tab so that Running Head moves to far left

• Select “Different First Page”

– Go to 2nd page, double-click header to open it.
– Type “YOUR SHORTENED TITLE”
– Push tab so your shortened title moves to far left
SCIENTIFIC WRITING

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Scientific Writing
Scientific writing is:
• clear: be specific in
descriptions and
explanations

• concise: condense
information when you can

• plain: use simple, descriptive

adjectives and minimize the
figurative language
General Grammar Issues
• Avoid using first person
– E.g., “This study examined…”
NOT “I studied…”

• Use active voice rather than

passive voice
– E.g., “The participants
responded…”, NOT “The
participants have been
asked…”

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General Grammar Issues
• Do NOT use contractions

• Use “participants” not

“subjects”

• Never say “proved”

– Instead use “the study
suggested…” “the study
provided evidence that…” “the
results suggest…”

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General Grammar Issues
• Never use words such as “perhaps”,
“maybe”.....Instead, you could say “one
possible reason is…”, “one potential problem
is…”

• Don’t use everyday spoken language, be

professional and scientific.

• Don’t use general beliefs (“everybody

knows……” or “I guess…”) to support your
reasoning.
General Grammar Issues
• Use adjectives as descriptors
rather than labels
– Don’t say “the elderly”; say
“elderly people”
– Don’t say “autistics” say
“people with autism”

• Use correct tense of verbs

• Cite appropriate sources

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 How to Avoid Plagiarism?
To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit
whenever you use:
• another person’s idea, opinion, or theory
• any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any
pieces of information—that are not common
knowledge
• quotations of another person’s actual spoken
or written words
• paraphrase of another person’s spoken or
written words

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml
 How to paraphrase?
• Paraphrase = restatement of somebody else’s
ideas in your own words

• Changing a few words of the original

sentences does NOT make your writing a
legitimate paraphrase.

• You must change both the words and the

sentence structure of the original, without
changing the original idea.

• Still require citation because the ideas came

from another source
http://www.plagiarism.org
IN-TEXT CITATIONS

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Citations
• Citing source = way to credit
author

• To cite APA style, provide

authors’ name and year of
publication
– Example: There are five tasks that
you must accomplish when
writing the introduction section
(Ray, 2009).

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Citations:
• 3-5 authors:
– 1st citation provide all names:
• (Tool, Behall, & Smitty, 2008)
– Then, use et al.
• (Tool, et al., 2008)

• If 6 or more:
– Use et al.

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Citations
• Can also cite within content of
sentence:
– According to Ray (2009), there are five tasks
you must accomplish to…

• Direct quotation:
– Use quotation marks
– Include page number
• (Ray, 2009, p. 265)
– Only ONE direct quote in entire
proposal!

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REFERENCES

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Reference Page
• ALL citations in manuscript
MUST be listed on reference
page

• ALL references listed on

reference page MUST be
cited in your manuscript
Reference Page: Format
• On its own page

• Includes header and page

number

• Center the word

“References” at the top
– Not in bold or italics
Reference Page: Format
• In alphabetical order based on first
authors’ last name
– For multiple sources from same author, order
by year from earliest to latest

• ALL references need to have a hanging

indent
– First line not indented, all other lines indented

• Double-space
References: Journal Article
Last name, First name initial. Middle name
initial. (year). Title of paper. Name of
Journal, volume number(issue number),
pages.
Example:
Kliewer, W. (1993). Social competence and coping
among children of divorce. American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, 63(2), 432-440.
References: Journal Article
Last name, First name initial. Middle name
initial. (year). Title of paper. Name of
Journal, volume number(issue number),
pages.

Notes:
• Won’t always have middle initial or issue number
• Only capitalize first letter in article title.
• Capitalize all essential words in journal title
References: Journal Article
• With 2 to 7 authors, use commas to
separate authors and an “&” instead of
the word “and” before the last author’s
name
Example:
Chomsky, N. I., Halle, M., & Harris, Z. (1960). Toward a
generative model of Pig Latin syntax. Pigology:
Current Issues in Pig Latin Research, 26(2), 247-
289.
References: Journal Article
• More than 7 authors, see below

Example:
Miller, F. H., Choi, M. J., Angeli, L. L., Harland, A. A.,
Stamos, J. A., Thomas, S. T., . . . Rubin, L. H. (2009).
Web site usability for the blind and low-vision user.
Technical Communication, 57, 323-335.
Helpful Websites
APA Format:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl
/resource/560/01/

http://apastyle.org

Plagiarism Info:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl
/resource/589/01/