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Why do we cite?
When a scholar or researcher writes a research-based paper, new knowledge is
created. The credibility of the new knowledge depends on the credibility of the
sources that author uses. When we write research-based papers, we show our
sources because it gives greater authority to our conclusions.
Moreover, not citing sources can result in plagiarism. We’ll talk about ways to avoid
plagiarism in a moment.
Why are there different styles?
In addition to APA, there are other styles: MLA, Chicago, Harvard, AMA, etc. Why so
many? Each style is ideal for a different type of scholarship. The Chicago style, for
example, is perfect for historians because of the way it handles footnotes. The AMA
style, on the other hand, is better suited to medical research. This guide covers the
APA style, which is popular in the social sciences.
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Plagiarism
You will want to avoid plagiarism at all cost. Whether it is intentional or accidental,
it makes no difference. The consequences for plagiarism can be severe. Properly
citing your sources is the best way to avoid it. This video should give you an
overview: http://youtu.be/Fw6NxvwP41U
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Getting Started
In this section we will setting up our papers using basic APA formatting. Specifically,
this section will cover:
1. Margins
2. Font
3. Line Spacing
4. Cover Page Header
5. Cover Page
6. Second Page Header
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Margins
APA requires 1 inch margins for top, bottom, right, and left. Here is how to check
your document’s margins in Word 2010. 1 inch margins will usually be selected by
default.
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Font
APA asks you to use a 12 point serif font, preferably Times New Roman.
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Line Spacing
APA requires your paper be double-spaced. Click on the Home tab and select the
Line and Paragraph Spacing button. By default your document will be set to 1.15.
Change that to 2.0 (seen below).
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Header
APA requires that you place “Running head: TITLE OF YOUR PAPER” in the
left-hand corner of your paper and the page number in the right. Here’s how
to do this is Word 2010:
First go to the Insert tab (seen here).
Select Header, and then choose Edit
Header.
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Header cont.
Once we clicked Edit Header, the Header & Footer Tools tab opened up. This first
step is important: we need to check off the “Different First Page” box. This is because
APA requires that the first page header be slightly different than subsequent pages.
We will add our page number first. Select “Page Number” and “Top of Page” as seen
below. Choose the page number that runs to the far right.
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Header cont.
On the title page your header must be formatted like this: “Running head: TITLE OF
YOUR PAPER.” NOTE: for longer titles, use an abbreviated version.
Once you have added your page number, immediately begin typing in your title (see
below).
Hit the Tab key on your keyboard once or twice to push your title to the left hand
side of your paper.
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Header cont.
Close out of the header by clicking “Close Header and Footer” or by hitting the ESC
key on your keyboard.
Remember, the title page header is different than subsequent pages. Once we have
finished our cover page and moved onto page two, we will need to add the header again.
This will be the heading for the remainder of your paper. Follow the same process as
before, except for the final step.
1. Choose Insert tab
2. Select Header , then Edit Header
3. Add a page number
4. Type in your title in all capital letters. This time will are omitting “Running
header:”
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Cover Page
The cover page of an APA formatted document includes the following information:
o Full title of your paper
o Your name
o Your institutional affiliation (ie, Carteret Community College)
Begin by hitting the enter key four to six times or until you’re about a third of the
way down the page. Your cover page must be centered, so select the center option
(seen below).
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Cover Page
First type in your paper’s title and hit enter. Now type in your own name and hit
enter. Finally, type in: Carteret Community College. Your cover page should look very
similar to the one below:
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Second Page header
After finishing the cover page, you can hit the enter key until you drop to the second
page, or else select the Insert tab and hit Page Break. Either way, we are now on
page two.
Because we selected Different First Page on the header menu, we will need to add
our header again. So once more:
1. Select the Insert tab.
2. Choose Header, and Edit Header.
3. Choose Page Number and select the right side page number.
4. In all capital letters type your papers name. NOTE: this time we are not
adding “Running head:” to the title.
5. Hit the ESC key on your keyboard, or the Close Header & Footer button
instead.
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Abstract
Once the new header is added to page two, you can add an abstract of your paper.
An abstract is a summary of the content of your paper.
1. Type and center “Abstract” on
the first line
2. Without indenting, type in your
abstract beginning on line two.
3. Immediately below the abstract,
indent and type “Keywords:” in
italics.
4. Add keywords that describe the
content of your paper.
5. Hit the enter key until you drop
to the third page, or else select
the Insert tab and hit Page Break.
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Third Page
On the first line, type in the name of your paper, but this time not in all capitals. Hit
enter and then tab. You can now begin typing in the text of your paper. Your second
page should look very similar to the example below:
3
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Use in-text citations every time you reference information from an outside source.
The general format for APA in-text citations is:
(author, year-of-publication)
If you are quoting directly from the source, you will also need to include the page
number. Cite it like this:
(author, year-of-publication, p.xxx)
Here’s a typical example:
Reading is best done in a well-lit area (Spence, 2003).
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When you refer to the author by name in your paper, you can leave the author’s
name out of the citation. Here’s an example:
Mayfield (2009) noted that the theory was first popularized in the early post-
war years.
Here’s an example where a direct quote is included:
As Christgau (2009) noted, “by second hearing its loveliness is almost literally
haunting, an aural déjà vu” (p. 117).
The important thing is that you always include the author’s name, the publication
date, and when quoting directly, the page number. And when you include the
author’s name in your document, do not include it in the citation.
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What if your source has more than one author? Use the formats below:
One author (Wilson, 2011)
Two authors (Wilson & Love, 2011)
Three authors (Wilson, Love, & Jardine, 2011)
Four authors (Wilson, Love, Jardine & Johnston, 2011)
Five authors (Wilson, Love, Jardine, Johnston, & Campbell, 2011)
Six authors (Wilson et al., 2011)
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At times you may need to quote an extended passage from a book. If the quote is
more than 40 words long, you need to use a block quote. Do not use quotation
marks around block quotes. Finally, the citation goes outside the period that ends
the quote. Here’s an example:
Christgau (2009) wrote:
Painfully crackpot and painfully sung, but also inspired, not least because it
calls forth forbidden emotions. For a surrogate teenager to bare his growing
pains so guilelessly was exciting, or at least charming; for an avowed adult to
expose an almost childish naivete is embarrassing, but also cathartic; and for a
rock and roll hero to compose a verbally and musically irresistible paean to
Johnny Carson is an act of shamanism pure and simple. (p. 117)
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In APA, any figures and tables you wish to include are not included in the main text
of your paper. Instead they are placed on a separate page(s) after the references
page. APA also states:
• Figures and tables should not be included in your research papers if the figure or
table does not add substantively to the understanding of the paper or duplicates
other elements of the paper.
• All elements within the figure or table should be labeled or explained.
• Figures and tables must be referenced in text and given proper credit in the
figure or table caption.
In Text Examples
Etiam at turpis augue. Ut ut mattis arcu (see Figure 1). Phasellus mattis, risus eu
dapibus accumsan, enim turpis viverra erat, et adipiscing neque felis et metus (see
Table 1).
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4
Figures
and Tables cont.
To the right is an example of a
figure and table. This page
would appear after the
references page.
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References Page
Putting together a references page correctly is not difficult, but it does require some
attention to detail. Here is an example:
5
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References Page
To get started:
1. On line one, type: References
2. Center it and go to line two
3. Begin typing in your first reference. References must be in alphabetical
order, based on author’s last name. We can change the indentation to
match the example below after we have typed them all in.
6
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References Page
References are formatted differently depending on the format of your source, but all
APA references follow this basic pattern:
Author, Date, Title, Publication information, Page number
This guide will cover book, periodical, and website referencing. See “Additional
resources” to find information on other formats.
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Print books:
Author, A. A. (year of publication). Title of work. Location: Publisher.
Notice that we:
1. Use initials for the author’s first name.
2. Italicize the title.
3. Capitalize only the first word of the title, with the exception of any proper
nouns.
Here are a couple of examples:
Hesse, H. (2008). The journey to the East. New Delhi, India:
Heritage.
Nietzsche, F. (1998). Twilight of the idols, or, how to philosophize with a
hammer. New York, NY: Penguin.
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eBooks:
Author, A. A. (year of publication). Title of work. Retrieved from
http://www.xxxxxxxx
Notice that we still:
1. Use initials for the author’s first name.
2. Italicize the title.
3. Capitalize only the first word of the title, with the exception of any proper
nouns.
4. Replace the publisher information with the URL
Here is an example:
Nietzsche, F. (1998). Twilight of the idols, or, how to philosophize with a
hammer. Retrieved from
http://www.netlibrary.com/summary.asp?id=12314
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Print Articles:
Author, A. A. (year of publication). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume(issue),
pp-pp.
Notice that we:
1. Use initials for the author’s first name.
2. Italicize the periodical’s title, not the article’s title.
3. Capitalize only the first word of the article title, with the exception of any
proper nouns.
4. Fully capitalize the periodical’s title.
Here is an example:
Jung, C. (2011). Warming to the rising sun. Food Arts, 2(2), 62-65.
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Electronic Articles:
Author, A. A. (year of publication). Title of article. Title of Periodical,
volume(issue), pp-pp. Retrieved from http://www.xxxxxxxxx
NOTE: if you have the DOI number for an article, use that instead of the “Retrieved
from” line.
Here are a couple examples. Notice in the first example we use a “Retrieved from”
link, while in the second we use the DOI number:
Alexander, C. (2011, March 23). Canes feeling loose. News &
Observer. Retrieved from http://www.newsobserver.com/
Tsirlin, A. A. (2008). Irreversible microeconomics: Optimal
processes and equilibrium in closed systems. Automation & Remote
Control, 69(7), 1201-1215. doi:10.1134/S0005117908070114
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Webpage on a Website:
Author, A. A., & Author, A. A. (Date of publication). Title of article or
document. Title of Website. Retrieved from http://www.xxxxxxxxxxx
Notice that we:
1. Use initials for the author’s first name.
2. Capitalize only the first word of the article title, with the exception of any
proper nouns.
3. Fully capitalize (and italicize) the website’s name.
Here is an example:
Marshall, J. (2011, March 24). What could go wrong? Talking Points Memo.
Retrieved from http://talkingpointsmemo.com/
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References Page
We should now have our references sorted alphabetically on our references page (as
seen below). APA requires that all references appear with hanging indentation. We
will now look at how to apply hanging indent to our references.
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References Page
Highlight your references (as seen below)
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With your references highlighted, click on the Paragraph dialog box.
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Look for the drop box for “Special” indentation (seen below). Select “Hanging.”
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Your references page should now be finished.
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A sample APA paper is included below. Just click on the paper.
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To see more examples of APA references, try here:
APA Reference examples
These online guides to APA may also be helpful:
Research and Documentation Online, APA guide
Purdue Owl APA guide
You can find additional APA sample papers here:
APA sample paper 2
APA sample paper 3
