Let's be real. APA formatting takes time to learn, and it's not what most people call fun. So, why do we care? Who cares what words I use as long as they answer the question asked or made the point I want to make?
The WHY comes down to two items, credibility and your reader!
To Review
Professional respect and ethics
Consistency makes it easier for you, as the writer, to get your point across.
Consistency makes it easier for your reader to find and read the resources you used to form your opinion. Remember, they decide whether to trust you and form their own opinion.
Consistency of writing within disciplines assures ease as we write and read the information within our discipline.
Mostly, anything you write in college, from discussion posts to essay assignments to your final action research project, will use these guidelines.
You will not need a title page for your discussion posts, but we do encourage you to view them as short essays complete with
Introductions,
Conclusions, &
Headings!
By organizing all of your writing using these areas, you will find clarity in how you write, and your reader will always be clear about where you are going with an idea.
Interesting note: You do not need a heading for the first introduction paragraph, assuming it is an introduction! See p. 47 in the 7th edition.
Let's keep this manageable as we get started. What do you need to know for everyday writing? Check out this video to wrap your head around the following areas of writing under APA formatting:
Headings,
Fonts,
Line spacing,
All parts of complete essays, including
Title Pages,
Introduction,
Conclusions,
References
Let's look at some examples. In the below activity, click on "Choose A Study Mode" in the lower right of the activity and then connect the areas of the sample essay to the correct descriptions.
Where to find more?
Headings Table: You can find the headings table on the inside cover of the 7th edition and p. 62 of the 6th edition.
Fonts: You can find the list of approved fonts and font sizes on p. 44 of the 7th edition
Not understanding what paraphrasing is and not knowing it needs to be cited, just like a quote, is the most common form of plagiarism seen.
It is easy for a student to do a google search and find information and use it. Almost too easy. And it is just as easy for your faculty member, or a future reader of your articles, to do a google search and find out you copied most of what you wrote.
Now we get it!
If we copy direct words, we are quoting and have to either put it in quotation marks or indent it, depending on the length.
That is called paraphrasing if we share someone else's idea or concept but put it in our own words. While we don't need quotation marks, we do need a citation!
Both need to be appropriately cited using the author's last name and the date's year.
Find more information!
Visit chapter 8 of the 7th edition.
Citations are how you mark the quotes and paraphrased information in your writing.
The general rule of thumb: Always include (Author Last Name, Year, Location)
Ex: (Smith, 2016) Or, if it's a book (Smith, 2016, p. 43)
Remember!
For every citation, you’ll have a full reference at the end of your piece of writing.
Citations never need the first initial of an author.
Citations never need a full date, only the year.
Most of the time, the citation goes after the closing quotes and before the period.
Example of a citation for a book used in a sentence:
Body scan meditation is a specific practice to train the brain to effectively “scan the body to check in with how our body is feeling and to get a better sense of our emotions” (Burton, 2018, p. 151). Skillfully using body scans throughout the day starts with routinely practicing body scan meditation, so the habit is created to use it as a tool.
Example of the proper citation pieces integrated into the writing:
When Lustik describes Mindfulness, she says, "So with our understanding that Mindfulness is a contemplative practice, we learn that Mindfulness is more than a state of mind, it is a practice like yoga. It’s something that we dedicate time to in our busy life because we believe it will be beneficial to our health and happiness" (2016). This is applicable to my argument in this paper that one of the most important parts is setting aside the time for the practice...
Where to find more?
Chapter 8 in the 7th edition
References are often what throw people, but they are pretty easy! It all comes back to consistency. This is no place to let our creative brain take over!
Key Reference Points
Always follow the same order. Author. Date. Title. Media type if applicable. Source.
If you get it online, the location is the URL.
Brackets are only used around descriptions of work outside of traditional academic literature. Examples include: [Audiobook], [Online forum post], [Facebook post], [Tweet], [PowerPoint slides], [Audio podcast], [Video]. These are always listed at the end of the Title.
List all the authors in order of how they are listed in the resource.
Tip! To get a hanging indent, highlight your references right, click with your mouse, and choose Paragraph. Turn on the hanging indent!
Academic Writer Tutorial: Basics of Seventh Edition APA Style
The Academic Writer tutorial has been adapted from the tutorial featured in Academic Writer, APA's tool for teaching and learning effective writing.
Included in the tutorial are modules on the following:
APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 7th edition, second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. Please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).
If you are active, you are doing something. In active voice sentences, the subject of the sentence is doing the verb. In academic writing, we generally encourage you to use active voice, though there are exceptions. You may already be using active voice in most of your writing as it describes your thoughts, opinions, and reflections more accurately.
Simple examples:
The ladyplays the piano.
The driverdrove the car.
Some active verb tenses are:
Present (look), past (looked), future (will look), present progressive (is looking), past progressive (was looking), future progressive (will be looking), present perfect (have looked), past perfect (had looked), future perfect (will have looked)
If you are passive, something is done to you. In passive voice sentences, the subject is having the action done to it by something else. To form the passive voice, use the helping verb to be plus the past participle of the main verb. The verb to be can be in the present or past tense.
The pianois played by the lady. (is + played) The carwas driven by the driver. (was + driven)
In choosing to use passive or active, you must consider where you want your attention and emphasis in the sentence. In an active voice, the attention is on the subject and its actions. For example, Many organizations include meditation as an integral part of training their members. Emphasis is on the organizations, including *blank* (in this case, meditation), but the attention is not necessarily what they’re including. But if we restructure the sentence to be passive, the emphasis would be on meditation as part of organizational training. Ex: Meditation is included by many organizations as an integral part of training their members.
Be aware of the meaning you want to convey in a sentence, then carefully choose active or passive voice.
Avoid This Common Passive Voice Mistake - Grammar Girl