Purdue OWL Handouts

Using American Psychological Association (APA) Format

#34

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Purdue's OWL offers information about other citation methods and electronic sources. We have the following handouts:


For more information about writing research papers, see our workshop on this subject. We also have information on using statistics in your paper.


If you are asked to use APA format, the book to consult is The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th edition). Copies of this book are on the reference shelves in the Writing Lab (226 Heavilon Hall) and in the Psychology Library; it is also widely available in bookstores. Included here is a brief summary of APA style for the research paper.



Handling Quotations In Your Text

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear in the reference list.

Examples:

     Smith (1970) compared reaction times . . .


     In a recent study of reaction times (Smith, 1970), . . .


     In 1970, Smith compared reaction times . . .

Short Quotations

To indicate short quotations (fewer than 40 words) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author, year, and specific page citation in the text, and include a complete reference in the reference list. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quotation but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.

Examples:

     She stated, "The placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in this 

     manner" (Miele, 1993, p. 276), but she did not clarify which behaviors were studied.



     According to Miele (1993), "the placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were 

     studied in this manner" (p. 276).



     Miele (1993) found that "the placebo effect disappeared" in this case (p. 276), but 

     what will the next step in researching this issue be?

Long Quotations

Place quotations longer than 40 words in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented five spaces from the left margin. Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation five spaces from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after closing punctuation mark.

Example:

     Miele's 1993 study found the following:

          The placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in this
 
          manner. Furthermore, the behaviors were never exhibited again, 
 
          even when real drugs were administered. Earlier studies conducted 
 
          by the same group of researchers at the hospital were clearly 
 
          premature in attributing the results to a placebo effect. (p. 276)



Your Reference List

Your reference list should appear at the end of your essay. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the essay. Each source you cite in the essay must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

Basic Rules



Basic Forms for Sources in Print

An article in a periodical (such as a journal, newspaper, or magazine)

          Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year of

     Publication, add month and day of publication for daily, weekly,

     or monthly publications). Title of article. Title of periodical,

     Volume Number, pages.

N.B. You need list only the volume number if the periodical uses continuous pagination throughout a particular volume. If each issue begins with page 1, then you should list the issue number as well: Title of Periodical, Volume (Issue), pages.

 

A non periodical (such as a book, report, brochure, or audiovisual media)

          Author, A. A. (Year of Publication).  Title of work: Capital  

     letter also for subtitle.  Location: Publisher.

N.B. For "Location," you should always list the city, but you should also include the state if the city is unfamiliar or if the city could be confused with one in another state.

 

Part of a non-periodical (such as a book chapter or an article in a collection)

          Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of Publication). Title

     of chapter. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book

     (pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.

N.B. When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use "pp." before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). This abbreviation, however, does not appear before the page numbers in periodical references.



Basic Forms for Electronic Sources

A web page

          Author, A. A. (Date of Publication or Revision). Title of 

     full work [online]. Available: full web address. (Date of access).

N.B. "Date of access" should indicate the date you visited the website. This is important because online information is frequently altered.

 

An online journal or magazine
 

          Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of Publication).

     Title of article. In Title of full work [online]. Available: full

     web address (Date of access).

 

Email

Because e-mail is a personal communication, not easily retrieved by the general public, no entry appears in your reference list. When you cite an email message in the body of your paper, acknowledge it in your parenthetical citation: The novelist has repeated this idea recently (Salman Rushdie, email to author, May 1, 1995). 



Examples

The Publication Manual of the APA provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources. Below are some of the most commonly cited kinds of sources. If your particular source is not listed below, use the basic forms (above) to determine the correct format, check the Publication Manual, or call or email the Writing Lab for help at (765) 494-3723 or owl@cc.purdue.edu. (Many of these examples are taken from the Publication Manual.)

Journal article, one author

          Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology

     journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological

     Psychology, 55, 893-896.

Journal article, more than one author

          Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A.,

     & Harlow, T. (1993). There's more to self-esteem than whether it

     is high or low: The importance of stability of self-esteem. Journal

     of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1190-1204.

Magazine article, one author

          Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Time, 135, 28-31.

Book

          Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to 

     preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC:

     American Psychological Association.

An article or chapter of a book

          O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender

     role journeys: Metaphor for healing, transition, and

     transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across

     the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York: Springer.

A government publication

          National Institute of Mental Health. (1990). Clinical

     training in serious mental illness (DHHS Publication No.

     ADM 90-1679). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

A book with no author or editor listed

          Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1993).

     Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.

A translated work and/or a republished work

          Laplace, P. S. (1951). A philosophical essay on probabilities

     (F. W. Truscott & F. L. Emory, Trans.). New York: Dover. (Original 

     work published 1814)

   

A review of a book, film, television program, etc.

          Baumeister, R. F. (1993). Exposing the self-knowledge

     myth [Review of the book The self-knower: A hero under control].

     Contemporary Psychology, 38, 466-467.

 

An entry in an encyclopedia

          Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new encyclopedia

     britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501-508). Chicago: Encyclopedia

     Britannica.

An online journal article

          Kenneth, I. (1995). A Buddhist response to the nature of

     human rights. [9 pars.] Journal of Buddhist Ethics [online serial], 2.

     Available: http://www.cac.psu.edu/jbe/twocont.html. (June 15, 1998)

A web page

          Daly, B. (1997). Writing argumentative essays. [online].

     Available: http://www.eslplanet.com/teachertools/argueweb/frntpage.htm.

     (May 12, 1998)



General Format

Your essay should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5 X 11 inches) with margins of 1 inch on all sides. Your final essay should include the following pages (in this order), each of which should begin on a separate page:

       -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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      |                                                              Television and violence 1    |
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      |    RUNNING HEAD: Television and violence: A review                                        |
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      |          Television and violence: A review of the emiprical research 1970-1995            |
      |                                                                                           |
      |                                     Chris Researcher                                      |
      |                                                                                           |
      |                                     Purdue University                                     |
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N.B. The running head notice on the first line of the page serves to notify editors of a shortened version of your title to be used at the top of each page in the final published version of the essay. This shortened title should not exceed 50 characters, including punctuation and spaces.

The pages of your manuscript should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page, as part of the manuscript header in the upper right corner of each page. Your references should begin on a separate page from the text of the essay under the label References (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), centered at the top of the page. Appendices and notes should be formatted similarly.

Keep in mind that underlining and italics are interchangeable. Choose one or the other form to use throughout your essay.



Copyright (C)1998 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.
This document may be distributed as long as it is done entirely with all attributions to organizations and authors. Commercial distribution is strictly prohibited. Portions of this document may be copyrighted by other organizations.

This document is part of a collection of instructional materials used in the Purdue University Writing Lab. The online version is part of OWL (Online Writing Lab), a project of the Purdue University Writing Lab, funded by the School of Liberal Arts at Purdue.


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