APA Citation Style - JCCC

WRITING CENTER

American Psychological Association (APA) Documentation

The information in this handout is meant to be helpful, but it is not a substitute for the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th Ed. A copy of the Manual is available for student use in the Writing Center. Additional help may be found at

Note: Different instructors may have different requirements. Students should check with their instructors about their preferred documentation style for the specific course.

CONTENTS Click on any heading below to jump directly to that topic.

WHAT IS APA? ............................................................................................................... 1 GENERAL FORMATTING GUIDELINES............................................................................... 2 ELEMENTS OF A PAPER IN APA STYLE ............................................................................. 2 BEFORE WRITING YOUR PAPER ...................................................................................... 4 WRITING YOUR PAPER ................................................................................................... 5 THE REFERENCES PAGE .................................................................................................. 9 REFERENCE PAGE EXAMPLES ........................................................................................ 10 ONLINE SOURCES ........................................................................................................ 12 SCHOLARLY JOURNALS ................................................................................................. 13 BOOKS ........................................................................................................................ 14 AUDIOVISUAL WORKS .................................................................................................. 17 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................... 21 SAMPLE STUDENT PAPER................................................................................................ 1

WHAT IS APA?

The American Psychological Association is an organization that supports educators and researchers, specifically in the discipline of psychology. Part of APA's work includes creating and maintaining a standardized method in which writers can site their sources.

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American Psychological Association (APA) Documentation

Citing sources in a written work is one of the most important components of completing a written assignment. In citing sources, you:

1. Give proper credit to the author(s) whose original ideas you are using in your paper 2. Point the reader back to the original source, if they wish to conduct their own research 3. Engage in scholarly and academic debate, using the work of others to support your

argument 4. Avoid plagiarism

GENERAL FORMATTING GUIDELINES

? Page numbers are indicated in the top right-hand corner of each page, beginning with the Title Page

? All pages have a one-inch margin ? Double-space the entire document, including quotations and the References

page ? Use a readable typeface and keep the size and font consistent throughout

the paper; acceptable fonts include: o sans serif fonts such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode o serif fonts such as 12-point Times New Roman or 11-point Georgia

? Indent each paragraph .5 inches; the Tab key is usually defaulted to do this ? Headings should be included as identifiers of the sections within your

paper; generally, headings are centered and bolded, with the text of the new paragraph following on a new line ? Include one space after each sentence ? Use a hanging indent for each entry on the References page

ELEMENTS OF A PAPER IN APA STYLE

? Title Page ? Abstract (optional) ? Body of the work, including in-text and/or parenthetical citations and

headings ? References Page ? Appendices (optional)

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American Psychological Association (APA) Documentation

Certain elements, such as an abstract or appendices, may be a requirement of your paper--check with your instructor and assignment guidelines to determine if these elements are needed in your paper.

TITLE PAGE REQUIREMENTS The first page of your paper is the Title Page and must contain the following information:

? A header, justified right, containing the page number ? All other elements are centered on the page and double-spaced ? The title of your paper 3 - 4 lines down from the top of the title

page, bolded and separated by one double-spaced blank line between the paper title and author name ? Author name, aka your name ? The author affiliation, or the name of the academic department followed by the college name ? The course number and name ? Instructor name ? Assignment due date

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Figure 1: Sample Title Page in APA Format

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American Psychological Association (APA) Documentation

BEFORE WRITING YOUR PAPER

PLAGIARISM Plagiarism is using someone else's words or ideas without giving credit to the original source. Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic integrity and is against JCCC's Student Code of Conduct. To avoid plagiarism, cite your sources; use in-text citations, quotations, paraphrasing, and/or summarizing to support your own original ideas.

Example: Original text from Michael Agar's book, Language Shock:

Everyone uses the word language and everybody these days talks about culture. . . . "Languaculture" is a reminder, I hope, of the necessary connection between its two parts. . . .

The following sentence is plagiarism, because it uses Agar's term "languaculture" without crediting him:

At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that might be called "languaculture."

The following sentence is not plagiarism, because it credits Agar:

At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that Michael Agar has called "languaculture" (1996, p. 60). There are other ways to plagiarize, such as: ? Self-plagiarizing, which is using your own ideas in something else you have produced, without citing that previous work ? Paraphrasing too closely to the original source without proper citation ? Summarizing the original source without proper citation

PARAPHRASING Paraphrasing means putting a source's ideas into your own words and creating new sentences, stating ideas in an original way. Cite anything you have paraphrased.

Example: Original text:

"Grief, when it comes, is nothing we expect it to be." (Didion, 2007, p. 26).

Plagiarized paraphrase:

When grief comes, it is not what we expect it to be. (Didion. 2007, p. 26).

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American Psychological Association (APA) Documentation

Correctly paraphrased version--not plagiarized: Most, if not all, individuals are sideswiped by the expressions of grief; they have trouble anticipating what grief will feel like (Didion, 2007, p. 26).

SUMMARIZING Summarizing is not paraphrasing. Paraphrasing restates a smaller passage of the reading in the author's own words. Summarizing gives a broader view, providing the main points of a larger portion of the work. If you are summarizing from a source, you still need to cite the original source. For additional information on avoiding plagiarism, visit JCCC's guide on academic integrity.

WRITING YOUR PAPER

IN-TEXT CITATIONS In-text citations are short markers in your paper that refer the reader to the full citation on the References page. Citations can be incorporated into your paper in two different formats: narrative or parenthetical citations. Typically, both forms of citations are found in collegiatelevel writing.

? Narrative citations incorporate the author's name within the sentence. The publication date and page number goes in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Do not repeat the author's name in the parentheses.

? Parenthetical citations capture the author's name, publication date, and the page number--or article title, organization name, or other necessary location marker--in parentheses at the end of the sentence in which the quote, paraphrase or summary occurs. o When citing a source with two authors, use an ampersand (&) between the author's last names (Jones & Smith, 1991) o When citing a source with three or more authors, include the last name of the first author listed followed by "et al." (Martin et al., 2020) o When page numbers are available and you are using a quote or an idea from a specific page, include a page number in your narrative or parenthetical citation

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