Roseman University Library - APA Citation - Basics and Introduction

APA Citation Style: Introduction & Format

University Library

Learning outcomes

In this presentation, you’ll learn:• What APA style is and what it’s used for.• How to set up an APA style paper.• How to use various levels of heading correctly

in your paper.

Introduction to APA Style and Formatting

• What is APA? o It is a style developed by social and behavioral

scientists to standardize scientific writing.• What is it used for?

o Term papers, research reports, empirical studies, literature reviews, theoretical articles, methodological studies, and case studies.

(American Psychological Association, 2010, p. 3, p. 10-11)

Elements of APA

APA manuscript elements can be found in Chapter 2 of the APA Manual.

Format includes:• Font size• Font style• Title page • Levels of heading• Line spacing• Margins (American Psychological Association, 2010, p. 62, p. 228-230)

Fonts

• Times New Roman is the preferred font for the text of your paper.

• Use 12 pt font size.• Arial is the preferred font for tables and

figures labels.

(American Psychological Association, 2010, p. 228-229)

Spacing

• Double-space your entire paper. o between lines of text. owithin quotations.

• Single-space only figures.• 1” margin on all sides of your paper.

o Do not use justification• Indent the first line of each paragraph ½”.

(American Psychological Association, 2010, p. 228)

Levels of heading

APA Heading

Level Format

1 Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Headings

2 Left aligned, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Headings

3 Indented, boldface, lowercase heading with a period.

4 Indented, boldface, italicized, lowercase heading with a period.

5 Indented, italicized, lowercase heading with a period.

(American Psychological Association, 2010, p. 62)

Levels look like an outline

OutlineI. Method

a. First type

i. Part One

ii. Part Two

b. Second Type

i. Part One

ii. Part Two

II. Results

How it would look in your paper Method

In this paper I used two types of methods to figure out

the results of my experiment.

First Type: Sand Collecting

The first type of method I used was the sand collecting

method.

Part one of the sand collecting method: collection.

This part included collecting sand and putting it into

giant buckets to be sorted by grain size.

Part two of the sand collecting method: testing.

This part included…

Example of levels of heading

Where to find these rules

• General format rules:o APA Manual rule 8.03, p. 228-230

• Levels of heading rules: o APA Manual rule 3.03, p. 62

Summary

• APA is more than a citation style!• Follow APA formatting in fonts, margins, and

levels of heading to make sure your paper is set up correctly.

Resources to help you

• Roseman University Citation and Writing Research Guide: http://infoguides.roseman.edu/citation

• OWL at Purdue University http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Questions?

Library staff are here to help you. o Call us

702-968-2040 (Henderson) 801-878-1020 (South Jordan)

o Text questions to 801-872-9715o Ask a question online at

http://libanswers.roseman.edu

References

References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological

Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.