EN 121- Create an annotated bibliograph
APA Formatting and Style Guide – Condensed Version
Purdue OWL staff
Brought to you in cooperation with the Purdue Online Writing Lab
Welcome to “APA Formatting and Style Guide”. This Power Point Presentation is designed to introduce your students to the basics of APA Formatting and Style Guide. You might want to supplement the presentation with more detailed information posted on Purdue OWL http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
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The American Psychological Association (APA) citation style is the most commonly used format for manuscripts in the social sciences.
APA regulates:
- Stylistics
- In-text citations
- References
What is APA Style?
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed., contains detailed guidelines to formatting a paper in the APA style. APA style is most commonly used for formatting papers in the Social Sciences—business, economics, psychology, sociology, nursing, etc. Updates to APA are posted on the APA website www.apastyle.org. You may also reference the Purdue OWL: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/.
APA format provides writers with a format for cross-referencing their sources--from their parenthetical references to their reference page. This cross-referencing system allows readers to locate the publication information of source material. This is of great value for researchers who may want to locate your sources for their own research projects. The proper use of APA style also shows the credibility of writers; such writers show accountability to their source material. Most importantly, use of APA style can protect writers from plagiarism--the purposeful or accidental use of source material by other writers without giving appropriate credit.
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Avoid personal pronouns where appropriate
The authors conducted an experiment….
This paper explores the need for……
Active voice rather than passive voice
- : Researchers asked participants questions.
- : The participants have been asked questions by the researchers.
Point of View &Voice
APA format is not limited by the rules of citing the sources- in-text citations and entries in the list of References. It also regulates the stylistics of conveying research.
This slide introduces the basics of APA stylistics related to the point of view and voice in an APA paper, which encourages a writer to use personal pronouns and the active voice. The explanations are provided with examples.
This slide can be supplemented by the relevant section from OWL http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/15/
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The Informational Report:
- Describes the findings based on secondary research.
- Includes:
- a title page,
- abstract,
- introduction,
- main sections,
- list of references,
- appendices,
- tables, and
- figures
Types of APA Papers
This slide introduces two most commonly used genres in APA format: the literature review and the experimental report (also known as the research article).
The literature review paper, which is the summary of what the scientific literature in the discipline field says about the topic of research, is the genre students likely encounter in their academic studies. The paper includes the title page, introduction and a list of references.
The experimental report or research article provides an account of conducted research. This genre includes the title page, abstract, introduction (which is the review of the published studies on the research topic with the purpose to find the niche for the reported study), method, results, discussion, references, appendices (optional). The experiential report often contains tables and figures. See the slides describing APA format of tables and figures.
This slide can be supplemented by the relevant section from OWL http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/13/
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Your paper should:
- be typed,
- double-spaced,
- have 1” margins,
- use 10-12pt. Standard font (ex. Times New Roman), and
- be printed on standard-sized paper (8.5”x 11”)
General APA Format
This slide presents the general format of an APA formatted paper: An essay should be typed and double-spaced on the standard-sized paper (8.5”x11”) with 1” margins on all sides. Times New Roman or similar font in 10-12 pt. size should be used. The document should include a page header indicating a short title of the essay and a page number in the upper right-hand of every page (including the title page).
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Every page of your paper should:
- Include a page header (Title, all caps) in the upper left-hand corner and
- the page number in the upper right
General APA Format
This slide presents the general format of an APA formatted paper: An essay should be typed and double-spaced on the standard-sized paper (8.5”x11”) with 1” margins on all sides. Times New Roman or similar font in 10-12 pt. size should be used. The document should include a page header indicating a short title of the essay and a page number in the upper right-hand of every page (including the title page).
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Your paper should
include four major
sections:
References
Main Body
Abstract
Title page
General APA Format
This slide introduces four required part of an APA paper: a title page, abstract, main body (essay itself), and a list of References. An abstract page and list of references are titled as Abstract and Reference, respectively.
It is important to remind students that each page should have a page header with a short title and page number.
This slide can be supplemented by the “General Format” section from OWL http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
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Title:
(in the upper half of the page, centered)
name (no title or degree) + affiliation (university, etc.)
Page header:
(use Insert Page Header)
title flush left + page number flush right.
Title Page
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Page header: do NOT include “Running head:”
Abstract: centered, at the top of the page
Write a 150- to 250- word summary of your paper in an accurate, concise, and specific manner.
Abstract Page
This slide provides a visual example of an abstract page, which consists of a page header, a heading—Abstract, and a brief summary of the paper accurately presenting its contents.
Type the heading –Abstract– centered at the top of the page. Below, type the paragraph of the paper summary (between 150 and 250 words) in block format—without indentation.
The abstract should contain the research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions. It may also include possible implications of your research and future work you see connected with your finding, and may include keywords.
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- Number the first text page as page number 3
- Type and center the title of the paper at the top of the page
- Type the text double-spaced with all sections following each other without a break
- Identify the sources you use in the paper in parenthetical, in-text citations
- Format tables and figures
Main Body (Text)
This slide provides the basic reminders about formatting the text:
- Make sure that the first text page is page number 3 (page#1 is a title page, page #2 is an abstract page).
- Start with typing the essay title centered, at the top of the page.
- Type the text double-space with all sections following each other without a break. Do not use white space between paragraphs.
- Create parenthetical in-text citations to identify the sources used in the paper.
- Format tables and figures.
The following slides introduce APA formatting of references, in-text citations, and tables and figures.
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- Center the title (References) at the top of the page. Do not bold it.
- Double-space reference entries
- Flush left the first line of the entry and indent subsequent lines
- Order entries alphabetically by the surname of the first author of each work
Reference Page
This slide explains the format and purpose of a references page.
The facilitator may stress that each source referenced within the paper should also appear on the reference page, which appears at the end of the paper.
To create a references page,
- center the heading—References—at the top of the page;
- double-space reference entries;
- flush left the first line of the entry and indent subsequent lines. To use “hanging” feature of “Indent and Space” tab, go to “Paragraph” ”Indentation” choose “Hanging” in the ”Special” box.
- Order entries alphabetically by the author’s surnames. If a source is anonymous, use its title as an author’s surname.
Note: Unlike MLA, APA is only interested in what they call “recoverable data”—that is, data which other people can find. For example, personal communications such as letters, memos, emails, interviews, and telephone conversations should not be included in the reference list since they are not recoverable by other researchers.
For specific information about entries in the reference list, go to http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05
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Label tables with an Arabic numeral and provide a title. The label and title appear on separate lines above the table, flush-left and single-spaced.
Cite a source in a note below the table.
Table 1
Internet users in Europe
Note: The data are adapted from “The European Union and Russia” (2007). Retrieved from http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu
| Country | Regular Users |
| France | 9 ml |
Tables
Tables are a common and often required feature of an APA format (consider, the research article, for example). This slide provides visual guidelines to formatting tables in APA.
The facilitator should point that a table format consists of four elements:
- The table label—e.g., Table 1
- The title in italics , both appearing on separate lines above the table, flush-left and single-spaced
- The table
- The Citation of the source below the table in the form of Note (see the example on the slide).
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Label figures with an Arabic numeral and provide a title. The label and the title appear on the same line below the figure, flush-left .
You might provide an additional title centered above the figure.
Cite the source below the label and the title.
Figure 1. Internet users in Europe. Adapted from The European Union and Russia: Statistical comparison by Eurostat Statistical Books, 2007, Retrieved from http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu
Figures
Although figures in an APA paper are formatted in a manner which is similar to that of formatting tables, there a few differences.
In particular, the order is the following:
- You might provide an additional title centered above the figure.
- The figure
- The label and title (in italics) on the same line below the figure, flush-left: Figure 1. Internet users in Europe
- A Citation of the source below the table in the form of Note (see the example on the slide).
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