Rough Draft Continued APA Formatting and Grammar Rules
You should be continuing to work on your rough draft of the paper in preparation of submitting it for review in terms of obtaining feedback in order to polish it prior to final submission. This lesson contains more tips regarding APA.
When listing 3 or more items in a series, you must use the “extra” comma. Example: I like to drink root beer, Coke, and Sprite.
If you are listing items that have commas within them and they are in a series, use semi-colons instead of commas. Example: The sock choices were blue and red; green, purple, and blue; or plain yellow. (Notice, there were 3 choices.)
If the beginning of the sentence states how many will be listed, then use (a), (b), (c), etc. when listing them. Example: There were four choices, (a) on, (b) off, (c) mid-way, or (d) none.
More on citations:
If you are citing more than one source, they are to be listed in alphabetical order within the same set of parentheses.
(Able, 2001; Bender, 2005; Zeo, 1984)
When citing a source with 1 or 2 authors, you will need to list their names every time.
When citing a source with 3-5 authors, list them all the first time, then use et al. after the first name for all other citations.
(Brown, Black, & Chester, 2015) - the first time
(Brown et al., 2015) – after the first time; note there is a period after al.
If a source has more than 5 authors, use the first name and et al. every time.
Let’s suppose the authors are: Beshears, Crocker, Jones, Smith, Brown, and Levy. Then the citation would be (Beshears et al., 2015).
Note that there is no comma after the first name!
Specifics for References
- Periodicals (e.g., a journal, newspaper, or magazine)
Last name, I. C., & Last name, A. B. (Year, add month and date of publication for daily, weekly, or monthly publications without issue number). Title of article. Title of periodical, volume number, pages. doi or Retrieved from http://publisher homepage
- A nonperiodical (e.g., book, report, brochure, or audiovisual media)
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location (city, state abbreviation): Publisher.
NOTE: For "Location," you should always list the city and the state. For the publisher, do NOT use the following: Publisher, Publication(s), Company, Inc., LLC, or Corporation (or Corp.). Press is the only allowable word with the name.
Arnheim, R. (1971). Art and visual perception. Berkeley, CA: University
of California Press.
- Part of a nonperiodical (e.g., a book chapter or an article in a collection)
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In Initial. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (page numbers of chapter). Location:Publisher.
NOTE: 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 periodic references.
Rubenstein, J.P. (1967). The effect of television violence on small
children. In B.F. Kane (Ed.), Television and juvenile
psychological development (pp. 112-134). New York, NY:
American Psychological Society.
- Article in an Internet Periodical
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of journal, volume number (issue if available), page numbers if available. Retrieved from http://Web address.
Kawasaki, J. L., & Raven, M.R. (1995). Computer-administered
surveys in extension. Journal of Extension, 33, 252-255.
Retrieved from http://joe.org/joe/index.html
- Nonperiodical Internet Document (e.g., a Web page or report)
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Retrieved from name of website: http://Web address.
University of California, San Francisco, Institute for Health and Aging.
(1996, November). Chronic care in America: A 21st century
challenge. Retrieved from the Robert Wood
Foundation Web site: http://www.rwjf.org/library/chrcare
NOTE: Do as indicated above if the author name is not the website name. If the author name is the website, then do as indicated below. Also, if there isn't a date available for the document use (n.d.) for no date.
Pew Research Center. (2015). Raising kids and running a household:
How working parents share the load. Retrieved from http://pewsocialtrends.org/
Quotations
First of all, do NOT use a direct quote until you answer the following questions:
1. Could you write it just as well or better? (yes, don’t quote; no, continue on)
2. Is it really vitally important to know what the speaker said? (no, don’t quote; yes, continue)
3. Would not knowing the exact words matter that much? (no, don’t quote; yes, continue)
4. Can you adequately paraphrase the main point? (yes, don’t quote; no, use the quote)
An example of a powerful quote is when Nathan Hale said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Typically, direct quotes are not needed nor necessary in literature reviews. Additionally, if you use too many, you will be weakening your own writing and likely receive a low grade.
For direct quotations, include the author's name, year, and page number in parentheses at the end of the quote, even it isn’t the end of the sentence.
E.g., Police presence meant the “police were physically standing on the corner” (Smith, 2000, p. 7) when the crime was committed.
If there is no page number, then use the name of the section it came from in quotation marks instead of the page number.
E.g., Police presence meant the “police were physically standing on
the corner” (Smith, 2000, “Physical Presence”)
If the quote is less than 40 words, cite as shown above.
If the quote is 40 words or more, start it on a new line with all the lines indented 5 spaces without quotation marks, ending in a period and with the citation in parentheses after the period. This is called a block quote. DO double-space the quote.
ALWAYS include the year for all citations that are within parentheses.
If you cite a source in the text without parentheses and then cite it another time in the same paragraph not in parentheses, then the year isn’t necessary the additional times.
E.g., Smith (2007) stated that the police needed to actually observe
the crime being committed. Furthermore, the assumption was that
the officer would immediately act upon what he saw. Smith also
posited …
Note the second time doesn’t require the year because it is in the same paragraph and not in parentheses, BUT, in the next paragraph, you must use the year again.
Almost done! If you’ve followed the schedule, you should be ready to submit the full rough draft no later than Sunday and then be prepared to revise and turn it into your final draft during the next 2 weeks.