Please see the attachments for the work.

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AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

APA

GUIDE TO WRITING RESEARCH

PAPERS

How to Write a Research Paper

MONROE COLLEGE LIBRARY

Revised Sixth Edition

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Glossary

Citation is the proper format of your sources information that belong on your Reference page. et al: In Latin means “and others” it’s used especially in referring to academic books or articles that have more than one author. Hanging Indent: All lines after the first line of each citation on your reference page should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. An in-text citation provides the information (quote/paraphrase) from a source in the body of your paper. Paraphrase: Where you rewrite part or all of someone else’s idea/information in your own words. Quote: If you copy word for word (verbatim) information from a source you must put the information in “ ” (quotation marks). A Reference(s) page is the last page of your paper where all the sources you have cited in your paper are listed. A source is the book/article/etc. you have used to help create your paper. URL: Uniform (or Universal) Resource Locator is the address of the web page. A Webpage is a single page that contains information on a topic. A Website has a number of webpages that are connected by links.

A research paper requires time spent investigating and evaluating sources with the intent to offer

interpretations of the texts and a unique perspective on the topic at hand. It is the final product of the

following:

 Research

 Source evaluation

 Critical thinking

 Organization

 Composition

 Avoiding plagiarism

RESEARCH

Primary Sources are:

 Diaries and autobiographies

 Letters, historical documents, speeches and oral histories

 Eye-witness accounts from newspapers

 Raw data from questionnaires or interviews

 Observations or experiments

Secondary Sources are:

 Criticism

 Biographies

 Historical Analysis

 Articles and case studies

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SOURCE EVALUATION

 Is the source useful?

 Is it current?

 Is it from a well-respected source?

 Is the research up to date?

Take notes:

 Summarize briefly restate in your own words the main ideas of the passage or article.

 Paraphrase restate in your own word, in detail, the key ideas of the source.

 Quoting use the source’s unique words surrounded by quote marks, “ ”, and record the source

and page.

 Note down the information you will need for the MLA/APA citation.

 Assemble a working bibliography: start a list of your sources that includes the title, author,

publication information and date for each source.

CRITICAL THINKING

 Evaluate and interpret the ideas explored in sources and convey ideas of your own.

 Synthesize sources: make sense of your sources by integrating information from two or more

sources to show how the ideas are similar or different.

 Fine-tune your thesis or topic.

ORGANIZATION

Develop an Outline

Sample Outline

I. Problems caused by smoking A. Lung Cancer

1. How to prevent? 2. Effects

B. Other smoking-related diseases 3. What are they? 4. Effects

C. Second-hand smoke

II. Why quitting is so hard A. Nicotine is addictive

1. Example B. Habit C. Quitting requires support

1. Example D. Quitting requires support

1. What that entails

III. Why smokers should quit A. Not worth dying B. What I learned

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COMPOSITION

 Drafting

 Revising, editing

 Proofreading Use SmartThinking, or ask the Writing Center to review your paper.

AVOID PLAGIARISM

Presenting another person’s ideas or words as your own is plagiarism.

 Take notes that clearly identify which material is borrowed and where you got it from.

 Enclose all direct quotes with quotation marks.

 Review all paraphrases and summaries to make sure they are your own words.

Research ̶̶̶ Source Materials

 Books In Print, Online, Encyclopedia and other reference material

 Magazines In Print, Online, and from a database

 Newspapers In Print, Online, and from a database

 Academic/Scholarly Journals In Print, Online, and from a database

 Other materials Websites, government documents, personal interviews, DVDs

Online source for reviewing APA Style:

 Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab): www.owl.english.purdue.edu

 Online source for APA tutorial: www.apastyle.org

 Online source for submitting your paper for review and proofreading: SmartThinking through MyMonroe

Essay Structure

Thesis Statement

A sentence or two in your paper that tells the reader what the paper is going to be about. A good thesis

statement may be ONE or more of the following:

 A strong, thought-provoking, or controversial statement. Ex: Bilingual Education has not fulfilled its early promise.

 A call to action. Ex: Inner-city schools should set up bilingual programs.

 A question that will be answered in detail in the essay. Ex: What can bilingual education accomplish for a child? It can lead to academic and

personal development.

 A preview or reflection of the structure of the essay. Ex: Bilingual education suffers from two main problems; a shortage of trained teachers

and a lack of parental interest.

Introduction

The introduction section serves as the opening to the paper. It draws and invites readers into the

discussion. The purpose of the introduction is to:

 Get the reader’s attention.

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 Move the reader into your paper by showing what you are writing about before you state the thesis which is the essay’s main idea.

 Limit your essay by moving from a general discussion of the subject to the specific thesis that your paper wants to prove.

 State your thesis before moving to the body paragraphs that provide evidence of it.

Body

The body of the paper contains the bulk of your research. This is where you will quote, paraphrase, or

summarize your original source material, being careful to cite any information you have taken from a

source. Failure to cite your sources is plagiarism.

Conclusion

This is your opportunity to wrap up your essay and bring it home to the reader. Options for a good

conclusion:

 Summarize the points you have made, but keep it short and use fresh wording.

 Show readers why this paper is important.

 Show readers how the points you made and the examples you used are not random, but fit

together to prove a point.

 Give readers something to think about such as a way to use the information from the paper in the

real world.

 End with a quotation, a question, a suggestion, or a humorous or insightful comment.

In-Text ̶̶̶Citations: ̶̶̶The ̶̶̶Basics

Reference citations in text are covered on pages 169-179 of the APA Publication Manual. What

follows are some general guidelines for referring to the works of others in your essay.

Note: APA style requires authors to use the past tense or present perfect tense when using signal

phrases to describe earlier research, for example, Jones (1998) found or Jones (1998) has

found...

APA citation basics

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the

author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for

example, (Jones, 1998), and a complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of

the paper.

If you are referring to an idea from another work but NOT directly quoting the material, or

making reference to an entire book, article or other work, you only have to make reference to the

author and year of publication and not the page number in your in-text reference. All sources that

are cited in the text must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

In-text citation capitalization, quotes, and italics/underlining

 Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials: D. Jones.

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 If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four

letters long or greater within the title of a source: Permanence and Change. Exceptions

apply to short words that are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs: Writing

New Media, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.

(Note: in your References list, only the first word of a title will be capitalized: Writing

new media.)

 When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word: Natural-

Born Cyborgs.

 Capitalize the first word after a dash or colon: "Defining Film Rhetoric: The Case of

Hitchcock's Vertigo."

 Italicize or underline the titles of longer works such as books, edited collections, movies,

television series, documentaries, or albums: The Closing of the American Mind; The

Wizard of Oz; Friends.

 Put quotation marks around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles, articles

from edited collections, television series episodes, and song titles: "Multimedia

Narration: Constructing Possible Worlds"; "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry."

Short quotations

If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication,

and the page number for the reference (preceded by "p."). Introduce the quotation with a signal

phrase that includes the author's last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses.

According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it

was their first time" (p. 199).

Jones (1998) found "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199); what implications

does this have for teachers?

If the author is not named in a signal phrase, place the author's last name, the year of publication,

and the page number in parentheses after the quotation.

She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not

offer an explanation as to why.

Long quotations

Place direct quotations that are 40 words, or longer, in a free-standing block of typewritten lines,

and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left

margin, i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on

the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2

inch from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation

should come after the closing punctuation mark.

Jones's (1998) study found the following:

Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time

citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to purchase

a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)

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Summary or paraphrase

If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to the

author and year of publication in your in-text reference, but APA guidelines encourage you to

also provide the page number (although it is not required.)

According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners.

APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (Jones, 1998, p. 199).

In-Text ̶̶̶Citations: ̶̶̶Author/Authors

APA style has a series of important rules on using author names as part of the author-date

system. There are additional rules for citing indirect sources, electronic sources, and sources

without page numbers.

Citing an Author or Authors

A Work by Two Authors: Name both authors in the signal phrase or in the parentheses each

time you cite the work. Use the word "and" between the authors' names within the text and use

the ampersand in the parentheses.

Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...

(Wegener & Petty, 1994)

A Work by Three to Five Authors: List all the authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses

the first time you cite the source. Use the word "and" between the authors' names within the text

and use the ampersand in the parentheses.

(Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993)

In subsequent citations, only use the first author's last name followed by "et al." in the signal

phrase or in parentheses.

(Kernis et al., 1993)

In et al., et should not be followed by a period.

Six or More Authors: Use the first author's name followed by et al. in the signal phrase or in

parentheses.

Harris et al. (2001) argued...

(Harris et al., 2001)

Unknown Author: If the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in the signal

phrase or use the first word or two in the parentheses. Titles of books and reports are italicized or

underlined; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks.

A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers ("Using APA," 2001).

Note: In the rare case the "Anonymous" is used for the author, treat it as the author's name

(Anonymous, 2001). In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author.

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Organization as an Author: If the author is an organization or a government agency, mention

the organization in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the

source.

According to the American Psychological Association (2000),...

If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first

time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations.

First citation: (Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MADD], 2000)

Second citation: (MADD, 2000)

Two or More Works in the Same Parentheses: When your parenthetical citation includes two

or more works, order them the same way they appear in the reference list (viz., alphabetically),

separated by a semi-colon.

(Berndt, 2002; Harlow, 1983)

Authors With the Same Last Name: To prevent confusion, use first initials with the last names.

(E. Johnson, 2001; L. Johnson, 1998)

Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year: If you have two sources by the

same author in the same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with the year to order the entries in

the reference list. Use the lower-case letters with the year in the in-text citation.

Research by Berndt (1981a) illustrated that...

Introductions, Prefaces, Forewords, and Afterwords: When citing an Introduction, Preface,

Foreword, or Afterwords in-text, cite the appropriate author and year as usual.

(Funk & Kolln, 1992)

Personal Communication: For interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-to-person

communication, cite the communicator's name, the fact that it was personal communication, and

the date of the communication. Do not include personal communication in the reference list.

(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001).

A. P. Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal

communication, November 3, 2002).

Citing Indirect Sources

If you use a source that was cited in another source, name the original source in your signal

phrase. List the secondary source in your reference list and include the secondary source in the

parentheses.

Johnson argued that...(as cited in Smith, 2003, p. 102).

Note: When citing material in parentheses, set off the citation with a comma, as above. Also, try

to locate the original material and cite the original source.

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Electronic Sources

If possible, cite an electronic document the same as any other document by using the author-date

style.

Kenneth (2000) explained...

Unknown Author and Unknown Date: If no author or date is given, use the title in your signal

phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses and use the abbreviation "n.d." (for

"no date").

Another study of students and research decisions discovered that students succeeded with

tutoring ("Tutoring and APA," n.d.).

Sources without Page Numbers

When an electronic source lacks page numbers, you should try to include information that will

help readers find the passage being cited. When an electronic document has numbered

paragraphs, use the abbreviation "para." followed by the paragraph number (Hall, 2001, para. 5).

If the paragraphs are not numbered and the document includes headings, provide the appropriate

heading and specify the paragraph under that heading. Note that in some electronic sources, like

Web pages, people can use the Find function in their browser to locate any passages you cite.

According to Smith (1997),... (Mind over Matter section, para. 6).

Note: Never use the page numbers of Web pages you print out; different computers print Web

pages with different pagination.

Reference ̶̶̶List

Books by One Author

Format:

Author Last name, First Initial. (Year Published). Title (Ed or Vol. #).Publishing City, State: Publisher.

* Sometimes, books do not have an edition or volume number.*

Example:

Jones, A.P. (1988). Myths concerning planet earth. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Tips:

 Capitalize only the first word of the title and subtitle and any proper nouns. Include any

additional information such as edition, or volume number.

 In the publication information, write out in full the names of associations, corporations and

university presses. Include the words “Book” or “Press”” but do not include the terms

“Publisher”, “Company” or “Inc”.

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Books by Two Editors

Harmon, P.. & King, D. (Eds.). (1985). Expert systems: Artificial intelligence in business. New York,

NY: Wiley.

Books by More Than One Author

Wolfinger, D., Knable., Richards, H.L. & Lilberger. (1990). The chronically unemployed. New York,

NY: Bermen Press.

Tips:

 List up to seven authors by last name and initials using an & to connect the last two names.

 Eight or more authors: After the sixth author's name, use an ellipses in place of the author names.

Then provide the final author name. There should be no more than seven names. Ex: Grainger,

H., Potter, H., Weasley, R., Finnegan, S., Norman, L., Patil., …Lovegood, L.(2009)

Work Contained in an Anthology, Collection or Compilation

Lorde, A. (1984). Age, race, and class. In P.S. Rothenberg (Ed.) Racism and sexism: An integrated study.

(pp. 352-360). New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Articles in a Reference Book

Edwards, P. (Ed.) (1987). Determinism. In The encyclopedia of philosophy. (Vol. 2, pp. 359-373). New

York, NY: Macmillan.

Magazine Articles

McCurdy, H.G. (1983, June). Brain mechanisms and intelligence. Psychology Today, 46, 61-63.

Newspaper Articles

James, W.R. (1993, November 16). The uninsured and health care. Wall Street Journal, pp. A1, A14.

Electronic Sources

Tip: At a minimum, a web citation should have a title, a date (date of publication, update or retrieval) and

an electronic address (URL). If possible, include author(s) of source. A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is

to be added to the citation for online periodicals if available. When a DOI is present, you do not have to

include the URL.

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Online Journals Article with a DOI OR URL

Format:

Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year of article). Title of article. Title of online journal, volume #

(issue #) (Page #’s). doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx [OR] Retrieved from URL journal article

Example:

Herbst-Damm, K.L., & Kulik, J.A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of

terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, 225-229.

Newspaper or Magazine

Format:

Author Last name, First Initial. (Year, Month, Day of article). Title of the article. Title of the newspaper

or magazine, (pp.) Page #’s.

Example:

Jones, F. (2010, April 22). A mother’s loss, a daughter’s story. The New York Times, pp.71-95.

Magazine Articles Online Without a DOI

Sillick, T.J., & Schutte, N.S. (2006). Emotional intelligence and self-esteem. Applied Psychology, 2 (2),

38-48. Retrieved from http://ojs.lib.swin.edu

Magazine Articles from an Online Database

Nowroozi, D. (1992). What you lose when you miss sleep. Nation’s Business, 80 (9), 73-77, Retrieved

from Expanded Academic ASAP database.

Newspaper Article from an Online Database

Perez-Pena, R. (2000, August 5). Year’s first case of West Nile is found as outbreak widens. The New

York Times, P. B1. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database.

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Website with an Author

Format:

Editor or author (if available). (Year, Month Day). Title of Webpage, Retrieved from website name: URL

Example:

Klippel, J.H., & Glunz, J.M. (1995). Kidney disease and lupus. Retrieved from

http://www.lupus.org/topics/kidney.html

Website with an Organization but No Author

C.N.N. (1999, August 29). Turkey struggles to coordinate relief for epic-level disaster. Retrieved from

http://www.cnn.com

Website with No Author or Date.

Hispanic men in the corporate world. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.psychek.com/psy/hispanics.com

You Tube Video

Last Name, First Initial. OR Author screen name. (Year, Month Day {of video post}). Title of

video [Video file]. Retrieved from URL of specific video

Example:

Norton, R. (2006, November 16). How to train your dog to do tricks [Video file]. Retrieved from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vja83JDYCS

Film/DVD

Last Name, First Initial. (Producer), & Last Name, First Initial. (Director). (Year). Title of motion picture

[Motion picture]. Country of origin: Studio Name.

Example:

Johnson, F. (Producer), & Davidson, J. (Director). (1999). B. C. Spinner: A fresh appraisal [Motion

picture]. United States: Davidson Studio.

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Sample Paper courtesy of Purdue Owl

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090212013008_560.pdf

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Hints:

Download an MLA or APA Template from Microsoft Word

1. Open Microsoft Office Word

2. Click File

3. Click New

4. Type MLA or APA in the “Search Office.com for Template” search box

5. Select the appropriate template

6. Click Download

OR

Retrieve the APA template directly from MyMonroe:

1. Log into MyMonroe

2. Click the Library Resources Gadget

3. Select Downloadable Resources

4. Click the APA template

Create Citations using Microsoft Word

1. Hit on the “References” tab at the top middle

2. Make sure the “Style” drop down menu under “References” is set correctly

3. Hit “Insert Citation”

4. From the drop-down menu click “Add New Source”

5. Choose the right kind of source

6. On the References page: choose “Insert Bibliography”

Create a Citation using the following internet sources:

*Note: Please always refer to this guide to make sure your citations are correct.*

World Cat

Citefast

EasyBib (MLA only)

Son of Citation Machine

CiteKnight

Review MLA and APA Styles using Purdue Owl

APA: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

MLA: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Submit Papers to an Online Tutor through Blackboard on

Smarthinking

Revised by Monroe

College Library Staff

11/2016