Grief Case Study and Treatment Plan

1

Proper Formatting for Headings, Citations, and References

Student’s Name

University of West Alabama

Name of the Course

Name of the Assignment

Instructor’s Name

2

Proper Formatting for Headings, Citations, and References

APA Style formatting is required for all work in this course. This document is designed

to cover the three most common components of APA formatting, including the use of headings,

citations, and references.

Headings in APA Style

Headings guide readers through manuscripts more efficiently and are expected to be

included in all written assignments in graduate school. Headings are a way to show the outline of

the logic flow of information. The process is quite similar to the outlining skills most students

learned in elementary school. Typically, students use main-level headings and sub-headings but

students are free to use up to five levels of heading as needed.

Main Level Headings

The main headings in a document are referred to as level one headings (APA, 2020). An

example of a level one heading is the “Headings” line at the top of the previous paragraph. These

level one headings are centered and use title case, which means that the main words are

capitalized (APA, 2020). Level one headings are in bold font. In general, students are expected

to create a short introduction in this paragraph related to the first main point before including any

level two sub-headings.

Level Two Sub-Headings

Depending on the length of an assignment, students are expected to include level two

and, sometimes, level three headings. Level two headings are sub-headings under the main level

one headings. Level two headings are aligned to the left of the page like a regular sentence.

Level two headings still use title case for the words and are still in bold font (APA, 2020). In

addition, the first three levels of headings contain no punctuation at the end of the heading. See

3

an example of proper level two formatting in the “Level Two Sub-Headings” line above this

paragraph.

Heading Rules

Regarding headings, the rule is that there must be at least two headings in the same level

in the same section of a document or that level of heading should not be used at all. In other

words, if there is one level two heading underneath a main level one heading, there must be at

least a second level two heading as well. There should never be only one level two heading

underneath a level one heading. Readers will note that this example paper contains three level

two headings underneath the main “Headings” heading.

Citations in APA Style

Student assignments must be based on knowledge gathered from various academic

sources. Often, students will be asked to also include personal reflections on various topics but

those reflections should always be anchored to scholarly sources. To show in the document

where outside sources have been used, APA Style requires the use of citations rather than

footnotes. There are a few different types of citations based on student preference and the source

being used. All citations include the authors’ last names and the year of publication. For direct

quote citations, the page number where the quoted material appears in the original source is also

included in the citation, after the year of publication. The various citations formats will be

described below.

Normal Citations

The most commonly used form of citation is to cite an article at the end of a sentence

within parentheses. The next sentence will serve as an example of that process. Crises only rarely

involve a single person (James & Gilliland, 2017). Please note that there is no comma between

4

the authors names but there is a comma before the year of publication. Additionally, when

ending a sentence with a citation like this, the punctuation mark always goes on the right-hand

side of the parentheses rather than putting the punctuation before the parentheses. Normal

citations are used when information is paraphrased from a source using the students’ own words

instead of a direct quote from the source.

Narrative Citations

Narrative citations are an alternate version of the normal citation in which the authors’

last names are also included in the body of the actual sentence. This formatting is used to create a

bit of variety in citation styles within a manuscript. The next sentence will serve as an example

of how to format a narrative citation using the same basic information as the example in the

previous section. James and Gilliland (2017) noted that crises tend to be more social in nature

and rarely only involve a single person. Note that with this citation format, if the source has two

authors, “and” is used rather than “&”. Ampersands (“&”) are only used inside of parentheses

and in the reference section. Again, just like the normal citation, the information cited is not a

direct quote, so no page number is included in this citation.

Direct Quote Citations

The over-use of direct quotes is discouraged in graduate programs. Using several direct

quotes in student writing is a hallmark of undergraduate-level writing. In graduate school,

students are encouraged to work toward communicating the idea of a source by using the

student’s own words and thought process. Students should paraphrase source information in their

own words, as if they were explaining the concept to a friend. Direct quotes should be used for

those really special quotes where the author has said something in a way that is really special and

powerful and you want to highlight that for your readers. When citing a direct quote, the same

5

information from a normal citation is included, along with the page number where the quoted

material appears in the original source.

The following sentence will serve as an example for a direct quote citation. “Individual

crisis is really something of an oxymoron, because as most crises unfold, they rarely remain

confined to one person” (James & Gilliland, 2017, p. 10). When ending a sentence with a direct

quote citation, the final quotation mark is included before the citation. The punctuation mark for

the sentence is included after the citation. No punctuation mark should be included after the last

quoted word before the final quotation mark.

“et al.” Citations for Works With More Than Two Authors

Many sources are authored by three or more people. Any source that is authored by more

than two people will require an et al. citation format. The term “et al.” is Latin for “and others”

but for some reason, the Latin word for “others” is long enough that it is abbreviated in this

format, which is why there is a period after “al”. The following sentence will serve as an

example of this citation style. Researchers sought to compare two different types of prevention

efforts related to adolescent depression (Young et al., 2016). Alternatively, the next sentence is

an example of how to cite that same information as a narrative citation. Young et al. (2016)

sought to compare two different types of prevention efforts related to adolescent depression. A

common mistake students make when using this citation format is to include a comma after the

first author’s last name. Because the phrase “et al.” means “and others”, no comma would be

needed after the first author’s last name in the citation.

“as cited in” Citations

Textbooks are wonderful things; they give students information from tons of different

sources within a single volume. However, complications can arise if a student wants to cite

6

information found in a textbook, or any other source, where the source is citing another source.

As an example, the Neukrug (2017) textbook cites an article by Laska et al. (2014). If a student

wanted to use the information attributed to Laska et al., and the student has not actually read the

Laska et al. source, the student would need to use an “as cited in” citation format. The following

sentence will serve as an example of that citation format style. Many graduate programs in

counseling offer some training in evidence-based practice techniques but students generally

need more training after graduation (Laska et al., 2014, as cited in Neukrug, 2017). When using

this type of citation, the Laska et al. source would not be included in the reference section and

does not count as an official source for grading purposes. Instead, the Neukrug source would be

listed in the reference section because that is the source used by the student for this

information.

Reference Formatting Reminders

Please see the reference list on the last page for examples of various sources. A couple

of additional sources have been added to the reference section to give students plenty of

examples. Shirk et al. (2009) and Rygh and Sanderson (2004) have been added to the reference

list. Shirk et al. (2009) is an example of an article that contains a clearly noted DOI number; if an

article shows a DOI number but has it listed differently than what you see in the Shirk example

below, convert it to the format shown in the Shirk example because it is the latest version of

how to list a DOI. On that point, Young et al. (2016) is an example of an article without a clearly

noted DOI number. If the DOI number is not clearly noted on the title page of an electronic

article, format the article as if it were the physical copy of the article. Never include the long

URL for where the article is housed in the database. The Rygh and Sanderson (2004) reference

7

is another example, along with Neukrug (2017), of how to format the reference for a book

source.

There are three common mistakes students make in regard to reference formatting. The

first mistake is italicizing the title of a journal article rather than the name of the Journal in

which the article appears. The title of a journal article is never italicized. Instead, italicize all

journal names. The second mistake is capitalizing all the main words of a book title or an article

title. Only the first word of a book or article title should be capitalized in the reference section.

The only exception to this rule would be that if the title includes a colon or some other

punctuation mark, you would capitalize the first word after the punctuation as well. The third

common mistake relates to the way each source is indented in the reference section. Rather

than indenting each source like a normal paragraph would be indented, students should use

reverse indentions for each source in the reference section. To do this, every line of a source

EXCEPT the first line should be indented. It's basically the opposite of how you would format a

paragraph. See the reference section on the next page for examples.

Conclusion

APA formatting may seem daunting at first but, in the long run, the rules are fairly

straightforward and clear. As students put effort into learning the formatting rules and reviewing

various examples, the process of formatting gets much easier. One last thing to keep in mind is

that the reference section always starts on the next page down rather than immediately after the

conclusion paragraph.

8

References

American Psychological Association. (n.d.b). APA style: Title page setup. American

Psychological Association. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-

format/title-page

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological

Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association.

James, R. K. & Gilliland, B. E. (2017). Crisis interventionsStrategies (8th Edition). Cengage

Learning.

Neukrug, E. S. (2017). A brief orientation to counseling: Professional identity, history, and

standards (2nd ed.). Cengage Learning.

Shirk, S. R., Kaplinski, H., & Gudmundsen, G. (2009). School-based cognitive-behavioral

therapy for adolescent depression: A benchmarking study. Journal of Emotional and

Behavioral Disorders, 17(2), 106-117. http://doi.org/10.1177/1063426608326202

Rygh, J. L., & Sanderson, W. C. (2004). Treating generalized anxiety

disorder: Evidence-based strategies, tools, and techniques. The Guilford Press.

Young, J. F., Benas, J. S., Schueler, C. M., Gallop, R., Ghillham, J. E., & Mufson, L. (2016). A

randomized depression prevention trial comparing interpersonal psychotherapy -

Adolescent skills training to group counseling in schools. Prevention Science, 17(3), 314-

324.