Psychology APA Format Essay Paper

RCBC: Psy101 Spring 2018 1

About APA style: Academic disciplines require consistency of style. English, foreign language, and linguistic

professionals use the MLA (Modern Language Association); other humanities professionals use Chicago

Manual of Style. Medical professionals use the American Medical Association Manual of Style. Psychologists

and others in the human behavioral sciences, including educators, have adopted the Publication Manual of

the American Psychological Association, "the APA," as their guide.

 What is this paper about?

You will pick a Psychology topic and write a paper on that topic using published literature (books, magazine

articles, newspaper articles, published journals, websites with legitimate authors and information). See egg

below, the “Yolk” is the ideal types of sources you should use. This will make it easy for you to use APA

format. Your paper should only contain facts from your sources. You cannot include your own opinion or

experience. Your sources must have authors!

 How many sources?

You must have THREE reference sources. Sources are where you obtained the information about your paper.

You may use more than three sources if needed. You are only permitted to have 2 web sites- the 3 rd

source

must be some other type of source (journal, book, magazine news article). Web sites MUST HAVE AN

AUTHOR(S) or you cannot use it. Do not use your text book or Wikipedia as a source.

 How “long” should paper be? The main body of the paper (begins on page 3) is strictly content.

Content should be 3-5 pages long (it CANNOT exceed 5 pages of content!) A typical APA paper for this class is

6-8 pages total.

RCBC: Psy101 Spring 2018 2  When is it due? This assignment is due Thursday, March 1

st (printed out to hand to me in class). Do

not email the paper to me. It is your responsibility to prepare by printing it and stapling it together to turn in.

I cannot accept papers that are not stapled together.

Late papers: If you hand in: Tues, March 6 th

= 7 points off (**last day to turn in or take a zero)

The major element of this assignment is to use APA style. This includes APA rules for format, in-text citations

and writing up references properly according to APA guidelines.

General APA Guidelines

Your essay must be:

 Typed

 Double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11")

 1" margins on all sides.

 12 pt. Times New Roman font

**I posted a template to Bb to use for formating your paper. If you use this, you do not have to format your

title page, abstract, margins or font.

Major Paper Sections

Your paper must include four major sections:

 Title Page Abstract page Main Body Reference page

 First Section: Title Page

The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author's name, and the institutional affiliation. Include

the page header (described above) flush left with the page number flush right at the top of the page. Please note

that on the title page, your page header should look like this:

Running head: TITLE OF YOUR PAPER

Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centered in the upper half of the page. APA recommends that

your title be no more than 12 words in length and that it should not contain abbreviations or words that serve no

purpose. Your title may take up one or two lines. All text on the title page, and throughout your paper, should

be double-spaced. Beneath the title, type the author's name: first name, middle initial(s), and last name. Do not

use titles (Dr.) or degrees (Ph.D.).

Beneath the author's name, type the institutional affiliation, which should indicate the location where the

author(s) conducted the research.

RCBC: Psy101 Spring 2018 3  Second Section: Abstract Page

Begin a new page. Your abstract page should include the TITLE OF YOUR PAPER in caps without the word

Running head. On the first line of the abstract page, center the word “Abstract” (otherwise unformatted, no

bold, italics, underlining, or quotation marks).

Beginning with the next line, write a concise summary of the key points of your paper. (Do not indent.) The

abstract should be a single paragraph double-spaced minited to 150 words. Write this summary after your paper

is completed.

 Third Section: Main Body

Begin a new page. The body of the paper begins on a new page (page 3). Subsections of the body of the paper

do not begin on a new page. The introduction (which is not labeled) begins on the line following the paper title.

______________________________________________________________________

***About Plagiarism- You can plagiarize in two ways: by plagiarizing WORDS or by plagiarizing

IDEAS. When you use other people’s words or ideas in your writing, you MUST acknowledge the source.

Never copy works directly from your source without enclosing them in quotation marks and include

documentation. If you do not acknowledge that these words/ideas came from someone else, you have

plagiarized!

DO NOT:

 Recycle someone else’s paper

 Recycle a paper you did for another class (unless you speak with me about this)

 Mention anything in your paper that is personal/your opinion

 Hand in a paper with little/no in-text citations. See below for what that means…

_____________________________________________________________________________

In-text citations: Source material must be documented in the body of the paper by citing the author(s) and

date(s) of the sources. This is to give proper credit to the ideas and words of others. The reader can obtain the

full source citation from the list of references that follows the body of the paper.

APA is all about WHO said it and WHEN did they say it:

Your source will be listed by Author(s) last name (or organization who published it) and year source was

published:

(Adkins, 2003) or (Watson & Raynor, 1985) or

(National Association of Social Work [NASW], 1999)

*When no year is available for publication, use n.d. = No date. Do not assume it is 2017 unless it says!

(Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, n.d.)

RCBC: Psy101 Spring 2018 4

Direct quoting-

Only quote in your paper when absolutely necessary. Most papers should NOT have quoting- you don’t need

it. If you quote, you must direct the reader (me) to where the quote is…include page number(s) where quote

was printed (what page or paragraph the quote can be found on):

(Wegener & Petty, 1994, p. 159) or (Daily, 2005, para.2)

 Fourth Section: Reference Page –See other samples on Bb

Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and

retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference

list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text. Your references should begin on a new page

separate from the text of the essay; label this page References (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), centered at the

top of the page. It should be double-spaced.

On Bb there are links and information to help you!