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MKTG522—APA Guidelines and Writing Tips
APA Guidelines and Writing Tips
General Information on APA Format
APA format represents a writing style for most academic papers in a college environment. If students follow this style, they will have well-organized essays that will be constructed to effectively avoid plagiarism. Although a lot of students consider this format to be complicated, it involves a lot of basic steps that are easy to understand if they are explained correctly. These steps involve the basic format of the paper, parenthetical citations for source information, and an organized reference page.
Basic Format
The basic format for APA involves the title page, page numbering, and spacing of the entire essay. The title page itself must include a running head, the title of the essay, the author, and the university where the paper is presented. A sample title page would have information like the following.
Differences Among 1
Running head: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
Differences Among Victims of Domestic Abuse and Victims of Cult Abuse
Clara E. Gerl
Northwestern State University
As seen in the title page above, the pages are numbered with a short version of the title before the page number itself. This is placed on the upper right-hand side of each page. It is important that the short version of the title is placed on every page number. The spacing of the entire essay deals with the margins and the spaces between the lines of text. All margins in APA format are 1 inch and everything in APA is double spaced.
Parenthetical or In-text Citation
Any time a writer has specific information that comes from a certain source, it must be cited. If things are not properly cited, then the author is plagiarizing by not giving credit where it is due. The basics for parenthetical citation are that the author’s last name and the year that the article or journal was published must be clear within the text. A sample citation could read “(Dunn, 1991)”; if there is no author available, an abbreviated version of the title could be used. For instance, if someone was citing from an article called “California Cigarette Sales Fall 10% in September of 1998” but there was no author for this work, the citation could read (“California,” 1998).
All parenthetical citations within the essay must refer to the references page. For every entry on the reference page, there should be at least one parenthetical citation. Without the references page, the audience would never be able to understand exactly where the information could be found. This is essential because a good references page will give a lot of credibility to anyone as a writer.
References List
The basic format for source on a separate references page is to list the author’s last name first, then list the first initial of the first name only. After that, the date of the publication is listed, then the title of the source itself is written. The last two things to be written are the location where the work was published, and then the publishing company. Specific page numbers can be listed at the end as well. A sample references page is seen on the next page. The references page comes at the end of the paper on its own page.
Note: Everything is double spaced. The sources are not indented on the first line, but the second lines are indented using the hanging-indent feature (See Format>Paragraph.) in MS Word.
References
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Online Periodical, volume number (issue number if available). Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
Bernstein, M. (2002). 10 tips on writing the living Web. A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 149. Retrieved from http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving
Smyth, A. M., Parker, A. L., & Pease, D. L. (2002). A study of enjoyment of peas. Journal of Abnormal Eating, 8(3), 120-125.
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
Parker-Pope, T. (2008, May 6). Psychiatry handbook linked to drug industry. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
Student Resources (link found under Course Home)
Writing Source
These mini video tutorials contain helpful writing information.
HELPFUL APA LINKS
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch09_o.html
http://www.ccp.rpi.edu/resources/handouts/citation-styles/apa-style/
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/researchsources/documentation/apa/index.cfm
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
Tips to Enhance Writing Effectiveness
1. Use the page header function in Word. Do not manually put in the page header by using page breaks.
2. Double-space paragraphs and indent the first line of each paragraph. Avoid using paragraph formatting to add space above or after text.
3. Do not hard key (hit Enter) at the end of each line to create manual line breaks. Let the text flow and break at the end of a paragraph. This will create problems with the grammar and spelling checkers.
4. Use the outline provided in the assignment instructions as headings and subheadings in your paper.
5. A good paragraph focuses on one theme of thought. The best paragraphs are those that do not exceed 6–8 lines. Paragraphs that are longer than 6–8 lines result in the human eye becoming "lost in a sea of of words."
6. The best sentences are those that contain fewer than 25 words. The longer the sentence, the more punctuation is required, and the more difficulty a person has reading and comprehending that which you have written.
7. Sentences should have commas when the sentence begins with a dependent phrase. A dependent phrase is a phrase that cannot stand by itself. Here’s an example: After you read this, you will remember the comma.
8. Sentences and phrases should not end in a "dangling" preposition—this includes to, for, about, toward, on, under, and so on. These sentences should be reworded so the preposition appears within the sentence.
9. Avoid starting sentences repeatedly with the same words: the, there, this, we, they. Vary the structure of your sentences.
10. Write in third person—avoid using I, you, your, and we.
11. As a rule, avoid using contractions in your paper: don't, won't, it's, didn't, shouldn't, and so on. Write out both words instead.
12. To and too are two different words. Too means "in addition," "besides," "also," or "to an excessive degree." To is a preposition that means "movement towards." When it is used at the end of a sentence, it is correct to use a comma before too.
13. There and there are two different words. There is a place—notice the word there includes the word here. Their is the possessive form—it contains the word heir (as in "heir to the throne”). Here is an example: “The speedboat is their pride and joy!” Lose and loose are two different words. Lose is as in lost. Loose is as in "baggy."
14. Numbers below 10 that stand by themselves are written as words—instead of using 5, use five.
15. Periods and commas go inside the quotation marks. Semicolons and colons go outside.
16. Semicolons are used to separate two independent phrases (or sentences) that are closely related. An independent phrase is a sentence; it can stand alone. There may also be a comma to separate a conjunction (e.g., however).
17. Cities and states have commas that follow them—"I lived in Havertown, Pennsylvania, as well as in Amherst, New Hampshire.”
18. When you use the word which in a sentence, it should almost always be preceded by a comma. When you use the word but in a sentence, it is almost always preceded by a comma when the phrase that follows is a sentence. The use of that and which and who and whom are frequently interchanged, though incorrectly. Who and whom refer to human beings. That and which refer to inanimate objects, such as companies.
19. Use grammar and spell check features. Proof your work slowly. Look for those red or green "squiggle" lines that often will appear under several words or an entire sentence. These suggest that your Microsoft grammar and spell check have detected a likely error. These could be errors in spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and so on. Use your cursor to hover over the squiggle line, then right click. Although such squiggle lines are not always accurate when it comes to detecting an error, more often than not, you will find that they are correct.
Remember: You can post questions in the Q & A Forum for your instructor. Your classmates may have the same question and will be glad that you asked it first.
