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Basics of APA Style (21 min)
This tutorial is a series of videos introducing you to APA style.
How do I use APA's Editorial Style?
APA's Editorial Style is a set of guidelines and rules to help you format and write in a professional and academic manner. APA style uses in-text citations that refer readers to your list of references. Citing sources within your writing and creating a reference list are two separate processes. Ultimately, any in-text citation should refer readers to a source in your reference list, AND any source included in your reference list should be cited within your text. Brief information and examples of both in-text citation and the reference list are presented below. Please refer to chapters 6 & 7 of the APA manual (2009) for more detailed discussions of these topics. You can also refer to this APA Formatting Checklist for a quick look at the guidelines and rules of APA Editorial Style. Please watch Basics of APA Style for more information and examples of the elements listed below.
An in-text citation includes:
- The author(s) of the source,
- The date of publication;
- A page number for direct quotations and paraphrases.
The reference list includes:
- A list of the works cited in your paper (alphabetical order by author's last name.
- Each citation includes some common elements, such as author/creator, title of work, source of work, publication date, and location and company of publication.
This editorial style works to establish a uniform approach in writing, including:
- Common stylistic considerations such as voice, margins, and spacing
- Formatting of headings and tables headings
- Punctuation of text and abbreviation of terms
- Citation of references
- Presentation of statistics
*For a sample paper in APA style please see chapter 2 of your APA Style Manual.
The application of APA rules to your scholarly writing is expected to:
- Sustain a consistent format for your writing
- Give your readers ready access to the sources supporting your research
- Provide your writing the credibility of widely accepted research and writing conventions
- Establish a writing approach that guards against plagiarism
Using Digital Object Identifiers or URLs in Citation
When citing electronic sources, provide the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) in your reference. If the source you are referencing does not have a DOI listed you can search crossref.org by author, title, ISSN, or the entire citation to find the DOI. If your source does not have a DOI, you can provide the homepage URL of the document instead. [Note: This will be a homepage for the original Journal, Book, or Publisher.] If you have accessed the document from a database (e.g., Ebsco) generally you will not list the database's URL, instead you will need to go directly to the source of the document and use that pulisher's URL. Exceptions to this rule include archival documents that can only be found in databases.
The rules for when to use a DOI and when to use a URL can be complicated. To help with any confusion, refer to Chapter 6 of your APA style manual and/or consult the flow chart above.
Configuring Microsoft Word for APA Style
The video to the right demostrates how to set up APA formatting requirements in Microsoft Word and addresses in-text citations and the reference list. Please refer to chapters 6 & 7 of the APA manual for more detailed discussions of these topics.
Note: This video demonstrates APA formatting on a PC; Mac commands may be slightly different.
