Fillable Printable Guide for Writing APA Style
Fillable Printable Guide for Writing APA Style
Guide for Writing APA Style
Running head: GUIDE TO APA FORMATTING 1
Guide to APA Formatting and Style
NU Psychology Department
National University
GUIDE TO APA FORMATTING 2
Table of Contents
Page
List of Tables....................................................................................................................................7
Abstract........................................................................................................................................... 8
Formatting....................................................................................................................................... 9
Setting Up MS Word for Effective APA Formatting............................................................9
Interpreting icons.....................................................................................................9
Show/Hide icon......................................................................................................10
Setting default font.................................................................................................10
Setting default line spacing to double space..........................................................10
Eliminating space before and after paragraphs......................................................11
Show Ruler.............................................................................................................11
General Formatting Rules................................................................................................. 12
Margins and alignment..........................................................................................12
Spacing...................................................................................................................12
Typeface.................................................................................................................12
Running head and page numbers...........................................................................13
Headings................................................................................................................15
Formats of Different Manuscript Sections.........................................................................16
Title page................................................................................................................16
Author note............................................................................................................16
Other title page information...................................................................................16
Table of contents....................................................................................................17
GUIDE TO APA FORMATTING 3
Page
Abstract..................................................................................................................18
Keywords...............................................................................................................18
Title on first page of text........................................................................................18
Introduction............................................................................................................18
Other sections of the manuscript............................................................................19
References..............................................................................................................19
Tables and figures..................................................................................................20
Appendices and supplemental materials................................................................20
Citations.........................................................................................................................................21
General Citation Rules.......................................................................................................21
Citation Formats.................................................................................................................23
One author..............................................................................................................23
Two authors............................................................................................................23
Three to five authors..............................................................................................24
Six or more authors................................................................................................24
Group or organizational authors............................................................................25
Citing two or more sources together......................................................................25
Material with no author identified.........................................................................26
Citing an author within a secondary source...........................................................26
Citing the same reference more than once in a paragraph.....................................27
Quotations......................................................................................................................... 27
Short quotations.....................................................................................................28
GUIDE TO APA FORMATTING 4
Page
Long quotations (block quotations).......................................................................29
Quotations within quotations (nested quotations)..................................................30
Inserting material into a quotation.........................................................................30
Omitting material from a quotation.......................................................................31
Adding emphasis within a quotation......................................................................31
Documenting References...............................................................................................................31
Journal Articles..................................................................................................................33
One author..............................................................................................................35
Two through seven authors....................................................................................35
More than seven authors........................................................................................35
Journal article obtained from an online database...................................................35
What is a digital object identifier (DOI)?..............................................................36
Journal article with a DOI......................................................................................36
Journal article from an internet-only journal without a DOI.................................37
Article from an annual publication........................................................................38
Books.................................................................................................................................38
Book with no author identified..............................................................................39
Book with one author.............................................................................................39
Book with two or more authors.............................................................................39
Book by a group or organization...........................................................................40
Book indicating “with” author(s)...........................................................................41
Article or chapter in an edited book.......................................................................41
GUIDE TO APA FORMATTING 5
Page
Entire edited book..................................................................................................41
Magazine Articles..............................................................................................................42
Authored magazine article.....................................................................................42
Magazine article with no author identified............................................................42
Newspaper Articles............................................................................................................43
Online Articles...................................................................................................................43
Online journal, magazine, newspaper, or newsletter article..................................43
Online article from a sponsored or titled website..................................................44
Website article/information with no author identified...........................................44
Undated articles.....................................................................................................45
Plagiarism..................................................................................................................................... 45
An Example of Inadvertent Plagiarism..............................................................................46
What is wrong with this citation?..........................................................................46
Correct citation using a quotation..........................................................................47
Correct citation using paraphrasing.......................................................................47
Deliberate Plagiarism.........................................................................................................48
Self-Plagiarism...................................................................................................................48
Important Additional Information on Organizing a Manuscript....................................................48
Heading Levels and Formats.............................................................................................48
Useful Websites for APA Style...........................................................................................49
Major Style Changes From the Publication Manual 5
th
Edition to the 6
th
Edition.............51
References......................................................................................................................................53
GUIDE TO APA FORMATTING 6
Page
Index..............................................................................................................................................55
GUIDE TO APA FORMATTING 7
List of Tables
Page
Table 1. Instructions for Creating a Running Head and Page Numbers...................................... 14
Table 2. APA Heading Levels and Formats.................................................................................. 49
GUIDE TO APA FORMATTING 8
Abstract
This guide is intended to aid students studying psychology and other social and behavioral
sciences in learning and applying American Psychological Association (APA) style. It is based
on the 6
th
edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
(American Psychological Association, 2010). This guide covers the most important style and
formatting elements of the APA manual, including manuscript layout, citations, quotations,
references, and plagiarism. The guide is not a complete description of the information in the APA
manual, but does provide enough detail to assist students in mastering the fundamentals of APA
formatting and style. Most psychology journals request abstracts of between 150 and 250 words,
but if you are submitting a manuscript for publication, check with the journal, because
requirements vary. In addition, most psychology journals now request that authors provide a list
of approximately 6 keywords that indicate the major topics covered by the manuscript, formatted
as shown below.
Keywords: APA style, formatting, citations, quotations, references, plagiarism
GUIDE TO APA FORMATTING 9
Guide to APA Formatting and Style
This document, referred to hereafter as the guide, provides an explanation of basic
formatting and style elements of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association (American Psychological Association [APA], 2010), referred to hereafter as the
publication manual or APA manual. For more complete guidance, purchase the publication
manual from the American Psychological Association or an online service such as Amazon.com,
or locate a copy through the NU Library or many public or academic library systems. The
complete title in reference format is as follows:
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association (6
th
ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Formatting
This Guide is written and formatted in APA style, which allows the user to see what APA
style should look like even without referring to the written content of the guide. Therefore, if the
style and formatting of your document look different from this one, refer either to this guide or to
the publication manual to revise those elements that are incorrect. An index has been provided at
the end of this guide to aid you in finding the formatting elements you wish to investigate.
Setting Up MS Word for Effective APA Formatting
In starting, there are a few general recommendations for enabling Microsoft Word to
function effectively in writing and formatting APA manuscripts. These recommendations allow
you do view the effects of your formatting on the computer screen.
Interpreting icons. When navigating around the menus, if you are having trouble finding
an icon or determining what function a particular icon has, all you have to do is rest the cursor
GUIDE TO APA FORMATTING 10
over a particular icon for a second or two, and a small window will appear to tell you the name,
and in some cases, the purpose of the icon.
Show/Hide icon. Click on the Show/Hide icon (the paragraph symbol in the upper right-
hand corner of the Home, Paragraph area) so that all formatting symbols can be seen. This will
allow you to see paragraph marks, spaces between words, tab symbols, and other marks, so that
you are not formatting “in the blind.” Without the ability to see these symbols, you will be
unable to format your paper effectively and see the results of your formatting.
Setting default font. Setting the default font to Times New Roman makes it easier to
work with your file. To do this, click on Home. Then click on the small icon in the lower right-
hand corner of the Font area. In the Font window, select (a) Times New Roman as the font, (b)
Regular as the Font Style, and (c) 12 as the Size. Then, at the bottom of the window, click on Set
as Default, then click OK. This should make Times New Roman the default for the entire file.
When working with your file, selecting another option such as italic for specific words will
change only those words without changing the default.
Setting default line spacing to double space. All manuscripts must be double spaced to
conform to APA style. In Home, click on small icon in the lower right-hand corner of the
Paragraph section. In the Indents and Spacing window, Under Indentation, ensure that the Left
and Right values are 0, then under Special, click on the down arrow to bring down the menu, and
select First Line. Under Spacing, ensure that the values for Before and After are 0 pt., then under
Line Spacing, click on the down arrow to bring down the menu and click on Double. This should
ensure that your manuscript is double spaced without extra space above or below the paragraphs.
When you set the default option for indented paragraphs, you will need to remember to
remove the indent before centering title-page information and headings. You can do this by
GUIDE TO APA FORMATTING 11
placing the cursor to the left of the paragraph mark in the selected paragraph and hitting
backspace before centering. If you do not do this, centered paragraphs will be offset ¼ inch to
the right. You can check proper centering by making sure that paragraphs are centered at 3¼ inch
on the ruler. (See Show ruler below.)
Eliminating space before and after paragraphs. In Word 2007 and later versions of
Word, Microsoft instituted a default format that automatically adds an 8-point or 10-point space
after each paragraph, which is contrary to APA style. If you did not set default line spacing using
the instructions above, you can manually reformat your manuscript to eliminate these spaces, but
you will often find that if you make subsequent changes to your manuscript, the extra space will
reappear in the edited areas. You can make this change manually in one of two ways. In either
case, first highlight the areas in which you need to eliminate extra space after paragraphs. The
first option is to click on Home, and in the Paragraph section, click on Line and Paragraph
Spacing (the icon in the bottom row with the up-and-down arrows; called simply Line Spacing in
some earlier versions of Word). Then, if the options at the bottom of the menu say Remove
Space Before/After Paragraph, click on these options to remove the space. The second way to do
this is to click on Page Layout, and in the Paragraph section, ensure that the values are 0 in both
the Before and After boxes.
Show Ruler. A third helpful action is to show the ruler just below the menu section
above the document shown on the screen. If you do not see a ruler above your document, go to
View, Show/Hide (or Show in Word 2013), and click on the box to the left of Ruler. If you have
Word 2010 or earlier, you can go to the upper right-hand corner of the working area and click on
the ruler icon, just above the “up” arrow. By showing the ruler, you will be able to set indentation
settings and see whether centered headings and titles are centered correctly.
