Target audience: students or faculty who use APA style in school or in published work. Covers helpful resources and tools, writing style, reducing bias in writing, mechanical style, headings, in-text citations, DOI, and reference list.

1. APA: The Inside Scoop
Jody Bailey
Director of Publishing
Liaison Librarian to Linguistics and TESOL
University of Texas at Arlington Libraries
jbailey@uta.edu

2. Crucial Tools!
 Database & Library website citation tools
 APA’s 2012 Style Guide to Electronic
References:
http://pulse.uta.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bi
bId=1963538
 Video Tutorial: How to Format Your Paper
in APA Style:
http://libraries.uta.edu/video/instruction/ap
aformatting/intro.htm

3. Writing Style: The Basics
 Having trouble with expressing ideas? Read
APA’s Publication Manual, 6th ed. (PM), pp. 65-
70. Main topics: continuity in presentation of
ideas, smoothness of expression, tone,
economy of expression, and precision and
clarity.
 See also grammar and usage (active/passive
verbs, s/v agreement, pronouns, misplaced or
dangling modifiers, relative pronouns, and
parallelism; PM, pp. 77-86).

4. Can You Spot the Problem?
 The criteria we used to determine
inclusion is shown in Table 1.
 The students whom we found scored
below average were in Group A.
 The group of participants who we
classified as the youngest was tested first.
 The experiment tested the participants
following this method.
 Before testing the participants, the control
group was evaluated.

5. Writing Style: Reducing Bias
 Very important! Avoid bias on the basis of
gender, sexual orientation, racial/ethnic identity,
disability, and age. Avoid “the” + adjective (e.g.,
“the elderly”; PM, pp. 71-77).
 Main point: Always call people what they wish to
be called (e.g., Hispanic or Latino?), and always
put the person before the disability or disorder
(e.g., “people with disabilities” not “the disabled”
and especially not “the wheelchair-bound”!).

6. Mechanics of Style
 Review all punctuation usage (PM, pp. 87-
96). Important! APA uses the serial (aka
Oxford) comma.
 Spelling: House dictionary is Merriam-
Webster’s Collegiate (2005). See Table 4.2
(PM, p. 99) for nonhyphenated
prefixes/suffixes.
 Review capitalization (PM, pp. 101-104),
italics (PM, pp. 104-106), and abbreviation
rules (PM, pp. 106-111).

7. Mechanics: Numbers
 Use numerals: all numbers 10+, numbers that precede
units of measurement, statistical/math functions, time,
dates, ages, scores, points on a scale, money (PM, pp.
111-112).
 Use words: numbers nine and below (except as noted
above), numbers at start of sentence, and common
fractions (PM, 112).
 Ordinals: use same rules as cardinals.
 Use metric system for measurements (PM, pp. 114-115).
 Statistical and mathematical copy (PM, pp. 116-124).

8. Heading Styles (PM, p. 62)

9. In-Text Citations
 The PM’s section on in-text citations is extremely helpful
(pp. 174-179).
 Examples:
Walker and Bailey (2000) compared reaction times . . . .
In a recent study of reaction times (Walker & Bailey, 2000)
. . . .
 Two authors? Cite both names every time.
 Three to five authors? Cite all names the first time, then
cite only the first author followed by “et al.” on subsequent
citations.
 Six or more authors? Cite only the first author followed by
“et al.” on all citations.
 Provide page number if info comes from specific place in
your text or if you are quoting.

10. In-Text Citations
PM, p. 177

11. Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
 “Provides a means of persistent identification
for managing information on digital networks”
(PM, p. 188)
 “A DOI is a unique alphanumeric string . . . to
identify content and provide a persistent link
to its location on the Internet” (PM, p. 189)
 DOI is analogous to ISBN.
 Watch this video to learn how to find the DOI.

12. Reference List
 If a source has a DOI, always use it, no
matter what type of source it is!
 Periodical (print OR online):
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C.
(2007). Title of article. Title of Periodical, xx, xxx-
xxx. doi:xx-xxxxxxxxx
 Online periodical with no DOI:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C.
(2000). Title of article. Title of Periodical, xx, xxx-
xxx. Retrieved from http://www.xxxxxxxx
URL of open-access article or periodical’s home page

13. Reference List (cont’d.)
 Book:
 Author, A. A. (1994). Title of work. Location: Publisher.
 Author, A. A. (1998). Title of work. Retrieved from
http://www.xxxxxxxx
 Author, A. A. (2008). Title of work. doi:xxxxxxxx
 Editor, A. A. (Ed.). (1994). Title of work. Location:
Publisher.
 Book chapter:
 Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (1994). Title of chapter. In
A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp.
xxx-xxx). Location: Publisher.

14. Practice
Formulate a correct APA
reference for each of the
following sources

15. Johnson, A. M., Jent, S., & Reynolds, L. (2007).
Library instruction and information literacy 2006.
Reference Services Review, 35(4), 584-640.
doi:10.1108/00907320710838408
JOURNAL ARTICLE

16. Gibson, C. (2008). History of information literacy. In C.
N. Cox & E. B. Lindsay (Eds.), Information literacy
instruction handbook (pp. 10–25). Chicago, IL:
Association of College and Research Libraries.
CHAPTER FROM
EDITED BOOK

17. WEBSITE
Gray, J. (2011). Strategic planning for diversity.
Retrieved from American Library Association website:
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/workplace/diver
sityplanning

18. Useful Resources
 From APA:
 Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed.
 APA’s 2012 Style Guide to Electronic References:
http://pulse.uta.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=1963538
 APA Style home page: http://apastyle.apa.org/
 APA Style Blog: http://blog.apastyle.org/
 APA Style FAQ: http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/index.aspx
 Learning APA Style: http://www.apastyle.org/learn/index.aspx
 From UTA:
 Our “Ask A Librarian” entry on APA style:
http://ask.uta.edu/a.php?qid=64563
 Formatting Your Paper: APA Style (video tutorial):
http://libraries.uta.edu/video/instruction/apaformatting/intro.htm
 UTA’s 2-page brochure on APA style:
http://library.uta.edu/sites/default/files/apa2014_1.pdf
 Other:
 The OWL at Purdue: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
 Northern Michigan University’s APA Guide:
http://library.nmu.edu/guides/userguides/style_apa.htm