APA for Nursing

Basic Info

APA FOR NURSING STUDENTS
Make sure your essay Standard vs. Student formats
• is typed, double-spaced
• is printed on standard 8.5”x11” paper APA provides guidelines for manuscript formatting but
• has 1” margins on all sides not specifically for student papers. For students, many
• uses 12 pt. Times New Roman or a similar font instructors use their own variation on the standard APA
format.
• includes a page header (short title and page number)
in the upper right of every page
Check with your instructor if you’re not sure which to
use.

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Standard Title Page

Page header:
(use Insert Header & Footer)
2-3 words of the title+
5 spaces +page number

Running head for publication :
(on the first line, flush-left, max 50 characters
long)
Running Head + colon + abbreviated
title in ALL CAPS

Title: (in the upper half of the page,
centered)
full title + name + affiliation
(university, etc.)

For more on title pages see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

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Student Title Page

Page header:
(use Insert Header & Footer)
2-3 words of the title+
5 spaces +page number

No running head for publication

Title: (centered)
full title + name + instructor’s name
+ course title (NUR 106, etc.) + date

For more on title pages see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

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Abstract

Page header

Abstract (centered, at the
top of the page)

Write a brief (120 words or
fewer) summary of your paper in
an accurate, concise, and specific
manner.

Type the paragraph in block
format—without indentation.

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Main Body Text

Page header

Title (centered, at top)

Although the first
paragraph is the
introduction, never use
the heading
“Introduction” to start
your paper

For more see the sample APA paper at http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/pdf/Hacker-Mira-APA-2010.pdf

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Headings

Regardless of
the number of
levels, always
use the
headings in
order, beginning
Level Format with level 1

1 Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Headings

2 Left-aligned, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading

3 Indented, boldface, lowercase heading with a period.

Indented, boldface, italicized, lowercase heading with a
4
period.

5 Indented, italicized, lowercase heading with a period.

For more see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/16/

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In-text Citation

Exact quotation, introduced with signal phrase Exact quotation, no signal phrase
As Davis (1978) reported, "If the existence of a signing
ape was unsettling for linguists, it was also startling news "If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling for
for animal behaviorists" (p. 26). linguists, it was also startling news for animal
behaviorists" (Davis, 1978, p. 26).

Rule: Introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that
includes the author's last name followed by the date of Rule: When the author's name does not appear in the
publication in parentheses. Put the page number in
parentheses at the end of the quotation before the signal phrase, place the author's name, the date, and the
ending punctuation mark. page number in parentheses at the end of the quotation.
Use commas between items in the parentheses.

For more see http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/citations/index.html?page=apa_intext

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In-text Citation

Exact quotation, more than 40 words

Students having a hard time finding databases isn't a new
phenomenon. At the University of Washington, they have
problems too.

With the addition of so many new databases to the
campus online system, many students were having
Indent; no
difficulty locating the database they needed. At the
quotation marks
same time, the role of Session Manager had evolved.
The increased importance of the Session Manager as a
selection tool made it a part of the navigation process
itself. (Eliasen, 1997, p. 510)

Citation comes last


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In-text Citation

Two authors, with and without signal phrase 3-5 authors, first reference and subsequent
citations
(with signal) Patterson and Linden (1981) agreed that the
gorilla Koko acquired language more slowly than a (first reference) The study noted a fluctuating divorce
normal speaking child. rate in Middletown between the 1920s and the 1970s
(Caplow, Bahr, Chadwick, Hill, & Williamson, 1982).

(without signal) Koko acquired language more slowly (next references) While the incidence of wife abuse may
than a normal speaking child (Patterson & Linden, 1981). not be higher than in the past, the researchers found
that women were more willing to report it (Caplow et al.,
1982).

6 or more authors?
Always use “et al.”

Rule: Work with 3-5 authors: In the first reference to
Rule: Work with two authors: In the first reference to
such a work, list all authors. In subsequent citations, use
work, list both authors.
the first author's name followed by "et al." (note the
period after the word "al").


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In-text Citation

No author No page numbers, often from “HTML full-text”
articles
("Former FBI Agent," 2007)
(Myers, 2000, para. 5)

...as seen in Preparing for the GRE (2003). (Beutler, 2000, Conclusion section, para. 1)

Rule: When citing from a source with no author given, or Rule: When citing from a source that does not provide
when citing from legal materials, use the first few words page numbers (such as an electronic source), use
of the reference list entry (usually the title) and the year paragraph numbers if available, or the name of the
as your citation. Place article, web page, chapter, and section followed by the number of the paragraph within
section titles in double quotation marks, and italicize the that section.
titles of books, periodicals, reports, and websites. When
a work's author is designated as "Anonymous," cite in
text the word Anonymous followed by a comma and the
date: (Anonymous, 1998).


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References

Print book Print Scholarly Journal Article

Scholarly Journal Article from a
Electronic book Database

For more on reference types see http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/citations

Reference Page

Page header

Double space References
(centered, at top)
reference entries

First line flush-left;
other lines are
indented.
(Use Paragraph to insert
hanging indent, manually
indent ½”, or manually insert 5
spaces)

Alphabetize by last name

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APA for Nursing

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