This document provides guidance on formatting papers and citing sources according to APA style. It explains why citations are important, when to cite, basic APA formatting guidelines for papers, how to format in-text citations, the reference list, and examples of citing different source types such as books, ebooks, and journal articles. Special attention is given to formatting titles, parenthetical citations, reference list entries, and including necessary publication information for different source formats.

1. Formatting and Citations

2. Why cite your sources?
 To avoid honor code violations (student issue)
 To avoid plagiarism (scholarly community issue)
 To avoid copyright violations/legal action (public
issue)
 To give credit to others for their hard work
 To direct reader to more information about your topic

3. When to cite your sources:
 Any time you use information in a paper that you got
elsewhere, you should cite your source
 When paraphrasing, summarizing, giving conclusions
from a study, etc.
 When directly quoting from a source
 When in doubt, cite!

4. What is APA?
 Standard style used by scholars and students in the
social sciences to cite sources
 Developed by the American Psychological Association
 Gives guidelines for formatting research papers and
citing sources
• Manual looks like this:

5. How to format an APA paper:
 General guidelines:
 Times New Roman font, 12pt, double-spaced, 1-inch margins
 Pages are numbered consecutively throughout
 APA formatted papers include:
 a title page with running head
 an abstract (if required)
 in-text citations throughout body
 reference list with full citations

6. Title Page Format:

7. In-text Citations
 These are your short, parenthetical citations that you place
in the body of your text immediately following the material
you are citing
 Point to a corresponding full citation in your reference list
 Usually include the author’s last name and the publication
year
 The study concluded that people like pie (Jones, 1998).
 Can also include page number (if directly quoting from
source)
 “I like pie” (Jones, 1998, p. 50).

8. In-text Citations
 Three ways to cite in-text:
 1. As in previous examples, add the parenthetical citation to
the end of the material paraphrased.
 The study concluded that people like pie (Jones, 1998).
 2. Write the author’s name into the text and put the year in
parentheses after.
 Jones (1998) concluded that people like pie.
 3. Write as much of the citation as possible into the text (but
don’t forget parenthetical page numbers if you quote directly.)
 In 1998, Jones concluded that “people, on average, like pie” (p. 50).

9. In-text Citations

10. In-text Citations
 What if…
 There are two or three authors?
 (Smith & Jones, 1998)
 Smith, Jones and Leery (1998) conclude that…
 “I like pie” (Smith, Jones, & Leery, 1998, p. 50).
 There are more than three authors? Use et al., which just means “and others”
 Jones et al. (1998) concluded that people like pie.
 People like pie (Jones et al., 1998).
 There is no personal author? Use a corporate author. If there is no corporate
author, use the first few words of the title in the reference list
 Pie is unhealthy (USDA, 2010).
 Pie is really good for you (“Why Pie is Wonderful,” 2010).
 There is no date? Use n.d., which just stands for “no date”
 (Smith & Jones, n.d.)

11. Reference List Format
 Start your reference list on a new page (also numbered)
 Use the word “References” as your title, centered
 Arrange references alphabetically by the first word of the
citation (usually the author’s last name)
 Indent all but first line of every reference from left
 Double space throughout with no extra spaces between
title or references

13. References
 References are formatted slightly differently
depending on the type of source
 Most commonly cited sources for research papers are
scholarly books and journal articles. These can be
print or electronic
 There is a quick citation guide on the library website
with the format and examples of every type of source
you will encounter

14. References: BOOKS

15. References: BOOKS

16. References: eBOOKS
For an ebook, less publication information is needed. Just make sure you include
the name of the source in brackets, followed by “Retrieved from” and the
permalink.

17. References: Journal Articles
Journal articles begin like a book, but have different publication information.
Instead of the place of publication and publisher, you have a journal title, volume
and issue number, page range within the journal, and a doi (digital object
identifier) or permalink.

18. References: Journal Articles
DOI stands for “digital object identifier.” It is a unique number assigned to article
so that its information can be shared or retrieved quickly. Include it only if given;
otherwise use “Retrieved from” and the database OR permalink.

19. References: Journal Articles
 All the information you need for the citation is on the
article record in the database.
 PROQUEST EDUCATION JOURNALS
 ERIC JOURNALS
 WORLDCAT ARTICLES

20. Assignment
 Find one book about your topic using the resources
provided. It can be a print book or e-book. Cite the
book in APA format.
 Find two journal articles on your topic. One should be
from ERIC and the other should be from ProQuest.
Provide APA formatted citations for both.