APA
Style
Basics
APA (American Psychological Association) style is the most commonly used style of professional and technical writing in education and the behavioral sciences. Why? Because it is straight-forward, employs a minimum of distracting formatting such as foot- or endnotes, and is easier to read than most other formatting styles. You should be familiar with the basic elements of APA style not only so you can write your paper, but also so you can navigate in the professional education literature.
APA style is explained in-depth in the APA Publication Manual, which is available in the reference section of most libraries (at Augsburg there are several copies at the Reference Desk and several more on the reference shelves). This manual is primarily written for the professional researcher, enabling him or her to prepare professional manuscripts for publication. Because of this, the Publication Manual is somewhat daunting for the novice. If you do need to use it, the most important chapters are those focusing on the use of citations in text (chapter 2) and the various sections which explain the preferred writing style.
Probably the most
important feature of APA style is its manner of citing references in
text. There are two ways to cite authors in text: either by enclosing
his or her last name (not first name) and the year of publication in
parentheses, as in 1 below, or by using his or her last name in the
sentence itself, as in 2. In general, the first option is preferred. APA
style prefers the use of last names only to avoid the possibility of
sexist bias.
Perhaps the second most important feature of APA style is its way of specifying references in a citation list. The basic book citation includes the items inside the following quotation marks: "Author, A. (Year). Title with only first words capitalized. City, State: Publisher." Journal articles follow this format: "Author, A. & Author, B. (Year). Title of article. Name of the Journal, Volume (Number), Page numbers."
Each and every punctuation mark has a purpose, so it is important to be extremely precise. While you should become familiar with the basic citation format, there are too many variations to memorize them all. The simplest way to set up your references is to use an existing reference as a model. So, for example, if you are using a particular journal article or book in your paper, and it is formatted in APA style, look in its reference section for models of how to cite the various types of sources you're likely to use (journal articles, books, unpublished professional papers, speeches, edited books, etc.). You can also use an automated tool such as GoogleDrive, CitationMachine and others (links elsewhere on this website), and the auto-formatting features available within the latest versions of Microsoft Office.
Another important part of APA style is the use of titles and sub-headings which help the reader see the main parts of your paper. Most writers find the addition of the titles and sub-headings to be a relatively simple task--simply leave your paper's outline in the text (sans the numbers and letters).
The following
headlines illustrate the hierarchy. The numbers on the left refer to the
traditional subdivisions in an outline, but are not used in the
final draft of your paper:
I. Chapter/Major Division Titles
A. Major Section Titles
1. Running subheaders. These titles actually stand in the paragraph they announce.
There is usually no
need to carry the titles any farther than the running subheader level.
At its best, APA style is intended to simplify a writer's task. Try to approach the task of learning APA style with the anticipation that it will be an investment which should pay for itself in easier and clearer writing in the future. With this in mind, the few minutes it takes to familiarize your self with the ins-and-outs of APA style are a good investment and an important part of becoming a professional educator.