2.  Grammar, Usage and Punctuation
 Sections of an APA Style Paper
 Reference List
 Internal Documentation

4. Continuity in Presentation of Ideas 3.05
Smoothness of Expression 3.06
Economy of Expression 3.08
Precision and Clarity 3.09

5.  Writing from an Outline
 Rereading Your Own Copy after Setting It
Aside
 Asking a Colleague to Provide a Critical
Review

6. Verbs 3.18
Prefer Active Voice
Preferred:
We conducted the survey in a controlled setting.
Nonpreferred:
The survey was conducted in a controlled setting.

7. Verbs 3.18
Select Tense Carefully
Correct:
Sanchez (2000) presented similar results.
Incorrect:
Sanchez (2000) presents similar results.

8. A verb must agree in number with its subject.
When in doubt consult Merriam-Webster’s
Dictionary, 2005.
Example: The data indicate…
The phenomena occur…
See the APA style website www.apastyle.org

9. 3.20 The Role of Pronouns
3.21 Misplaced Modifiers
3.21 Dangling Modifiers
3.22 Relative Pronouns (who, whom, that,
which)
3.22 Subordinate Conjunctions (while, since,
although)
3.23 Parallel Construction

10. Spacing after Punctuation Marks 4.01
One space after
 commas, colons, and semicolons
 periods that separate parts of a reference
citation
 periods of the initials (J.R. Zhang)
Two spaces after
 period at the end of a sentence

11. USE
 initials (J.R. Smith)
 abbreviations for United States (U.S. Navy)
 Latin Abbreviations (a.m., i.e.)
 reference abbreviations (Vol. 1, 2nd ed.)
DO NOT USE
 state names (NY)
 acronyms (APA, NDA, IQ)
 metric and numeric measurement abbreviations
(cm, ft, kg, min)
Exception: (in.) for inch

12. USE
 between elements
In a study by Stacy, Newcomb, and Bentler
(1991)
 to set off year in exact dates
April 18, 1992, was the correct date
 to set off the year in reference citation
(Patrick, 1993)
 to separate groups of three digits in most
numbers of 1,000 or more

13. 4.04 Semicolon
4.05 Colon
4.06 Dash
4.07 Quotation Marks
4.08 Double or Single Quotation Marks
4.09 Parentheses
4.10 Brackets
4.11 Slash

14. Sections of an APA – style
Paper
Publication Manual, pages 23-40 and 229-230

15.  Header (running head + page number)
 Title (upper and lower case, centered in the
upper half of the page)
 Author’s name
 Institutional Affiliation

16. It is a brief summary of your paper:
• purpose
• methodology
• highlights of your research
It appears on a separate page (page 2).
It is a single paragraph.
It is NOT indented.
The word Abstract must be centered one inch from the
top of the page.

17.  Begin on page 3
 Do NOT label it as your introduction
 Center the title of your paper
 Indent the first paragraph
 Include the following information:
• introduction to the problem
• importance of the problem
• explanation of your approach to the problem

18. Reference List

19.  Center the title References one inch from the
top
 List all sources in alphabetical order
 Double-space with hanging indentation
• Nothing precedes something (Brown precedes
Browning)
• If same author, order by year of publication
• List one author entries before multiple author
entries beginning with the same name,
regardless of the year

20. To study the principles for arranging
entries in a reference list refer to
sections 6.22 – 6.26 in Publication
Manual

21.  Author’s name
 Year of publication (in parentheses)
 Title of work italicized
 Publication information

22. Book by a single author
Fair, J.D. (1999). Muscletown USA: Bob Hoffman
and the manly culture of York Barbell.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University
Press.
Book by two or more authors
Booth, W.C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J.M. (2003).
The craft of research (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.

23. Chapter in a book
Putnam, J.W. (2009). Cooperative Learning for
inclusion. In P. Hick, R. Kershner, & P.T.
Farrell (Eds.), Psychology for inclusive
education: New directions in theory and
practice (pp.81-95). London, England:
Routledge.

24. Article from an online reference book
(accessed through a library subscription
database)
Cameron, J., & Pierce, W.D. (2008). Intrinsic
versus extrinsic motivation. In N. J. Salkind
& K. Rasmussen (Eds.), Encyclopedia of
educational psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 555-
560). Retrieved from
www.go.galegroup.com

25. The DOI s a unique identifier assigned to
articles to help readers locate the content
online.
The DOI is usually found on the first page of
the article, near the copyright notice.
To cite different types of online articles go to
pages 198-202 in Publication Manual

26.  Authors name
 Year of publication (in parenthesis) for scholarly
journal articles
 Year and exact date (in parenthesis) for
magazines and newspapers
 Title of the article
 Periodical title (italicized)
 Volume number (italicized)
 Issue number
 Inclusive page numbers
 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

27. Internal Documentation

28.  Every in-text citation must correspond to
an entry in your list of references.
 If available, In-text citations must include
the author (or editor) and year of
publication
 Direct quotes also must include a page
number

29.  Smith (2010) surveyed this phenomenon.
 A famous survey of this phenomenon (Smith,
2010) showed that....
 In 2010, Smith demonstrated that...
 "White rats are the best subjects for this test,"
said Smith (2010, pp. 50-51).
 Smith went on to explain, “Hamsters make
better pets than lab rats” (2010, p. 51).

30.  Parentheses are used to indicate the parts of
an in-text citation not included in prose.
 The parts of the parenthetical citation
(author, year, page) are separated with
commas.
 Notice that “p.” is used for a citation on one
page and “pp.” is used for a citation that
spans multiple pages.

31.  According to the study, 25% of people
prefer cats over dogs (Smith & Brown,
2004).
 Smith and Brown (2004) surveyed this
phenomenon.

32. A recent survey (Smith, Brown, & Black,
2005) showed… [first reference]
Smith et al. (2005) showed [second
reference]

33. Consistently cite only the surname
of the first author, followed by et
al. (with a period).

34. (R. J. Smith, personal communication, March
3, 2010)
Personal communications are NOT included
in reference lists.

35.  “Survey of Asian Men" (2008)....
 …a recent study (Hispanic and Female,
2004)....

36. Include the corresponding lower-case letters
after the years in the in-text citations:
According to a Harvard study (Jensen, 2009a),…
while a similar study (Jensen, 2009b) suggests…

37. Citing Works with No Date of Publication
 Brown’s study (n.d.) showed that kittens are
visually pleasing…
Citing Works without Page Numbers
 (Smith, 2010, para. 5)
 (Brown, 2009, Introduction section, para. 1)

38. American Psychological Association. (2010).
Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (6th ed.).
Washington, DC: Author.
(Book by a corporate author)