What is APA documentation style?

What is APA documentation style

Basic APA Style

Works Cited Page

There are many rules about basic formatting for books. When referring to books, chapters, articles, or Web pages, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do not capitalize the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word. Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals. Examples are not double-spaced, but your References list should be double-spaced. Examples do not show indented lines after the first line, but yours should be indented.

Citing Books

The most basic entry for a book consists of the author's name, year of publication, the title of the book, publisher city, and the publisher name.

Basic Rules for Books: Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

The first author's name should be reversed, with the last name coming first, followed by a comma. First names and any middle names are given as initials, each followed by a period. A suffix, such as a roman numeral or Jr./Sr. should appear after the author's first and middle initials, preceded by a comma.

For a book written by two or more authors, separate them by comma, and use an ampersand before the last author's name. If more than six authors are cited, abbreviate the seventh author and any others that follow with "et al."

Book Examples

Cite Book: Sternberg, E. (2000). Just business: Business ethics in action (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Edited Book, No Author: Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Edited Book with an Author and Authors: Plath, S. (2000). The unabridged journals. K. V. Kukil (Ed.). New York, NY: Anchor.

Citing Articles

Basic Rules for Articles: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy

Article Examples

Articles in Journal Paginated by Volume: Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.

Articles in a Magazine: Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade in today's schools. Time, 135, 28-31.

Article in a Newspaper: Schultz, S. (2005, December 28). Calls made to strengthen state energy policies. The Country Today, pp. 1A, 2A.

Citing Websites

The most basic entry for a website consists of the author name(s), page title, website title, date accessed, and the web address.[1]

Last Name, First. Page Title. Website Title. Retrieved Date Accessed, from Web Address.

When citing an entire Web site (and not a specific document on that site), no Reference List entry is required if the address for the site is cited in the text of your paper. For content that does not easily fit into categories such as journal papers and books, keep in mind the goal of a citation is to give the reader a clear path to the source. For electronic and online materials, include stable URL or database name. Include the author, title, and date published when available. For undated materials, include the date the resource was accessed. [2]

Website Examples

When citing a webpage in APA style, it has similar rules to citing a book. The first author's name should be reversed, with the last name coming first, followed by a comma. First names and any middle names are given as initials, each followed by a period. A suffix, such as a roman numeral or Jr./Sr. should appear after the author's first and middle initials, preceded by a comma.[3]

Ex: Smith, J. (2009, January 21). Obama inaugurated as President. CNN.com. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/01/21/obama_inaugurated/index.html

For a page with two or more authors, separate them by comma, and use an ampersand before the last author's name. If more than six authors are cited, abbreviate the seventh author and any others that follow with "et al."[4]

Ex: Smith, J., & Doe, J. (2009, January 21). Obama inaugurated as President. CNN.com. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/01/21/obama_inaugurated/index.html

After the author names are listed, include in parentheses the publication date. List the year first, followed by a comma, and then the month and day. Place a period outside of the parentheses. In some cases, a specific date might not be available, and the date published may only be specific to a month or even year. Provide whatever date information is available.

Ex: Smith, J. (2009, January). Obama inaugurated as President. CNN.com. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/01/21/obama_inaugurated/index.html

Citing an Entire Website

Ex: Witchcraft in Europe and America is a site that presents the full text of many essential works in the literature of witchcraft and demonology (http://www.witchcraft.psmedia.com/)

Citing a Professional Website

Ex: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (2008). Biofuels. Retrieved May 6, 2008, from http://www.nrel.gov/learning/re_biofuels.html