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APA Style Details
Page Layout
Your page
layout must match the standard's specifications. This includes the physical
appearance of the your pages and paragraphs, including font usage,
spacing, margins, and correct ordering of your document's components.
Margins
APA specifies
that margins should be at least 1" on all four sides of the page, with a
1½" left margin for bound documents,
including most theses and dissertations. All pages
in a document use the same margin.
Note that the running head at the top of
pages, and the page number (usually) at the top of pages fall outside of
the page margins, ½" in from the
top or bottom of the page, and ½"
from the right edge of the page.
Font Usage
All text in
an APA-style document is double-spaced, and all text uses the same font.
The most popular fonts for APA-style documents are 12-point, serif fonts
such as Times Roman or Book Antigua. Some institutions specify a
non-proportional (fixed-width) font such as Courier.
Headings and Paragraphs
APA style
specifies the appearance of five levels of headings, several text
paragraph types, and reference entry paragraphs, as summarized in the
following table.
Paragraph Type |
Description |
APA Level 5 |
A
chapter heading, which starts on a new page. This style is
typically used only in multi-chapter documents such as theses
and dissertations. This is a center-justified, capitalized (all
caps) text, followed by an indented paragraph. |
APA Level 1 |
The first subheading level within a chapter, used to start a
major new section within the chapter or document. This is
center-justified, headline-capitalized text, followed by an
indented paragraph. |
APA Level 2 |
The second subheading level, used to start new subsections
within major sections. This is center-justified, italicized,
headline-capitalized text, followed by an indented paragraph. |
APA Level 3 |
The third subheading level, used to start another level of
hierarchy in a section. This is a left-justified, italicized,
headline-capitalized line of text, followed by an indented
paragraph. |
APA Level 4 |
The fourth subheading, which is actually a lead-in heading that
begins a paragraph, but is not contained on its own line. This
is italicized, sentence-capitalized text. |
Indented Paragraph |
Standard, indented, double-spaced paragraphs. The first line is indented ½" from the left margin of the page. |
Block Paragraph |
Non-indented text paragraphs, which means that the first line is
not indented. These are typically used to follow a block quote
that falls in the middle of a logical paragraph. |
Block Quote |
A
long quote (40 words or more) that is indented ½" from the left margin as a block. |
Reference Entry |
Bibliographic entries in the References section of a document.
These paragraphs use a hanging indent: the first line of the
paragraph is flush with the left margin of the page, and
subsequent lines are indented ½". |
Reference Entries and
Parenthetical Citations
Without a doubt, the most complicated and difficult to
use feature of APA style is the formatting of reference entries. The
Fifth edition of the APA Manual describes ninety-five different
reference entry formats in a section that's over 70 pages long. The
formatting of specific reference entries can be exceedingly complicated,
including where commas and periods go, what gets underlined or
italicized, and other details.
The vast majority of writers purchase software to help
format their APA reference entries, rather than trying to work out all
of the details for each and every reference entry.
The following table shows several reference entry
examples. As you can see, you need to carefully format each unique
reference entry type, and most writers quickly conclude that paying a
little for software that takes care of these details is very worthwhile.
Reference Type |
Example |
Book |
Hill, G. (2002). The
joy of drumming (2nd ed., Vol. 2). Atlanta, GA: Oh Press. |
Journal Article |
Lange, M. (2002). The ethics of barter. Psychotherapy Quarterly,
17, 2. |
Report from the GPO |
Hill, G., Jr., & Lange,
M. (2002). In D. Carr (Ed.), Children and adults in action (Agency Rep. No. 95-8). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing
Office. |
Published Dissertation |
Lange, M.
(2002). My scholarly dissertation. Dissertation Abstracts, 17(3),
2. (UMI No. 12345678) |
Movie |
Lange, M. (Director).
(2001). The life of Gary [Motion picture]. Paramount
Pictures. (Available from Educational Movies, Inc., 121 Main
Street, Centerville, KS 01001) |
Parenthetical Citations
APA style
uses parenthetical citations in the body of the document to refer to
entries in the references section. The purpose of these citations is to
allow a reader to trace information that you present to a source in your
bibliography.
Citation
formats are fairly straightforward, as shown in the following table.
Citation Type |
Example |
Author and Year |
(Lange, 2002) or
(Lange, 2002, p. 12) |
No
Author |
("Short Title", 2002) or ("Short Title", 2002, pp. 12-19) |
Personal Message |
(G. Hill, personal
communication, May 12, 1999) |
Multiple Authors |
(Hill, Lange, & Beal, 2002,
pp. 19-21) |
Six or more authors |
(Hill et al., 2002) |
Most of the APA-style software products that format
reference entries also format and insert parenthetical citations into
your documents.
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