APA

Style
7º edition
Teacher Dana Vega
The American Psychological Association (APA) citation style is the most commonly
used format for manuscripts in the social sciences.

1 Stylistics

2 In-text citations

3 References
 Writing
2
1

Active voice when

First-person
stressing the
pronouns rather
actions of the
than third-person
: “We conducted an experiment…”
research
: “We asked participants questions.”
Language in an APA paper should be:
Preparation for writing an essay

: be specific in
1 Clear descriptions and
explanations

2
condense information
Concise when you can

use simple, descriptive

3 Plain adjectives and minimize
figurative language
 The Literature Review:
Summarizes scientific literature on a particular research topic

While the APA Publication Manual does not require a

specific order for a literature review, a good literature
review typically contains the following components:

Introduction
Thesis statement
Summary and synthesis of sources
List of References
 Your essay should:

Be typed

Double-spaced

Have 1” margins

Use 10-12pt. Standard font (ex.

Times New Roman)

Be printed on standard-sized
paper (8.5”x 11”)
Every page of your essay should include:

The page number in the upper

1 right

If it is a professional paper: A page

2 header (shortened title, all caps) in
the upper left-hand corner.

3 Student papers do not require

running headers.
Main Body (Text)

Number the first text page as page number 3

Center and bold the (full) title of the paper at the top of the
page

Type the text double-spaced with all sections following each

other without a break

Identify the sources you use in the paper with either

narrative citations or parenthetical, in-text citations

Format tables and figures

Reference Page

Center the title (References) at the top of the page.

Bold this title.

Double-space reference entries

Flush left the first line of the entry and indent subsequent
lines

Order entries alphabetically by the surname of the first

author of each work. /If a source is anonymous, use its title as
an author’s surname.
Invert authors’ names (last name first followed by initials)

EX:“Smith, J.Q.”

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.

EX: The perfectly formatted paper: How the Purdue OWL saved my
essay.
 In-text Citation: Basics
In-text citations help readers locate the cited source in the References section of the paper. In-text
citations follow either a parenthetical format or a narrative format.

A parenthetical citation includes both the

A narrative citation includes the author’s
author’s last name and year of publication,
name directly in the sentence, with the year
separated by a comma, in parentheses at the
of publication directly following the author’s
end of the sentence.
last name.
EX: Research suggests that the Purdue OWL is a good
resource for students (Atkins, 2018). EX: Atkins (2018) suggests that the Purdue OWL is a good
resource for students.
In-text Citation:
Page Numbers

If the source you’re citing

includes page numbers, add that
information to your citation.

For a narrative citation, the page number

comes at the end of the sentence, once
again preceded by a lowercase p and a
period (p.)

EX: Atkins (2018) suggests that the Purdue

OWL is a good resource for students (p.
12).
In-text Citation:
Quotations

When quoting:
Introduce the quotation with a
signal phrase

If using the narrative-style citation,

include the author’s last name in the
signal phrase, with the page number at the
end of the quote.
EX: Hong (2018) stated that “the
application of CRISPR technology to
improve human health is being explored
across public and private sectors” (p. 503).
 In-text Citation:
Summary or Paraphrase
For a narrative citation, the page number
comes at the end of the sentence, once
again preceded by a lowercase p and a
period (p.)

EX: Berryman et al. (2018) sampled

467 young adults about their social media
use and mental health and found that
social media use may not directly
affect mental health; rather, it depends on
how young adults use social media.
 Signal Words
Introduce quotations with signal phrases, e.g.:

Acc Rey resp Use the past

ording to nolds (2019) acknowledged onded, tense or the
Reynolds argued , contended, reported,
present perfect
tense of verbs in
(2019), “….” that“……” (p. maintained argued, signal phrases
(p. 3). 3). concluded, etc.
when they
discuss past
events.
When citing a work with two When citing a work with three or
authors: more authors:
In the narrative
list the name of the
citation, use “and” in
between the authors’
first author plus “et
names al.” in every citation.

EX: According to EX: Lin et al. (2019)

scientists Depietri and examined how
McPhearson (2018), weather conditions
“Understanding the affect the popularity
occurrence and of the bikesharing
impacts of historical program in Beijing.
climatic hazards is
critical to better
interpret current
hazard trends” (p. 96).
 When citing
When citing a work with an When citing a group authors with the
unknown author: author: same last names:
Mention the organization the
Use the source’s full Use first initials with
first time you cite the source in
title in the narrative the last names.
either the narrative citation or
citation.
the parenthetical citation.
Cite the first word of
If you first mention the group in
the title followed by EX: (B. Davis, 2018; Y.
a narrative citation, list the
the year of publication Davis, 2020)
abbreviation before the year of
in the parenthetical
publication in parentheses,
citation.
separated by a comma.
EX: According to
“Here’s How Gardening
EX: “The data collected by the
Benefits Your Health”
Food and Drug Administration
(2018)
(FDA, 2019) confirmed…”
EX: (“Here’s,” 2018)
APA
Style
7º edition
Teacher Dana Vega