Wrangling Research, APA Style

Author: Meghan Hatalla

What's the point of APA style?

American Psychological Association (APA) style

is the most commonly-used citation style within the social sciences. Most writing assignments are either:

Reviews of someone else's research
Reports of original research (usually includes a literature review, which adds context to the original research with previous research)

In either case, the main challenges students face when required to use outside sources are:

Supporting a thesis
Avoiding plagiarism
Integrating quotations with source material

This lesson will provide resources to online resources for APA style, as well as supply examples for APA formatting and citations.

Step 1: Formatting Your Document

This quick video tells you exactly how to incorporate the MS Word template of APA formatting. Download templates from Microsoft here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/results.aspx?qu=apa%20templates&tl=3

If You Don't Have MS Word 2007...

Below are the steps to manually create a defined style in any earlier versions of Microsoft Word. Steps vary according to version:

Open a blank document
Navigate to Page Layout
Check the box next to Different First Page
Navigate to Insert -->Section Break (Next Page)
Scroll back to first page and click anywhere on the page
Navigate back toPage Layout
Under Vertical Alignment, select Center
Next to Apply to: select This Section
Click OK
Set font to Tiimes New Roman or Arial
Set Alignment to Center
Type the title of the document on the first line, date on the second line, and the class or professors name on the third line
Scroll to second page
Double click the Header area at the top of the page
Click Insert
Select Page Numbers and select the appropriate option for page number to appear in the upper right hand corner of the page
Click OK
Place cursor in front of page number and make 5 spaces, then type the first 3-4 words of the document title
Navigate to Margins
Set the margins to 1 inch for Top, Bottom and Left and Right
Click OK
Place cursor on the first line of the second page
Navigate to Paragraph
Under Line Spacing, select Double
Click OK
Double-click the 0.5 inches point in the ruler to create a tab
Push TAB one time to begin typing
Navigate to Change Styles and click Set As Default

IF REQUIRED:
For more extensive guidance on how to format abstracts, visuals, etc. check out Bedford/St. Martin's guide on APA formatting.

Source: http://www.ehow.com/how_5837708_create-word-document-apa-style.html

Step 2: Connecting Formatting With Attribution

Used with permission of the Purdue OWL, this slide presentation runs briefly through formatting but focuses mostly on citations, reference pages and other methods of attribution.

Source: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/17/

Other Resources

APA Homepage - Website of the American Psychological Assocation. Provides tutorials, FAQs, and the APA College Dictionary online.
APA Citation Style Management - Cornell University's easy-to-follow guide for citations.
Bedford / St. Martin's Research & Documentation Online - Provides sample papers, ideas for research and documenting resources.
Microsoft APA templates - Microsoft offers many add-ons for easily formatting papers through their website.
APA Style & Plagiarism - Plagiarism is a huge problem as the Internet grows and information is shared more and more informally. Know how to avoid this illegal activity--and when in doubt, CITE!