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