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FACULTY OF EDUCATION


APA (American Psychological Association) Style Guide
Page
1. APA Style Guide 2
Why have a style guide?
Preparing an article/assignment
Abbreviations
Quick reference guide to APA format 3

2. Reference Citations in Text 4

Direct quotation of a source 5
Long quotation (indented)
Authors, one and more
Authors with multiple articles
Citation of more than one source 6
Citation as a secondary source
Chapter in an edited book
Anonymous works
Newspaper
Personal communication
Electronic journals and web sites 7

3. Reference List 8

Books 9
Edited book
Book chapters
Book review 10
J ournal articles
Electronic journals 11
Newspaper articles
Conference paper
Web sites or Web documents

4. Example of Reference List 12

Dr Lesley Ljungdahl March 2007
(Faculty of Education, Kuring-gai Campus)



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1. APA Style Guide

The APA style (with its rules for referencing) is described in the Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition.

Also check these websites:

http://www.apastyle.org www.bell.uts.edu.au

Why have a style guide?

Editorial style refers to the guidelines used to ensure clear and consistent presentaion
of material in a manuscript such as the citation of references. Referencing is necessary
to avoid plagiarism and to enable readers to follow-up and read the original citation in
full. There are various style guides which try to guarantee consistency in the
presentation of written assignments. You may think it illogical at times and difficult
to use but it is better than an idiosyncratic attempt which will differ from student to
student. You may prefer other guides (a favourite of mine is the AGPS, the Australian
Government Style Manual) but the APA (American Psychological Association) is
the choice of the Faculty of Education (Kuring-gai Campus) and it is the one you
should currently use.


Preparing an article/assignment

Typeface e.g. 12 point Times Roman or 12 point Courier.

Double-spacing between all lines of the manuscript. Some lecturers may ask for 1.5.

Margins, e.g. of uniform size of at least 2.54 cm at the top, bottom, left, and right of
every page.

Page numbers are arranged consecutively, numbered in the top, right-hand edge of
the paper.


Abbreviations:
cf. compare
chap. chapter
e.g. for example
et al. et alia (Latin for 'and others')
ed. edition
Ed. (Eds.) Editor (Editors)
etc. and so forth
i.e. that is
p. (pp.) page (pages)
rev. revised
viz. namely


Quick reference guide


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Reference citation in text

Book

She stated, the placebo effectdisappeared
when behaviours were studied in this manner
(Miele, 1993, p.276).
OR
Miele (1993, p. 276) claimed that

Book chapter
What childen crave is freedom to carry out their
own experiments and draw their own
conclusions (Stern, 2005, p. 479).


Print journal

As mentioned in Ljungdahl (2002)


Electronic media

The grammar gorillas help children learn
grammatical rules (Pearson 2000-2004).


Internet article based on a
journal print source


Stuart (1999) emphasises the importance of..

Reference List

Ljungdahl, L. (2002). Pre-service teachers abroad: Australians in the Peoples Republic of
China. International Journal of Learning 9(1), 143-159.

Miele, J . (1993). The placebo effect. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Pearson Education, Inc. (2000-2004). The grammar gorillas. Retrieved February 2, 2006,
from http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/

Stern, M.B. (2005). Multisensory mathematics instruction. In J .R. Birsh (Ed.),
Multisensory teaching of basic language skills (pp. 457-479) 2
nd
ed. Baltimore:
Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Stuart M. (1999, December). Getting ready for reading: Early phoneme awareness and
phonic teaching improves reading and spelling in inner-city second language learners
[Electronic version]. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 69(4), 587-605.
Retrieved February 2, 2006, from ingenta.com.









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2. Reference citations in text (in-text referencing)

Document and acknowledge your sources of information and ideas by author-date
and page citation. You must reference both direct quotations and any ideas you have
paraphrased. The reference identifes the source so a reader can locate it in the
Reference List at the end of the article. Sufficient information is given to allow the
reader to verify the information, or to retrieve the original reference, if desired. If
quoting directly, cite specific parts of a source to enable the reader to find the source
easily (e.g. page, paragraph, chapter, table): (Anstey & Bull, 2004), p.175; Durrell,
1989, chap. 3).

Direct quotation of a source
Use author, year, date and specific page citation in the text.
Quotations are enclosed by double quotation marks:

Examples from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association,
5
th
edn.

Quotation 1: Note use of double and single quotations

She stated, the placebo effectdisappeared when behaviours were studied in this
manner (Miele, 1993, p.276), but she did not clarify which behaviours were studied.

Use 3 spaced ellipsis point () within a sentence to indicate omitted material. Use 4
point to indicate omission between 2 sentences.

Quotation 2: [square brackets indicate your own words]

Miele (1993) found that the placebo effect which had been verified in previous
studies, disappeared when [only the first groups] behaviours were studied in this
manner (p.276).


Long or block quotation are indented. Example of indented quotation of more than
40 words, 5 spaces from the left margin with no quotation marks.

Miele (1993) found the following:

The placebo effect, which had been verified in previous studies, disappeared
when behaviours were studied in this manner. Furthermore, the behaviours were
never exhibited again [italics added], even when reel [sic] drugs were
administered. Earlier studies (e.g. Abdullah, 1984; Fox, 1979) were clearly
premature in attributing the results to a placebo effect. (p. 276).




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Reference Citations in Text

Authors, one and more
Authors with multiple articles
Citation of more than one source
Citing a secondary source
Chapter in an edited book
Anonymous works
Newspapers
Personal communication
Electronic journals.
Web sites

AUTHORS, ONE AND MORE

One work by a single author. You do not need to repeat the year in subsequent
references if the work cannot be confused with other articles.

The theory was first stated in 2003 (Sidney, 2004).
OR
Sidney (2004) was the first to state the theory.

One work with two or three authors
Cite both authors every time the reference occurs.

It is futile to maintain that the sexes are interchangeable (Moir &
Jessel, 1991).
OR
Moir and J essel (1991) claimed that it is futile to maintain that the sexes are
interchangeable.

One work with more than three authors.

Winch, Johnston, Holiday, March, Ljungdahl (2006) found
[Cite all authors the first time the reference occurs]

Winch et al. (2006) OR (Winch, et al., 2006)
[Cite the name of the first author followed by et al. and the year as subsequent first
citation per paragraph thereafter.]

Winch et al. found
[Omit year from subsequent citations after first citation within a paragraph.]


AUTHORS WITH MULTIPLE ARTICLES or books published in the same
year
Distinguish the publications from each other by adding a,b,c etc. after
the author's name.

(Dickinson, 1990a) OR (Dickinson, 1990b)



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CITATION OF MORE THAN ONE SOURCE
Separate the entries by using semi-colons.

Various authors have looked at the notion of organizational leadership
(Ashworth, 1985; Macleod-Clark, 1984; Wills, 1981).

CITING A SECONDARY SOURCE
When you refer to work of authors who have been cited in the work
of another and you have not read the original you should reference
the secondary source not the original.

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck note that in some societies humans are seen as
basically evil (Schein, 1997, p.20).

Citation of a work discussed in a secondary source

Seidenberrg and McClellands study (as cited in Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins &
Haller, 1993)

CHAPTER IN AN EDITED BOOK, AN ARTICLE OR A PAPER
Cite the authors of the article or chapter (not the editor, unless the work is that of the
editor) and the year.

(Ross, 1999)

ANONYMOUS WORKS
When a work's author is designated as Anonymous, cite in text the word Anonymous
followed by comma and the date. Use title in italics and year if there is no author.
(Anonymous, 2004)

(Maximum Linux Security 1999)

NEWSPAPERS
Cite as you would a journal article.

(Macklin, 2001)

If there is no author provide title of newspaper, day month year of
publication and page number.

(Australian Financial Review, January 15, 2002, p. 20)

PERSONAL COMMUNICATION

This could include letters, interviews, telephone conversations and emails. These
communications do not provide data to which others may refer and are therefore not
included in the reference list. Give initials, family name and exact date. Follow this
example for in text referencing:

M. V. Jones (personal communication, May 6, 2003) believes that "


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ELECTRONIC JOURNALS, WEB SITES

Citing electronic journals, web pages or web sites follows the same principles as for
books i.e. providing the name and/or address of the source. However Internet
documents often do not contain page numbers. In this instance, use the paragraph
number, preceded by the paragraph symbol or the abbreviation para. For
electronic sources that do not provide page numbers and where neither paragraph nor
page numbers are visible, cite the heading and the number of the paragraph following
it to direct the reader to the location of the material. Include the date the information
was retrieved.

(Myers, 2000, para. 5)

(Beutler, 2000, Conclusion section, para.1)

If the author's name is unknown, cite the web site URL.

http://www.hoopers.com/financial.plan

To cite a homepage give the address of the site and the year of the
last update.

http://www.motherjones.com/(2002)


3. Reference List

A Reference List should always accompany an assignment. All in-text references
must be included in a single list of references at the end of your assignment. The list
must be arranged by the author's family name in alphabetical order. There must be an
agreement of texts cited and the Reference List.

In contrast, a Bibliography is a list of sources not necessarily referred to in the text but
which might have been used as background material. Your Subject Outlines should
specify whether to include a Reference List or a Bibliography in your assignments.

A Reference List must provide details that enable the reader to locate each source. For
books, these details are Author, Year of Publication, Title, Edition (if relevant), Place
of Publication and Publisher.

Reference List answers to 10 frequently asked questions (FAQ)

1. Begin the Reference List on a new page titled Reference List
2. Arrange items alphabetically by author, interfiling books, articles, websites etc.
3. Singlespace (preferably) or doublespace all lines and leave a line in between each
reference for final copy
4. Indent the second and following lines 5 to 7 spaces or one half inch. Indentation of
second and subsequent lines highlights the author(s). In single spacing, when an entry


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exceeds one line, a hanging indent (commonly a tab space) is used in the following
line to separate the entries.
5. Use only the initials of the authors' first (and middle) names.
6. If no author is given, start with the title and then the date.
7. Article titles and book titles: capitalize only the first word of the title and subtitle,
or any proper nouns. (Capitalize all significant words of periodical titles.)
8. Punctuation, including spacing, brackets, colons, capitalisation and italics must be
used consistently. Finish with a full-stop/period.
9. Websites: if the date the page was created is not given, use (n.d.).
10. If a document is contained within a large and complex Web site (such as that for a
university or a government agency), identify the host organization and the relevant
program or department before giving the URL for the document itself.

BOOK

author publication date

Lightman, A. (1983). Einsteins dreams. New York: Warner.

Title publishers city: name of publisher


JOURNAL ARTICLE

author publication date title

Maienza, J . G. (1986). The superintendency: characteristics of access for men and
women. Educational Administration Quarterly, 22(4), 59-79.

journal title volume no. in italics and (issue number) page numbers



ELECTRONIC COPY OF A JOURNAL ARTICLE, THREE TO FIVE
AUTHORS, RETRIEVED FROM A DATABASE

Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White, L. A. (1993).
Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449. Retrieved October 23, 2000, from
PsycARTICLES database.

date of retrieval proper name of the database


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Reference List

Books
Edited book
Book chapters
Book review
Journal articles
Newspaper articles
Conference paper
Electronic journals
Web Sites or Web documents

BOOKS One Author
Author's family name. Initials of given name(s). (year of publication). Title
(edition). Place of Publication: Publisher.

Lumby, J. (2001). Who cares?: The changing health care system. Crows Nest,
N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin.

BOOKS Two or more Authors
Name of author(s). (year of publication). Title (edition). Place of
Publication: Publisher.

Note that upper and lower cases follow the standard usage for prose writing, with the
exception of the sub-title where a capital letter always follows the use of a colon.

Saxby, M. & Winch, G. (Eds). (1987). Give them wings: The experience of
childrens literature. Melbourne: Macmillan.

EDITED BOOK
Name of author(s). (Ed.) or (Eds). Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Crisp, J., Taylor, C., & Potter, P. (Eds). (2001). Potter & Perry's fundamentals of
nursing (Australian adaptation, ed.) Marrickville: Harcourt Australia.

BOOK CHAPTERS
Name of contributing author(s), (year of publication), title of chapter/paper, initials of
given name(s), surname of editor(s) (Ed.) or (Eds). Title of Book (page numbers).
Place of Publication: Publisher.

Leap, N. (2000). The less we do the more we give. In M. Kirkham (Ed.), The
midwife-mother relationship (pp. 1-9). London: Macmillan.










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BOOK REVIEW
If the review is untitled, use the material in brackets as the title; retain the brackets to
indicate that the material is a description of form and content, not a title.

Identify the type of medium being reviewed in brackets (book, motion picture,
television program, etc.).

Schatz, B. R. (2000). Learning by text or context? [Review of the book The social
life of information]. Science, 290, 1304.



JOURNAL ARTICLES from a printed journal
Author surname, Initials of given name(s). (year of publication). Title
of article. Title of Journal, volume number (edition number), page
numbers (inclusive).

The periodical title is given in full, in uppercase and lowercase letters in italics.

Buss, D. M. & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary
perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100, 204-232.

Magazine:
Henry, W. A., 111. (1990, April 9). Beyond the melting pot. Time, 135, 28-31.


ELECTRONIC JOURNALS

Journal article from an electronic journal
Name of author(s). (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume
number (edition number), page numbers (inclusive). Retrieved month
day, year, from source.

For exact electronic copies
Many of the journal articles you find on the Internet are the exact copies of the print
version. You need to identify that the electronic version was used.

Long, L. & Mann, R. (1998). Casemix: Challenges for nursing care
[Electronic version]. MJA, 169; S44-S45

For electronic articles (not exact copies)
Online articles can differ from the print version. Commonly, for example, page
numbers are missing. In these cases you will need to add the URL and the date the
article was retrieved.

Inada, K. (1995). A Buddhist response to the nature of human rights. Journal of
Buddhist Ethics, 2, Retrieved June 13, 1995, from
http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/2/inadal.html




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ELECTRONIC JOURNALS

Full text journal from an electronic database
If the article was obtained from a database, add a retrieval statement that includes the
date of retrieval and the proper name of the database.

Calacanis, C. (2001). Why are nurses virtually absent?: Establishing nursing's
presence on the Internet. American Journal of Nursing 12, 11. Retrieved
January 15, 2000 from Journals@0vid Full Text database.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
For newspaper articles in print: Name of author(s). (year, date of publication). Title of
article. Name of Newspaper, page number(s).

Dayton, L. (2000, June 13). Holding the baby: how far should neonatal
carers go to save the child. The Australian, p. 13.

For a newspaper article from a full text database, you need to include the date you
retrieved the article and the name of the database.

Musa, H. (2001, December 11). Indigenous art depth revealed, Canberra Times,
13. Retrieved January 10, 2002 from Dow Jones Interactive.

For newspaper articles sourced from the publisher's web page, you need to include the
date retrieved and the URL path.

Dabkowski, S. ( 2002, February 4). How a plastic problem may just dissolve.
The Age. Retrieved February 5 from
http://www.theage.com.au/news/state/2002/02/04/FFX319TP7XC.html

CONFERENCE PAPER
Author surname, Initials of given name(s). (year, month). Title of paper. Title of
conference. Name of organisation, Place.

Van Vorst, S. (2000). Nursing students' and new graduate nurses' perception of
challenge and support in mental health nursing. Paper presented at the 6
th
National Convention of Australian and New Zealand College of Mental
Health Nurses, Broadbeach, Australia.

WEB SITES OR WEB DOCUMENTS
Name of author(s). (Year). Title of article. Title of Work. Retrieved from source:
month, day, year. For an undated document, use n.d. abbreviation for no date.

Marshall University School of Medicine (1995). The Interactive Patient. Retrieved
January 16th 2002, from Marshall University School of Medicine.
http://medicus.marshall.edu/medicus.htm.

Pritzker, T. (n.d). Early fragment from central Nepal. Retrieved June 8,
1994 from http://www.ingress.com/~astanart/pritzker/ pritzker.html



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Reference List

Board of Studies NSW (1996). English K-6: Syllabus and support documents.
Sydney: Board of Studies.

Brady, L. (2001). Celebrating student achievement: Assessment and reporting.
Sydney: Pearson.

Buchanan, J . (2002). The emergence of Asia: Development of studies of Asia in one
Australian school. Issues in Educational Research, 12(1), 1-18.

J ohnston, R. R. (1995). Of dialogue and desire: Children's literature and the needs of
the reluctant L2 reader. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 18(4),
293-303.

Kearney, M., & Schuck, S. (2006). Spotlight on authentic learning: Student
developed digital video projects. Australian Journal of Educational Technology,
22(2), 189-208

Ljungdahl, L. (1999). Children's literature and childrens futures. TESOL in Context,
9(1), 22-26.

March, P. (Ed.). (1992). Theteacher is the answer: Sharing ideas for teaching
English in the 1990s. Sydney: Cenforead Publications UTS.

Prescott, A. (2002). Student misconceptions about projectile motion. Reflections,
27(1), 92-96.

Schaverien, L. (in press). Teacher education in the generative virtual classroom:
Developing learning theories through a web-delivered, technology-and-science
education context. International Journal of Science Education.

Schuck, S. & Kearney, M. (2006). Capturing Learning through student-generated
digital video. Australian Educational Computing, 21(1), 15-20.

Scully, A. (2001). Partnership in practice: School and university teachers prepare
teacher education students for managing the primary classroom. Unpublished
paper presented at the 5th International Conference, Practical Experiences in
Professional Education, February, Melbourne.

VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J . (2001). Role of reference elements in the
selection of resources by psychology undergraduates. Journal of Bibliographic
Research, 5, 117-123. Retrieved March 11, 2003, from
http://jbr.org/articles.html.

Winch, G., J ohnston, R. R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L. & Holliday, M. (2006).
Literacy: Reading, writing and childrens literature (3
rd
ed.). Melbourne: Oxford
University Press.

Young, K. A. (2005). Direct from the source: The value of 'think-aloud' data in
understanding learning. Journal of Educational Enquiry, 6(1), 27-32.


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