APA

REFERENCING

Campbell O’Rourke

32000809 | University of Notre Dame

CAMPBELL O’ROURKE 32000809

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Americal American Psychological Association Style Sample ............................... 2
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 2
Discussion ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Examples ........................................................................................................................................ 2
Format ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Summary ........................................................................................................................................ 4
References ............................................................................................................................ 5

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AMERICAL AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION STYLE

SAMPLE

INTRODUCTION

The American Psychological Association (APA) style is primarily used in the social

science disciplines. It is formatted like Modern Language Association (MLA), and shows

many similarities, but is unique in several key points. This paper discusses the APA in

detail. Addressing plagiarism has become a major challenge in education and educating

students in referencing correctly with the APA 6th is one way of trying to overcome the

problem (Bretag, 2013; Hosny & Fatima, 2014).

DISCUSSION

APA uses parenthetical (or in-text) citations within sentences, but rather than indicating

the author's name and page number, APA includes author's name and date of publication.

The page number, represented with a p. or a pp., is only added to the citation when using

a direct quote (not a summary or paraphrase). If the author's name is mentioned in the

sentence, then place the date of publication in parentheses directly after the name. If the

name is not mentioned include the author's name and date in parentheses at the end of

the source material. And, if you use a direct quote, place the page number after the

publication date within the parentheses.

EXAMPLES

Note the difference between the following three examples:

Terrence (2007) has presented poignant examples from 150 interviews. However, it has

been pointed out that the research was conducted in a selective, highly biased, way. All

of the interviewees have been called “exceptions to the norm” (Strong & Porter, 1998).

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Note the first example paraphrases an author that is named in the sentence, the second

example paraphrases authors that are not named in the sentence, and the third example

provides a direct quote (thus the inclusion of the page numbers) but also does not

identify the authors within the sentence. If the authors were identified within the

sentence in the third example, the authors' names would be followed by the year of

publication and only the page numbers would be in the parentheses at the end of the

quote.

FORMAT

Finally, the bibliographic page in APA style differs from MLA, what APA calls the

Reference page. You will notice a few immediate differences from the MLA Works Cited

format. With APA you include the initial of the author's first name rather than the

complete name, the publication date immediately follows the author's name in

parentheses, and titles of articles are not surrounded with quotation marks. The lists are

still alphabetized by author's last name (or title in the absence of an author) and the first

line is flush left while subsequent lines in the same entry are indented in (approximately

5 spaces or one tab). A good resource to help you with referencing is Notre Dame’s

referencing guide at http://library.nd.edu.au/referencing/apa#s-lg-box-3040351. There is

also a summary downloadable help document available at:

http://library.nd.edu.au/ld.php?content_id=8053459. In APA Style, you include a reference

list rather than a bibliography with your paper (American Psychological Association,

2018). A reference list consists of all sources cited in the text of a paper whereas a

bibliography may include resources that were consulted but not cited in the text as well

as an annotated description of each one.

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SUMMARY

The School of Education, University of Notre Dame Australia, uses the APA 6th

referencing style for all written documents. In addition to in text referencing and the

reference list there are a number of formatting requirements to ensure your essay

complies with APA standards. Get to know the APA 6th.

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REFERENCES

American Psychological Association. (2018). Quick Answers—References. Retrieved

from https://www.apastyle.org/learn/quick-guide-on-references

Bretag, T. (2013). Challenges in addressing plagiarism in education. PLoS Medicine,

10(12), e1001574.

Hosny, M., & Fatima, S. (2014). Attitude of students towards cheating and plagiarism:

University case study. Journal of Applied Sciences, 14(8), 748-757.

doi:10.3923/jas.2014.748.757

Strong, R. L., & Porter, M. (1998). Grammatical combinations. In S. Parker, & K. Gibson

(Eds.), Language and literacy (pp. 540-578). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge

University Press.

Terrence, H. S. (2007, November 1). Student success in community colleges. West

Australian, pp. 6-8. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com

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