owl purdue apa works

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Co11tributors:Elizabet]1 Angeli, Jodi Wagner, Elena Lawrick, Kristen Moore, Michael
Anderson, Lars Soderlund, Allen Brizee, Russe11Keck.
Summary:

APA (American Psychological Association) is most commonly used to cite sources
within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th edition, second
printing ofthe APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research
papers,  citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. For more

infonnatíon, please consult The Publication Manual ofthe American Psychological
Association, 6th edition, second printing.

General Format

Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in APA.

To see a side­by-side comparison ofthe three most widely used citation styles,
including a chart of all APA citation guidelines, see the Citation Sfïle Chart.

General APA Guidelines

Your essay should be typed, doub1e­spaeed on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11") with
1" margins on all sides. APA recommends using 12 pt. Times New Roman font.

Include a page header at the top of every page. To create a page header, insert page
numbers flush right. Then type “TITLE OF YOUR PAPER." in the header flush left.

Major Paper Sections

Your essay should include four major Sections: the Title Page, Abstract, Main Body,
and References.

Title Page

The title page should Contain the title ofthe paper, the author's name, and the

institutional affiliation. Include the page header (described above) Ílush left with the

page number flush right at the top ofthe page. Please note that on the title page, your
page header should look like this:

Running head: TITLE OF YOUR PAPER

Pages after the title page should have a 1'unn1`ng head that looks like this:

TITLE OF YOUR PAPER

After consulting with publication specialists at the APA, OWL staff learned that the
APA 6th edition sample papers have incorrect examples of Running heads on pages Y
after the title page. This  will take to you the APA site where you can Íind a
complete list of all the errors in the APA's 6th edition style guide.

Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centered in the upper haii` ofthe page.
APA recommends that your title be no more than 12 `Words in length and that it should
not contain abbreviations or Words that serve no purpose. Your title may take up one
or two lines. All text on the title page, and throughout your paper, should be double-
spaced.

Beneath the title, type the auth0r's name: frst name, middle in:itia1(s), and last name.
Do not use titles (Dr.) or degrees (Ph.D.).

Beneath the autho1"s name, type the institutional affiliation, which should indicate
the location Where the auth0r(s) conducted the research.

Begin a new page. Your abstract page should already inciude the page header
(described above). On the frst line ofthe abstract page, center the Word
“Abstract” (no bold, formatting, italics, underlining, or quotation marks).

Beginning with the next line, write a concise summary of the key points of your
research. (Do not indent.) Your abstract should contain at least your research topic,
research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions. You
may also include possible implications of your research and future Work you see
connected with your Íìndings. Your abstract should be a single paragraph double-
spaced. Your abstract should be between 15 0 and 250 Words.

You may also Want to list keywords from your paper in your abstract. To do this,
indent as you would if you Were starting a new paragraph, type Keywords: (italicized),

In-Text Citations: The Basics

Reference citations in text are covered on pages 169-179 ofthe Publication Manual.
What follows are some general guidelines for referring to the Works of others in your
essay.

Note: APA style requires authors to use the past tense or present perfect tense when
using signal phrases to describe earlier research, for example, Jones (1998) found or
.Tones (1998) has found...

APA Citation Basics

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This
means that the author'S last name and the year of publication for the source should
appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 1998), and a complete reference should appear
in the reference list at the end ofthe paper.

If you are referring to an idea from another Work but NOT directly quoting the
material, or making reference to an entire book, article or other Work, you only have to
make reference to the author and year of publication and not tbe page number in your
in­teXt reference. All Sources that are cited in the text must appear in the reference list
at the end ofthe paper.

In­Text Citation Capitaìization, Quotes, and ItalicsfUnderIi1:|ing

 Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials: D. `lones.
 If you refer to the title of a source Within your paper, capitalize all Words that
are four letters long or greater Within the title of a source: Permanence and