APA Style

This is Unit Twenty-Six of College Composition. Unit Twenty-Five taught MLA. This unit teaches the style of the social sciences and education, APA, which shares MLA's purpose and differs in many details. Carry one idea through this lecture. APA highlights authors and dates because in these fields the timeliness of research matters most, and that one emphasis explains most of its differences from MLA. A worked example near the end builds an APA reference and names the details students carry over from MLA by mistake. By the end you will be able to write APA author-date citations. To build book, article and web references in an ordered list. To handle titles, DOIs and APA paper format. And to compare APA with MLA.

Six entries on APA in-text citations: author and date, narrative and parenthetical forms, multiple authors, group and missing authors, and page numbers.

Style of the social sciences.

CMP 0626 APA's Purpose and Disciplines

APA style, from the American Psychological Association, is the documentation style of most social sciences and often of education. It highlights authors and dates, because in these fields the timeliness of research matters most. Using MLA in a psychology paper, or APA in a literature paper, signals that the writer has not matched the discipline.

Author and year.

CMP 0627 Author-Date Citation

An APA in-text citation gives the author's last name and the year of publication, plus a page number. In parentheses: the name, a comma, the year, a comma, and p or p p with the page. The year is required in APA citations, unlike MLA, because currency matters in these fields.

Two forms.

CMP 0628 Narrative and Parenthetical Citations

APA citations come in two forms: narrative, naming the author in the sentence, and parenthetical, placing everything in parentheses. Narrative: "According to Thomas," with the year in parentheses right after the name. Parenthetical: the name and year together at the end of the sentence. In a narrative citation, the year follows the author's name, not the end of the sentence.

Two authors, and more.

CMP 0629 Two Authors and Three or More

For two authors, give both names every time; for three or more, give the first author's name followed by et al. In parentheses, two authors are joined by an ampersand; in a narrative citation, they are joined by the word and. Mixing the ampersand and and, or using et al. for two authors, are common APA errors.

Organizations and unnamed authors.

CMP 0630 Group Authors and No Author

An organization can be an author; when no author is given, use the title in place of the name. A well-known organization can be introduced with an abbreviation in its first citation and the abbreviation used afterward; an unknown author's work is cited by its title and year. Do not write Anonymous unless the work itself is signed that way.

Locating the passage.

CMP 0631 Page Numbers for Quotations

When you quote, paraphrase or summarize, the Handbook's APA guidance is to give the page or pages where the material appeared. Use p for a single page and p p for a range; for sources without pages, use a paragraph number or a section name. A quotation without a page number leaves readers unable to locate it.

Five entries on the references list: what goes in it, its order, and references for a book, an article and a web page.

The list at the end.

CMP 0632 The References List

An APA paper ends with a references list that includes every source cited in the text, and only those. The list begins on a new page under the centered, bold heading References, and it is double-spaced. Every source in the text must appear in the list, and every source in the list must be cited in the text.

Alphabetical, hanging indent.

CMP 0633 Order and Indentation

APA references are alphabetized by the first author's last name and set with a hanging indent. The first line of each entry starts at the margin and later lines are indented a half inch, as in MLA. Two works by the same author are ordered by year, oldest first.

A basic book reference.

CMP 0634 A Book Reference

A basic APA book reference gives the author's last name and initials, with professional titles left out, then the year in parentheses. The book's full title follows in italics, with a colon before any subtitle, and only the first word, the first word of the subtitle and proper nouns capitalized. Then the publisher's name as it appears, without words such as Inc., and a DOI if there is one. This capitalization is called sentence case, and it differs from MLA's, which capitalizes all major words. Using MLA capitalization in an APA list is a common mix-up.

An article in a journal.

CMP 0635 A Journal Article Reference

An APA journal-article reference gives the author's last name and initials, then the date in parentheses. The article title follows in plain text and sentence case, with no italics and no quotation marks. The journal title is italicized with significant words capitalized, then a comma. The volume is italicized, followed immediately by the issue in parentheses, not italicized. The page range has no p or p p. The DOI comes last as a full link, with no period after it. Carrying MLA's quotation marks into an APA reference is one of the commonest errors when switching styles.

A work only on a website.

CMP 0636 A Web Page Reference

An APA reference for a work found only on a website gives the author, a person or an organization, then the date in parentheses: the year, and the month and day if available. Next comes the title of the work in italics and sentence case, then the website's name unless it is the same as the author, then the URL. When no date is given, APA uses the abbreviation n d, for "no date," in place of the year. When the author and the website are the same organization, give the name once, as the author.

Five entries on titles, DOIs and URLs, paper format, headings and abstracts.

Italics and capitals.

CMP 0637 Titles in APA

In APA references, book and web-work titles are italicized, article and chapter titles are plain, and journal titles are italicized. Book and article titles use sentence case, capitalizing only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Journal titles keep all major words capitalized; check the manual for titles mentioned in your sentences.

Permanent identifiers.

CMP 0638 DOIs and URLs

A DOI, or digital object identifier, permanently identifies an article or book, and APA prefers it to a URL. APA writes DOIs as full links beginning with the doi dot org address, converting older formats. Do not end a DOI or URL with a period, which could be read as part of the link.

Margins, spacing, title page.

CMP 0639 APA Paper Format

An APA student paper has a title page, one-inch margins, double spacing throughout, and page numbers in the upper right of every page. The title page gives the paper's title in bold, centered, then the writer's name, department, institution, course, instructor and due date, each centered. Follow your instructor's requirements, which may modify these defaults.

Marking sections.

CMP 0640 Headings in APA

APA papers use headings to mark major sections, such as Method, Results and Discussion. First-level headings are bold and centered; second-level headings are bold and flush left. Headings help readers navigate a report; a long APA paper without them is harder to use and to skim for results.

A summary on its own page.

CMP 0641 Abstracts

An abstract is a brief summary of a paper's purpose, methods and findings, placed on its own page after the title page. When required, the word Abstract appears bold and centered at the top of the page, and the summary begins below it. Many student papers do not require an abstract; include one when your instructor asks for it.

Four entries on building a reference from a source, comparing APA with MLA, common errors, and the current manual. The opening idea is paid off at the first two.

A reference from an article.

CMP 0642 Building a Reference From a Source

A worked example, constructed for this course, pays off the opening idea. A student reads an article by Hannah Ito and Marcus Bell on sleep and memory in college students. The reference gives Ito, H., an ampersand, and Bell, M., then the year in parentheses. The article title is in sentence case and plain text. The journal is italicized with major words capitalized, the volume italicized with the issue in parentheses, the pages with no p p, and the DOI as a full link with no final period. Three details differ from MLA: initials instead of first names, sentence case without quotation marks, and no p p before the pages. Check them deliberately.

Two styles compared.

CMP 0643 MLA and APA Side by Side

MLA and APA share a purpose but differ in emphasis and detail. MLA puts author and page in the text; APA puts author and year, adding the page. MLA's list is Works Cited; APA's is References. MLA gives full first names; APA gives initials. MLA places the date near the end; APA right after the author. MLA capitalizes major title words and quotes article titles; APA uses sentence case without quotation marks. MLA joins two authors with and; APA uses an ampersand. A year right after the author signals APA; a page alone after the name signals MLA.

Mistakes to check for.

CMP 0644 Common APA Errors

Common APA errors include missing years in in-text citations, MLA-style capitalization of titles, quotation marks around article titles, and full first names in references. An in-text citation without a year, or a reference with a first name spelled out, signals a mix of styles. Check each reference element by element against the pattern, rather than by appearance.

Editions change.

CMP 0645 Check the Current Manual

The APA Publication Manual is revised periodically, and the current edition is the authority for details. The core system, author and date in the text and a references list, is stable, while details such as the treatment of DOIs have changed between editions. Follow your instructor's version of APA when it differs from a guide you find elsewhere.

Look at what you can now do. You can explain why APA stresses dates, and write narrative and parenthetical author-date citations for any number of authors, for groups, and for works with no author. You can build APA book, article and web references, and arrange them in a references list by author and year. You can apply sentence case, write DOIs as full links, and format an APA paper with a title page, headings and, when asked, an abstract. And you can build a reference from an article and tell APA from MLA at a glance. Unit Twenty-Seven teaches the third style, Chicago.