INTRODUCTION TO APA STYLE

APA 6th Edition

Trae Stewart, Ph.D., Associate Professor & EDCL Program Coordinator

Zane Wubbena, M.A., Ph.D. Student – School Improvement

(Updated July 2014)

Overview

APA 6th Edition

APA Style– What is APA Style?

– Purpose of APA Style

– General APA Style

Guidelines

Helpful Resources

What is APA Style?

American Psychological Association (APA)– Originated in 1929 by psychologists, anthropologists,

and business managers– Academic disciplines: social sciences, psychology,

education, etc.

Official procedures, or style rules, of the APA– Rules for writing research papers– Document and credit sources (citations and references) – Writing style, organization, and formatting of:

• selection headings, tone, length;• punctuation, abbreviation; • presentation of numbers and statistics; and,• construction of tables and figures.

– Other elements for manuscript production (letters, etc.)

Purpose of APA Style

Uniformity for scanning key elements: purpose, questions, methods, results/findings

Individuals described with accuracy and respect Express quantitative data—analyses and results:

– Report details of research protocol– Display graphics of conceptual frameworks– Display data with tables, figures, or statistical equations

Increases reading and writing of scientific manuscripts– Avoid inconsistencies among journal articles or book

chapters – Variations in format/style cause writing difficulties and,

as a result, distract or confuse the reader

General Guidelines

Double space Times New Roman

font Don’t add space

between paragraphs 12 point font 1” margins all

around 2 spaces after each

sentence period

Helpful Resources

Purdue OWL APA 6th edition Manual

Visit OtherAPA Style (6th ed.) Modules

In This Series