Minilessons for APA Style
By Sherilyn Newell
The minilessons on the following pages are based on
the fifth edition of the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association (APA manual). Page numbers that
are cited refer to pages within that text.
Contents
Abbreviations
Ampersand
Appendixes
Bias
Capitalization
Citations
Clarity of Writing
Clauses (That Versus Which)
Colons
Commas
Dashes
Direct Quotations
Ellipses
Figures
Group Authors
Headings
Hyphens
Italics
Numbers
Paragraphs
Parentheses
Plagiarism and Ethics
Pronouns
Quotation Marks
References
Semicolons
Seriation
Slashes
Spacing
Spelling
Tables
Tests, Questionnaires, and Surveys
Titles
Verbs
Abbreviations
Following are the general guidelines for use of
abbreviations (a more detailed treatment of this subject is
found on pages 103-111 of the APA manual):
1. Abbreviations may not be used in the title.
2. Excessive use of abbreviations in text should be
avoided (i.e., use acronyms and abbreviations only for
lengthy terms and names that are repeated often).
3. Acronyms (i.e., capital-letter abbreviations) should
be established where the term is first used in the text of
the document and then be used consistently thereafter. This
same rule applies to use of an acronym or abbreviation
within the abstract (which is a freestanding document). To
establish an acronym, write the term out in full and then
place the acronym in capital letters, without periods,
within parentheses immediately after the term in the text.
Example: The Children's Aid Society (CAS) reported . . . .
4. An acronym (or abbreviation) should not be
established for a term that is not used at least three more
times in the document.
5. Latin abbreviations (such as e.g., etc., i.e., and
vs.) should be used only within parentheses. The exception
to this rule is the use of et al. in citations.
6. Sentences should never begin with a lowercase
abbreviation. In fact, beginning sentences with any acronym
or abbreviation should be avoided when possible.
7. Statistical abbreviations should be italicized
(e.g., M for mean, SD for standard deviation).
8. To form the plural of an abbreviation, the lowercase
letter s should be added, but no apostrophe should be used.
9. If an acronym or abbreviation appears as a word
entry in the dictionary (e.g., CEO and IQ), it may be used
in the text without any explanation.
Ampersand
The APA rules regarding use of the ampersand (&) versus
use of the word and are found on page 209 of the APA manual:
1. The ampersand should be used to join names in
citations that appear within parentheses in the text.
Example: Research at a suburban high school indicated that
the process was ineffective (Smith & Jones, 2002).
2. When the names in the citation are not placed within
parentheses, the word and should be used.
Example: In research conducted by Smith and Jones (2002), it
was discovered that teachers failed to utilize the resources
that were provided.
3. Ampersands should be used to join authors' names in
reference entries (where the initials follow the surname).
Example:
Smith, J., & Jones, L. (2002). The lost child. Phi
Delta Kappan, 48, 244-247.
With three or more names, the ampersand should be
placed before the last surname.
4. In the note to a table (or an appendix) to credit a
published source, the word and is used to join the authors'
names.
Example:
Note. The data in column 1 are from "The Lost Child," by
J. Smith and L. Jones, 2002, Phi Delta Kappan, 48, p. 245.
Copyright 2002 by [Name of the Copyright Holder]. Reprinted
with permission.
5. Neither the word and nor the ampersand is used to
separate multiple citations within the same set of
parentheses; a semicolon is used instead.
Example: These results were verified in three studies (Best
& Max, 2001; Jones & Little, 2001; Smith & Jones, 2002).
Appendixes
Following are rules for the appendixes (for more
details, read pages 205-207 of the APA manual):
1. Use of copyrighted materials should be avoided.
When copyrighted material is placed in an appendix, written
permission from the copyright holder to reprint the material
must be secured. A note, following the example provided in
Section 3.73 of the APA manual, must be added to the end of
the appendix that contains the copyrighted material.
Example of the note if the material is taken from a book:
Note. The ABC Questionnaire is from The Teacher's Best
Friend (pp. 56-58), by S. Smith and T. Jones, 2002, Atlanta,
GA: Periwinkle Press. Copyright 2002 by [insert name of the
copyright holder]. Reprinted [or adapted] with permission.
Example of the note if the material is taken from an article
in a periodical:
Note. The ABC Questionnaire is from "What You Need Now,"
by S. Smith and T. Jones, 2001, Phi Delta Kappan, 45, pp.
42-44. Copyright 2002 by [insert name of the copyright
holder]. Reprinted [or adapted] with permission.
2. Each appendix must be referred to in the text of
the document.
3. Appendixes must be placed in the order in which
they are first mentioned in the text (i.e., A first, B
second, C third, etc.).
7. The correct formats for making reference to an
appendix in the text are as follows:
Example 1: The teachers prepared a list of staff development
topics (see Appendix A).
Example 2: Appendix A contains a list of the proposed staff
development topics for the 2002-2003 school year.
Bias
The guidelines for avoiding bias in scholarly writing
are found on pages 61-76 of the APA manual. Following are
excerpts (some directly quoted) from that source:
1. Wording that might imply bias against persons on the
basis of gender, sexual orientation, racial or ethnic group,
disability, or age should be avoided.
2. The word gender should be used instead of the word
sex when the reference is to men and women as social groups.
3. Terms that imply stereotypes should be avoided.
4. Labeling should be avoided whenever possible by
using the adjective form rather than the noun form (i.e.,
use the term the gay men instead of the gays).
5. Subjects in a study should be called what they
prefer to be called when it comes to racial designations
(e.g., African American versus Black, Hispanic versus
Latino, and American Indian versus Native American). When
Black and White are used as racial designations, the words
should be capitalized. Terms such as African American and
Asian American should not be hyphenated in the noun or
adjective form.
6. In regard to disabilities, language that puts the
person first, not the disability, is preferred (e.g., the
term person with a disability is less offensive than the
term disabled person).
7. Ages should be specified (e.g., ages 16-20) as
opposed to using open-ended descriptors such as "under 18"
or "over 65." For persons under the age of 18, the
following terms are appropriate: boy, girl, young man, young
woman, male adolescent, and female adolescent. For persons
over 18 years of age, the appropriate terms to use are men
and women.
Capitalization
Following are the rules for the use of capitalization.
For a more complete treatment of the subject, read pages 94-
100 of the APA manual.
Capitalize (i.e., use an uppercase letter for the first
letter of a word) the following:
1. The first word in a sentence and the first word
after a colon that begins a complete sentence.
2. Major words (i.e., words of four or more letters) in
titles of books, reports, and articles within the body of
the paper. In hyphenated compounds in such titles, both
words are capitalized. In titles in the References section,
only the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after
a colon or a dash in a two-part title should be capitalized.
3. Major words in chapter headings and in-text headings
(i.e., those that begin at the left margin). In indented
subheadings, only the first word and proper nouns should be
capitalized.
4. Major words in table titles and figure legends
(legends are explanations within the figure). In table
column headings and figure captions (a caption is the
description of the figure that appears below the figure),
only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.
5. References to titles of sections within the paper
(i.e., as explained in the Methods section . . .).
6. Proper nouns and trade names (do not capitalize
names of laws, theories, models, or hypotheses or the names
of groups in an experiment [i. e., experimental and control
groups]).
7. Nouns followed by numerals or letters in a
designated series (i.e., On Day 2 of Experiment 4). This
does not apply to common parts of books or tables (e.g.,
chapter 4, page 3, column 2, etc.) or to nouns that precede
variables (e.g., trial n and item x).
8. Names of tests when the full, proper name is used,
but shortened, inexact, or generic versions of test names
should not be capitalized.
Citations
General guidelines for citations are provided here (for
a more detailed treatment of this subject, read pages 207-
214 of the APA manual):
1. Each text citation must have a corresponding entry
in the References section.
2. Past tense should be used. Example: Stevens
(1999) conducted a study in which . . . .
3. All published (electronic and in-print) sources
should be cited, including legal materials such as court
cases and statutes.
4. Personal communications (e.g., e-mails, letters,
telephone conversations) are not listed in
the References section because they are not retrievable.
They should be cited in the text as follows: In a meeting of
the directors, the CEO (J. B. Silvers, personal
communication, August 12, 2002) said that . . . .
5. When a source has only two authors, both authors'
surnames are given in all citations. When the source has
three to five authors, all authors' surnames are given in
the first citation for the source in the text; thereafter,
only the first author's name is used followed by et al.
Example: Smith, Jones, and Clark (2000) indicated that their
study was incomplete. Smith et al. also said . . . .
For sources with six or more authors, only the first
author's surname followed by et al. is used in all
citations.
6. If two reference entries with the same year of publication
shorten to the same et al. form, the citation must include
as many of the authors' surnames needed to differentiate the
sources.
7. Lowercase letters arranged alphabetically (a, b, c,
etc.) are placed after the year of publication in citations
(and the corresponding reference entries) to differentiate
same-author/same-date sources.
Clarity of Writing
Following are a few suggestions for clarity of writing
(a more detailed treatment of this subject can be found on
pages 34-40 of the APA manual):
1. Anthropomorphism and personification (i.e.,
attributing human functions to nonhuman sources) should be
avoided.
Incorrect: The school was happy to have a new principal.
Correct: The teachers were happy to have a new principal.
2. Word usage should be precise. For example, the word
feel is often incorrectly used to replace the word believe
in informal speech, but the word feel relates to emotion not
cognition.
Incorrect: The teachers feel that the class should be
abolished.
Correct: The teachers believe that the class should be
abolished.
3. Use of pronouns should be limited, and verb
contractions should not be used.
Incorrect: He didn't complete the task.
Correct: The new student did not complete the task.
4. Jargon and slang expressions should also be avoided
when possible. When slang is used, it should be placed in
quotation marks (see APA p. 82, section 3.06). New and
technical terms (and those that may not be familiar to the
reader such as jargon or colloquialisms) should be
italicized where they first appear in text (see APA p. 83,
section 3.06). After the first usage, the term should be
typed in regular print.
5. The editorial we should be used only when the
writer is referring to him- or herself and his or her
coauthors. It should not be used to mean other researchers
in general. Specific researchers should always be cited by
name.
6. Smoothness and economy of expression should be
sought by avoiding wordiness, repetition, and redundancy.
Clauses (That versus Which)
Page 55 of the APA manual discusses the differences
between restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses and how to
decide which relative pronoun, that or which, to use. A
restrictive clause is one that is essential to convey the
meaning of the sentence. The pronoun that should be used to
begin a restrictive clause. A nonrestrictive clause is one
that provides supplemental information but is not necessary
to convey the essential meaning of the sentence. The pronoun
which should be used to begin a nonrestrictive clause.
Example of a restrictive (that) clause:
The textbook that would be used in class was distributed to
all students during the registration period. All of the
other books were distributed at the beginning of the
semester.
Example of a nonrestrictive (which) clause:
The reading textbook, which was more expensive than
expected, was ordered from the local bookstore.
Colons
Following are general guidelines for use of the colon
(for a more detailed treatment of this subject, read pages
80-81 of the APA manual):
1. Colons are used to express ratios.
Example: The ratio (teacher:student) was 1:20.
2. Colons are used after a grammatically complete
introductory clause (i.e., one that could stand alone as a
complete sentence).
Example: The team members were chosen for the following
reasons: (a) natural talent, (b) long-term achievement, and
(c) a desire to improve.
If the material that follows the colon is also a complete
sentence, the first word following the colon should be
capitalized.
Example: The team members were selected for several reasons:
(a) They had demonstrated a commitment to the cause, (b)
they had submitted completed application forms, and (c) they
had supplied letters of reference.
3. Colons should not be used after an introduction
that is not a complete sentence.
Example: The team members were (a) chosen at the beginning
of the year, (b) trained as mentors, and (c) included in all
staff meetings.
Commas
Rules for use of the comma follow. For a more complete
treatment of the subject, read pages 78-80 of the APA
manual; following are excerpts (some directly quoted) from
that source.
Commas should be used in the following circumstances:
- after the last item before the conjunction in a series
with three or more items
Example: the students, the faculty, and the administrators
- to set off nonessential or nonrestrictive clauses
(e.g., those that begin with the word which)
Example: The book, which was published locally, provided
all of the necessary information for the class.
- to separate two independent clauses joined by a
conjunction
Example: The students left the class, and the teacher began
to review the tests.
- to set off the year in parenthetical citations
Example: The results of the study were valid (Jones, 2001).
Commas should not be used in the following circumstances:
- to set off essential or restrictive clauses (e.g.,
those that begin with the word that)
Example: The results of the test that was given at the end
of the year were used to determine the pass rate.
- between the two parts of a compound predicate
Example: The students left the class early and returned
their books to the library.
- to separate parts of measurement
Example: The student's reading level was 7 years 2 months.
Dashes
Examples of the formats for dashes follow (for a more
complete treatment of the subject, read pages 81-82 and 291
of the APA manual):
1. The em dash should be typed as two hyphens, back
to back, with no space before, between, or after it, and it
should be used to set off an element that is added to
amplify or to digress from the main clause.
Example: The papers--old and new--were filed for future
reference.
2. The en dash should be typed as a single hyphen with
no space before or after it, and it should be used to join
two words of equal weight in a compound adjective.
Example: The Los Angeles-New York flight was cancelled.
Direct Quotations
The acceptable formats for citing direct quotations
follow (for a more detailed treatment of this subject, read
pages 117-118 of the APA manual):
1. Reprinting of the exact words of another author (or
speaker) should be indicated as a direct quotation, either
by the use of quotation marks (for quotations with 39 or
fewer words) or with block-indented format (for quotations
with 40 or more words).
2. The citation for each direct quotation should
include the page number (or numbers) where the quotation
appears in the source document. If the source is an online
document, paragraph numbers may be used instead of page
numbers.
Examples of citation formats for direct quotations:
Within a sentence: "Often children do not receive the
health care they need at home" (Fulton & Cooper, 2002, p.
12), and the medical treatment that is required becomes
the responsibility of the school system.
At the end of a sentence: Fulton and Cooper (2002) said,
"Development of a comprehensive treatment plan is an
opportunity as well as a challenge" (p. 23).
In a block-indented format: According to Fulton and Cooper
(2002), family involvement is crucial to student success:
In many of the districts, students are being helped at
home and at school by parents who have had the personal
opportunity to gain from postsecondary education and
technical training. These parents expect results from
the educational system, know their legal rights, and
take measures to help their children succeed. (p. 11)
Note. At the end of a block-indented quotation, the
punctuation mark precedes the citation of the page number.
Ellipses
APA rules for the use of ellipses follow (for a more
detailed treatment of this subject, read page 119, section
3.38, and page 293, section 5.13, of the APA manual):
1. Three ellipsis points are inserted in text to
indicate that material has been omitted from within a
sentence in a direct quotation. One blank space is left
before each ellipsis point.
Example: "The goal will be reached . . . by the end of the
year."
2. Four ellipsis points are inserted in text to
indicate that material has been omitted from a direct
quotation that falls at the end or the beginning of a
sentence within a multiple-sentence quotation. The last
ellipsis point serves as the period that ends the sentence.
Example of omission at end of a sentence within a
multiple-sentence quotation:
"The first report was prepared by the committee . . . . The
second report was prepared by the committee chair alone."
Example of omission at the beginning of a new sentence
within a multiple-sentence quotation:
"The first report was prepared by the committee. [It] . . .
will be presented at the next meeting."
Note. The word It in brackets is inserted to make the
quotation read smoothly.
3. Ellipses should not be used at the beginning or
end of a direct quotation unless they are necessary to
prevent misinterpretation by the reader.
Figures
General rules for formatting figures follow (for a more
detailed treatment of this subject, read pages 177-201 in
the APA manual):
1. Figures are graphs, organizational charts, maps,
sketches, or photographs (as opposed to tables that are
columnar comparisons of data).
2. Figure captions are short descriptions of the
contents of the figure, and they are placed below
the figure (only the first word and proper nouns are
capitalized, and the caption ends with a period).
3. The figure caption is preceded by a figure number,
which is italicized.
4. The entire figure, including the caption, must be on
one page of text, and color may not be used.
Example:
Figure 2. Racial composition of the student population
at Elmwood Elementary School in the 1999-2000 school year.
Group Authors
An explanation of the term group author is provided
here (for a more detailed treatment of this subject, read
pages 209-210 of the APA manual):
1. When a group (e.g., a corporation, association, or
government agency) is credited as the source of material
that is cited in the document (instead of individually named
persons), the name of the group serves as the group author
in the reference entry and the corresponding text citations.
2. The wording of the group author's name in the text
citation must agree exactly with the wording of that name in
the corresponding reference entry.
3. After the first citation of a group author's full
name, an acronym may be established for the name; use of the
acronym is recommended if the name is lengthy and is
repeated often in the document. If the acronym is
established within a citation that is placed within
parentheses, the acronym should be introduced with the use
of brackets.
Example: More programs are needed to address this situation
(Association of Retarded Citizens [ARC], 2002).
Headings
Guidelines for headings are described on pages 111-115
of the APA manual and are summarized below:
1. The first level of heading is centered on the page,
and only the first letter of major words (i.e., all verbs,
nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns) are capitalized.
When a capitalized word is a hyphenated compound, both words
should be capitalized. The only words that are not
capitalized in a title or first level of heading are
conjunctions, articles, and prepositions that are less than
four letters in length. All words of four or more letters
should be capitalized. The first level of heading is not
italicized.
2. The second level of heading begins at the left
margin, is italicized, and follows the same rules for
capitalization as stated in Item 1 above.
3. The third level of heading (i.e., a subheading) is
indented from the left margin and italicized. The subheading
ends with a period, and text begins on the same line as the
subheading. Only the first word, the first word after a
colon, and proper nouns are capitalized in a subheading.
Hyphens
The APA rules for hyphenation are extensive. Only a few
examples are shown here (for a more detailed treatment of
this subject, see pages 89-94 in the APA manual):
The following should be hyphenated:
1. All self-compounds (e.g., self-esteem)
2. Compound adjectives when they precede nouns they
modify, under the following circumstances:
- when the compound includes a participle
(e.g., computer-assisted instruction)
- when it is a phrase (e.g., yet-to-be-announced items)
- when it is an adjective and noun combination (e.g.,
high-anxiety situation)
- when the first element is a number (e.g.,
seventh-grade student)
The following should not be hyphenated:
1. Words at the end of a line of text
2. Words with prefixes such as anti, pro, pre, post,
semi, and mini (e.g., pretest, postsecondary, minisession)
3. Compound adjectives with
- an adverb ending in ly (e.g., widely circulated test)
- comparatives or superlatives (e.g., higher order
thinking skills)
- common fractions used as nouns (e.g., one third of the
class)
4. Modifiers that have a letter or numeral as the
second element (e.g., Group B participants and Type II
error)
Italics
The most common uses of italics are shown below. A more
complete treatment of this subject is found on pages 100-103
of the APA manual.
The following items should be italicized:
1. Titles of books and reports and names of periodicals
and microfilm publications.
2. New or technical terms, key terms, and labels when
they are first introduced in the text of a document. They
are not italicized thereafter.
3. Letters, words, or phrases that are used as
linguistic examples (e.g., The term special student was
utilized often in the report.).
4. Letters used as statistical symbols or algebraic
variables (e.g., t test).
5. Volume numbers in reference entries for articles
from periodicals (e.g., Educational Leadership, 21(3), 2-
5.).
6. Anchors on a scale (e.g., Responses ranged from
poor to excellent on the survey.).
Italics should not be used for the following:
1. Greek letters or foreign phrases that are common in
English (i.e., those that are found as entries in Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary).
2. Chemical or trigonometric terms and nonstatistical
subscripts to statistical symbols or mathematical
expressions.
3. Emphasis (emphasis should be conveyed by the text
itself, not the use of italics).
Numbers
A brief synopsis of the APA rules for the use of
numerals versus words follows (for more extensive coverage
of the APA rules for numbers, read pages 122-129 of the APA
manual):
1. Write the following as words:
- numbers below 10 that do not indicate a precise form
of measurement
- the first word in a sentence (but avoid starting
sentences with numbers)
- common fractions
2. Use numerals for the following:
- all numbers 10 or above
- numbers under 10 that are grouped for comparison with
numbers 10 or above in the same paragraph
- statistical or mathematical functions, percentages,
and ratios
- measurements of time (minutes, hours, weeks, months,
years, decades, etc.)
- ages
- scores and points on a scale
- exact sums of money
- numbers used as numbers
- numbers that denote a specific place in a numbered
series
3. Use Arabic, not Roman numerals, in seriation within
the text (unless Roman numerals are part of an established
terminology).
Paragraphs
Guidelines for paragraph construction are shown on
pages 36 and 289 of the APA manual and are summarized here:
1. Indentation. The first line of each paragraph should
be indented five to seven spaces. For a more complete
explanation of the paragraph indentation requirements, read
page 289 in the APA manual.
2. Length. Full-page and one-sentence paragraphs should
be avoided. For an explanation of the reasons, read page 36
in the APA manual.
3. Content. Concern for unity, cohesiveness, and
continuity should guide the determination of paragraph
breaks. For a more detailed treatment of economy of
expression, read pages 34-36 in the APA manual.
Parentheses
Parentheses should be used in the following
circumstances (for examples, refer to pages 84-85 of the APA
manual):
1. To set off structurally independent clauses.
2. To set off reference citations in text.
3. To introduce an abbreviation or acronym.
4. To set off letters that identify items in a series
within a sentence or paragraph (i.e., short items in
series).
5. To group mathematical expressions.
6. To enclose the citation or page number for a direct
quotation in the text.
7. To enclose numbers that identify displayed formulas
and equations.
8. To enclose statistical values.
9. To enclose degrees of freedom.
Parentheses should not be used back to back or to enclose
material that is already within parentheses. Squared
brackets should be used to be set off material that is
already within parentheses.
Plagiarism and Ethics
For a detailed discussion of plagiarism and the ethics
of scientific publication, consult the following sections of
the APA manual: section 8.05 on pages 348-355 and Appendix
C, sections 5.01-6.26, on pages 387-396. Following are some
of the most important issues:
1. Plagiarism is the act of representing someone else's
ideas or words as your own. Plagiarism is not only unethical
but also illegal if the material that is being plagiarized
is copyrighted under law. Care must be taken in applied
dissertation documents to be sure that all sources of
information are properly credited with complete citations
and reference entries. All direct quotations taken from the
works of other authors must be properly formatted to
indicate that they are direct quotations, and the citation
must include a page number that indicates the location of
that quotation within the source. For online sources that
do not contain page numbers, paragraph numbers may be used
for the citation.
2. Matters of confidentiality and the proper treatment
of human subjects used in scientific investigations are
fully covered in Nova Southeastern University's
Institutional Review Board (IRB) policies and procedures.
The IRB materials are available on the Applied Research
Office's Web site (http://www.fgse.nova.edu/aro) under the
heading Academic Resources.
3. Students must be thorough and accurate in their
reporting of the data that they collect and in the
interpretation of the results of their investigations.
Pronouns
Detailed descriptions and examples of proper pronoun
usage appear on pages 47-50 of the APA manual. A short
synopsis of the two basic pronoun rules follows:
1. Pronouns must agree in number (singular or plural)
and gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter) with the nouns
that they replace in the sentence.
Incorrect example: At test time, a student often arrives
late and forgets to bring their pencil.
Correct example: At test time, students often arrive late
and forget to bring their pencils.
Incorrect example: The dog was placed in her own cage.
Correct example: The dog was placed in its own cage.
Incorrect example*: The dog, which the researchers had
affectionately named Sally, was placed in its own cage.
Correct example*: The dog, which the researchers had
affectionately named Sally, was placed in her own cage.
*When an animal has been named in the text, it is
appropriate to use the gender-specific pronoun.
2. Pronouns can be used as subjects or objects of verbs
or prepositions. Confusion sometimes arises over when to use
the pronoun who and when to use the pronoun whom. When used
as the subject of a verb, the word who is appropriate (e.g.,
The author who wrote this story has left). When used as the
object of a verb or a preposition, the word whom is
appropriate (e.g., The author gave copies of her book to the
people with whom she had collaborated).
Quotation Marks
Lists of when to use quotation marks and when not to
use quotation marks may be found on pages 82-83 of the APA
manual. A few of the highlights are presented here:
1. Double quotation marks are used to set off direct
quotations from published sources when the quotation
contains 39 words or less. Single quotation marks are used
to set off quoted material that appears within text that is
already placed in double quotation marks.
2. In addition to their use with direct quotations,
quotation marks should be used to set off (a) slang or
ironic comments and invented or coined expressions*, (b) the
title of an article in a periodical, (c) the title of a
chapter in a book or report, and (d) verbatim test items and
test instructions.
*Once a slang, ironic, invented, or coined expression has
been introduced in the text within double quotation marks,
the expression does not need to be placed in quotation marks
thereafter.
3. Quotation marks should not be used (a) to identify
anchors on a scale; (b) to cite letters, words, or phrases
that are used as linguistic examples; and (c) to introduce
a new key or technical term. Instead of being placed in
quotation marks, these items should be italicized.
4. At the end of quoted material, commas and periods
should be placed before the closing quotation marks.
Semicolons and colons should be placed after the closing
quotation marks. The placement of question marks is
determined by the context of the sentence and the location
of the direct quotation within the sentence. Page 293 of the
APA manual provides examples.
References
The References section of a document prepared in APA
publication style should contain only those sources that are
cited in the document (see page 215 in the APA manual). Each
reference entry must have a corresponding text citation and
vice versa. The information provided must be accurate (e.g.,
spelling of authors' names, years of publication, wording of
the titles).
Each type of source requires a different type of
reference entry format (see the list on pages 232-236 of the
APA manual), but each reference entry contains four basic
components (see pages 237-239 of the APA manual):
1. An author. This can be a group or individual(s).
2. A date of publication. For books, reports, and
articles in journals, the date is only the year. For other
types of periodicals, the date may contain the year and the
month or the year, month, and day (in that order).
3. A title. When the source is a chapter in an edited
book, the reference entry will have two titles (i.e., the
title of the chapter and the title of the book).
4. Publication information. For journal articles, the
publication information includes the name of the journal and
the volume, issue, and page numbers. (If the journal does
not begin each issue with page 1, the issue number may be
omitted.) For magazine articles, the publication information
includes the name of the magazine and the volume and page
numbers (i.e., no issue number). For newspaper articles, the
publication information is only the name of the newspaper
and the page numbers. For reports, books, and media, the
publication information contains the location and name of
the publisher. For online sources, the publication
information consists of the Web path. For master's theses or
doctoral dissertations, the publication information in the
reference entry differs depending upon whether (or how) the
document has been published.
Pages 239-281 of the APA manual provide specific
examples of the formats for reference entries for all
printed and electronic sources except legal materials. The
formats for reference entries for legal materials (court
cases, statutes, patents, etc.) are found in Appendix D of
the APA manual, pages 397-410.
Semicolons
Rules for use of the semicolon are found on page 80 of
the APA manual and are summarized here:
1. Semicolons should be used to separate two
independent clauses that are not joined by a conjunction.
Example: The students in the evening class were permitted to
submit their assignments on Friday; the students in the day
class were asked to turn in their assignments on Monday.
If the conjunction and is placed between the two clauses, a
comma should be used instead of a semicolon.
Example: The students in the evening class were permitted to
submit their assignments on Friday, and the students in the
day class were asked to turn in their assignments on Monday.
2. Semicolons should be used to separate items in a
series when there are internal commas in any of the items in
the series.
Example: The materials reviewed at the meeting included the
students' (a) medical history; (b) attendance records; and
(c) scores on national, state, and teacher-made tests.
Seriation
The APA publication style allows for only two types of
seriation (i.e., listing of items in a series), one for
short items and one for long items. "Bulletized" lists are
not acceptable. Examples of the two types of appropriate
seriation appear on page 292 of the APA manual and below.
1. Short items should be listed within a paragraph and
prefaced with lowercase letters that are placed within
parentheses.
Example: The students purchased their own materials for
class: (a) paper, (b) pencils, (c) rulers, and (d)
calculators.
2. Long items (e.g., those that exceed one line of
text) are listed in separate, numbered paragraph format.
Only the first line of each item (i.e., the one that starts
with the number) is indented.
Example:
To improve the situation, several changes were
required:
1. Teachers needed extensive training on the use of
the new technology that was made available to them.
2. Students needed more access to computer terminals at
school and at home.
3. The media center needed to be expanded and remodeled
to provide room for the increased software collection.
Slashes
The rules for use of the slash, which is also called a
virgule, solidus, or shill, are found on pages 87-88 of the
APA manual. Portions of that material are provided below.
Slashes may be used in the following circumstances:
1. To clarify the meaning in a complex hyphenated
compound (e.g., the classification/similarity-judgment
condition).
2. To separate numerators from denominators in
equations (e.g., X/Y).
3. To indicate the word per to separate units of
measurement (e.g., 2 pints/gallon).
4. To set off English phonemes (e.g., /o/).
5. To cite a republished work in text. Example: Freud
(1923/1961).
Slashes should not be used in the following
circumstances:
1. When a phrase would make the meaning clearer. For
example, "The students were asked to bring a parent or
guardian" is better than "The students were asked to bring
a parent/guardian."
2. For simple comparisons when a hyphen would suffice
(e.g., test-retest reliability is preferred over test/retest
reliability).
3. More than once in a mathematical expression that
contains compound units. In these cases, centered dots and
parentheses should be used as needed to prevent ambiguity.
Spacing
Only one space should be left blank after all
punctuation marks. For this rule and other spacing
requirements (i.e., with hyphens; dashes; plus, minus, and
equal signs; and negative values), see pages 290-291 of the
APA manual.
Spelling
The APA-recommended source for spelling is
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (as indicated on
page 89 of the APA manual). If a word cannot be found in
this source, Webster's Third New International Dictionary
may also be used. If two spellings are given for a
particular word, the first spelling shown in the dictionary
entry is the preferred spelling (i.e., judgment instead of
judgement).
Tables
APA tables are columnar presentations of data
(numerical tables) or information (word tables) that
supplement, not duplicate, the text narrative. Examples of
the required formats for tables are shown on pages 147-176
of the APA manual. The formatting requirements for tables
are very complex, so only a few of them are noted here:
1. The table number is the first line of a table (Table
1, Table 2, etc.). The table title should be placed one
double space below the table number. Table titles should be
italicized, and all major words in table titles should be
capitalized. No punctuation is used after a table title.
If the table title is more than one line in length, it may
be single-spaced.
2. To start the body of a table, a line is drawn from
the left margin to the right margin. Below that line, the
column headings are typed. Each column in a table must have
a heading that describes what is in the column below it. In
column headings, only the first word and proper nouns are
capitalized. The various levels of column headings should
always be double-spaced, and the last line of all column
headings must end on the same line. When the column headings
are completed, another line is drawn from the left to the
right margin to separate the column headings from the body
of the table. Column headings should not be italicized or
underlined.
3. In word column entries, only the first word and
proper nouns are capitalized. All digits in number columns
should be aligned on the decimal place, and all numbers in a
column should be reported to the same number of decimal
places). A line drawn from the left margin to the right
margin is placed below the last entry in columns within the
body of the table.
4. Tables must stand on their own without benefit of
text narrative. All abbreviations used in a table should be
explained in a note to the table.
Tests, Questionnaires, and Surveys
Some commercial instruments (tests, questionnaires,
surveys, etc.) are protected by copyright to the extent that
they may not be reprinted, in whole or in part, in other
works. Before incorporating test, questionnaire, or survey
instruments that were created or published by someone other
than the writer, the writer of the applied dissertation
must determine what permission is needed to reprint the
material and also obtain permission, in writing, from the
appropriate party (creator or copyright holder).
The sources of all tests, questionnaires, and surveys
that are included in an applied dissertation (whether in the
text narrative, tables, figures, or appendixes) must be
credited properly. Reprinting the work of another person in
an applied dissertation without obtaining proper permission
and without giving proper credit to the source is considered
plagiarism. If the instrument was created by the writer of
the applied dissertation, that fact should be explained in
the text where the instrument is first mentioned.
For additional information regarding the use of test
instruments, questionnaires, and surveys, see the following
pages in the APA manual:
1. Pages 206-207, use of such instruments.
2. Pages 207-214, the formats to be used to credit
sources within the text narrative (i.e., citations).
3. Pages 174-175, the format for crediting the source
in a note that should be added to the end of all tables,
figures, and appendixes that contain published or
copyrighted material.
Titles
The APA requirements for titles appear on pages 10-11
of the APA manual. Following is a synopsis of those
requirements:
1. The title should be a concise statement that
expresses the main idea of the paper.
2. The title should be fully self-explanatory when
standing alone; therefore, no abbreviations should be used.
3. The recommended length for a title is 10 to 12
words. (The two parts of a hyphenated compound are
considered one word.)
Verbs
The rules for verb usage are found on pages 41-46 of
the APA manual. Highlights from that material are listed
here:
1. Active voice is preferred (e.g., "The teachers
conducted the survey" is better than "The survey was
conducted").
2. Past tense should be used to express an event that
occurred in the past. One example of this is the citation of
a published source: "Carter (1999) said that staff
development is essential." Because the year of the citation
is from the past, APA style requires the use of past tense
for the verb.
3. A verb must agree in number with the noun or pronoun
to which it refers in the sentence. Plural nouns, such as
data and criteria, require plural verb forms (i.e., "The
data were collected").
4. With collective nouns (e.g., faculty), if the action
of the verb is on the group as a whole, the noun should be
considered singular and the single form of the verb should
be used (e.g., "The faculty was informed of the change").
If the action of the verb is on the members of the group as
individuals, the noun should be considered plural and the
plural form of the verb should be used (e.g., "The faculty
were asked to pick up their enrollment forms at the
office").
5. When the subject of the sentence includes both a
singular and a plural noun joined by or or nor, the verb
should agree with the noun that is closest to it (i.e.,
"Neither the parents nor the teacher was invited").
6. In applied dissertation proposals, future tense is
appropriate for discussion of the specifics of the proposed
project. The final report of the applied dissertation is
prepared after the project is done; therefore, past tense
should be used to discuss the specifics of the project.
Present tense may be used in both proposals and applied
dissertation reports to discuss circumstances that existed
at the time of the applied dissertation project and are
ongoing (i.e., "The school district is located in the
largest city of the state").
