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Tips for Writing APA
Style Research Papers
(Page 2 of 3) |
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General Advice: Abbreviations,
Quotations, and Citations |
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Abbreviations |
| Do not
abbreviate except for those formally accepted abbreviations such as Mr.,
Ms., U.S., etc. Another exception is when you have one identifying name such
as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or a topic such as job
satisfaction. You may abbreviate these if they are used throughout the paper
by the following method: The U.S. Food and Drug Administrations (FDA); or
job satisfaction (JS), after the first time the term is used in a paper. |
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Quotations |
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Quotations are used to support or amplify the content of your paper. They
should be used sparingly. Basically, there are two types of quotations used
in papers: short quotations of fewer than 40 words, and longer block
quotations. |
| Short
quotations are typed within the sentence or paragraph and set in double
quotation marks (“…”). Longer quotations are set in block format, indented
left margin only, and without the usual opening paragraph indentation. |
| If the
material you are quoting is already set in quotation marks, set it in single
quotation marks (e.g., “John Paul Jones is reported to have said ‘I have not
yet begun to fight’ to the British.”) |
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Permissible Changes from the Original Quotation |
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first letter of the first word in a quotation may be changed to a capital or
a small letter. The punctuation mark at the end of a quotation may be
changed to fit the position of the quotation within your sentence or
paragraph. Other changes may be made with caution. Do not change any part of
the quotation which may alter the context or meaning of the original
material. |
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Omitted Material from the Quotation |
| An
ellipsis (…) may be used to indicate parts of a quotation that were omitted
(for brevity, etc.), and four ellipsis points (….) are used to indicate any
omission between two adjoining sentences within the quoted material. |
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Inserted Material in a Quotation |
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Brackets [ ] are used to enclose additions to the quoted material to enhance
the reader’s understanding and/or for sentence flow. |
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Punctuation and Quotation Marks |
| When a
period or comma occurs with closing quotation marks, place the period or
comma before (inside) rather than after (outside) the quotation marks. Put
other punctuation outside quotation marks unless it is part of the quoted
material. Examples: |
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At the
beginning of each trial, the experimenter said, “This is a new trial.” |
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After
the experimenter said, “This is a new trial, “ a new trial began.
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Did
the experimenter forget to say, “This is a new trial”? |
| Note
that in a quotation, punctuation goes at the end of the sentence after the
citation and not before. Examples of correct punctuation: |
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Lopez
(1996) reported that “the effect disappeared within minutes” (p. 311). |
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The
“effect has been reported to disappear within minutes” (Lopez, 1996, p.
311). |
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Examples of incorrect punctuation: |
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Lopez
(1996) reported that “the effect disappeared within minutes.” (p. 311) |
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The
“effect has been reported to disappear within minutes.” (Lopez, 1996, p.
311). |
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Citation of the Source of the Quotation |
| All
quotations must be cited (given a reference) and indicated as such (by
quotation marks or blocking). The reference citation must include the
author’s last name, year of publication, and page number. |
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Citations in Body of Paper and Reference List |
| In
place of the bibliography and footnotes used in other writing styles, a
reference citation method is used in psychology. The purpose is to make it
easy for the reader to identify the source of an idea and then to locate the
particular reference in the list at the end of the paper. The surname of the
author and the year of publication are inserted in the narrative text at the
appropriate point. |
| Do not
list any publication in your reference list that you do not cite in the body
of your paper. Similarly, do not cite any reference without listing it in
the reference list. If you want to cite a source that you did not read, use
the following format |
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Nelson
(as cited by Fung, 1985) observed that…. |
| A
citation must be given for any material you use in your paper that is not
your own thought or expression. (If you use someone else’s exact words, then
you must so indicate by using quotation marks or a block quotation and page
numbers. See above.) |
| A
citation must be used whenever a direct quotation is used. A writer’s facts,
ideas, and phraseology should be regarded as his or her property. Whenever
any idea is taken from a specific work, even when students write the idea
entirely in their own words, there must be a citation giving credit to the
author responsible for the idea. Students are entirely responsible for
knowing and following the principles of paraphrasing. Students should never
retain a sentence pattern and substitute synonyms for the original words.
Students should never retain the original words and alter the sentence
pattern. In other words, paraphrasing means alteration of sentence pattern
and changing the words. Any direct quotation should be properly cited. Even
when the student uses only one unusual or key word from a passage, that word
should be quoted. If a brief phrase that is common or somewhat common is
used as it occurs in a source, the words should be in quotation marks. |
| When
one rephrases an author’s ideas or summarizes a researcher’s study in one’s
own words, then the original author’s work is cited as described below: |
| There
are four ways to incorporate citations throughout your paper |
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The
author(s) name can be used within the context of your sentence with the year
cited in parentheses. Example: |
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Jones and Smith
(1981) reported that…. |
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The
author(s) name and year can be set in parentheses after the material used.
Example: |
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It is agreed
that….(Jones & Smith, 1981). |
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When
there are 3-5 authors of a source the expression “et al.” is used after all
of the authors have been listed in the regular formats. For example, if the
first mention of a source is: |
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In a follow-up
article, Jones, Smith, and Williams (1982) studied…. |
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Any
following citations of the same source can be as follows: |
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Jones et al.
(1982) confirmed the findings of the original study. |
| When
there are six or more authors, cite only the surname of the first author
followed by “et al.” and the year for the first and subsequent citations. |
| If you
are citing a series of works, the proper sequence is by alphabetical order
of the surname of the first author and then by chronological order. |
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(Kern,
1960, 1961; Mithalal, 1963, 1964) |
| An
ampersand is used with multiple authors when they are listed within
parentheses; “and” is used outside parentheses. |
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Rodgers and Bakeman (1992) found that social isolation is not always a
negative experience. |
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Social
isolation is not always a negative experience (Rodgers & Bakeman, 1992). |
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