The Concise APA Handbook by
"Most students struggle with learning how to find references, use them effectively, and cite them appropriately in a required format. One of the most common formats is that of APA. The authors all have vast experience teaching writing courses to various levels of students from undergraduates to graduates in other countries. However, there was lacking a book that could explain the basics of APA in simple, easy-to-understand language for non-native speakers of English, who are often unfamiliar with using references and formatting an essay in a particular method. In order to offer English Learner student writers a source of information that is appropriate for their level, and is cost-effective, this updated APA 7th edition guidebook provides students with important information in clear, concise, user-friendly language, as well as to offer practical examples that will help them grasp the concept of secondary research writing. Much of the published materials on the market targets native speakers of English. The problem with this is that they present the nitpicky details of APA in ways that do not make sense to native speakers of English, let alone to those for whom English is not their first language, because the information is presented in very technical terms that are not easy to understand. This handbook presents the same information in simplified terms with images and step-by-step instructions in ways that make sense to both native and non-native English speaking student writers. Additionally, student writers often struggle with understanding the concept of plagiarism, as well as how to find sources, evaluate the appropriateness of sources, and use sources in effective ways (e.g., how to integrate quotes, when to paraphrase, among others). This book provides this important information that is concise and easy to understand."--
The Concise APA Handbook by
Most students struggle with learning how to find references, use them effectively, and cite them appropriately in a required format. One of the most common formats is that of APA. The authors all teach at the same university, where their current off-the-shelf reference book, while helpful, is filled with a lot of extra information that they do not use and contains missing or incorrect information. The cost of this book also continues to rise. In a search for something else to meet their needs, they discovered that there are no concise guides that deal with APA only that are cost effective or user-friendly for students who are not familiar with using references and formatting an essay in the APA format. In order to offer student writers a source of information that is concise and cost-effective, the authors have written this handbook to provide students with important information in clear, concise, user-friendly language, as well as to offer practical examples that will help them grasp the concept of secondary research writing. Much of the published materials present the nitpicky details of APA in very technical terms that are not easy to understand. This handbook presents the same information in simplified terms with images and step-by-step instructions in ways that will make sense to both undergraduate and graduate student writers. Additionally, student writers often struggle with understanding the concept of plagiarism, as well as how to find sources, evaluate the appropriateness of sources, and use sources in effective ways (e.g., how to integrate quotes, when to paraphrase, among others). This book provides this information in a concise and easy-to-understand format.
Academic writing requires the author to support their arguments with reference to other published work or experimental results/findings. A reference system will perform three essential tasks:
The American Psychological Association (APA) style is a widely used referencing system to help you achieve these objectives.
How do I use the APA Referencing Style?
The APA style involves two tasks:
In this guide we show how common reference types should look in your reference list along with an example. Immediately following this will be two samples of how that reference should appear as an in-text citation.
If the exact reference type you are looking for is not shown in this guide, look for one similar and follow the same rules.
There are two parts to referencing: the citations within the text of your paper and the reference list at the end of your paper.
The APA referencing style is an "author-date" style, so the citation in the text consists of the author(s) and the year of publication given wholly or partly in round brackets.
Use only the surname of the author(s) followed by a comma and the year of publication. Include page, chapter or section numbers if you need to be specific, for example if you are quoting, paraphrasing or summarising:
No distinction is made between books, journal articles, internet documents or other formats except for electronic documents that do not provide page numbers. In this case use the paragraph number, if available, with the abbreviation para.
The full details of the source are given in a reference list at the end of the document:
Reference list entries contain all the information that is required to follow up your source. Reference lists in APA are arranged alphabetically by author.
Here is an extract showing what In-text Citations look like in the APA Style
It has been claimed that due to funding being almost exclusively available from the Irish Film Board, Irish film makers are restricted to the type of Ireland they can depict in their work (MacDougall, 2009). Jervir (2011) argues that subjects such as Northern Ireland are disproportionately represented as these are key areas of interest to the board.
Here is an example of what a Reference List looks like in the APA Style
The APA Style advises that when using another's exact words, known as direct quotation, then those words must be placed in double inverted commas/quotation marks (e.g. ""), followed by an in-text citation that includes the Author Last name, Year and Page numbers. A full reference should then appear in your reference list.
If unsure, always check with your lecturer or tutor.
Short quotations - less than 40 words
Short quotations are held to be less than 40 words in the APA Style. An example of a short direct quotation would be
The findings suggest children have a "high level of enjoyment" (Fitzgerald et al., 2008, p. 66), while exercising with the system as indicated by the positive responses to all three questions.
Long quotations - 40 words or more
Long quotations in the APA Style are held to have 40 words or more. These are laid out in a separate paragraph of text and indented about half an inch from the left margin. No inverted commas/quotation marks are included. An example of a long quotation would be
In their research on rehabilitation using Wobbleballs, Fitzgerald and her team conclude that:
The fourth question collected some feedback from children and while most provided positive comments a small number of children (n=13) mentioned that the wobble board was “difficult to control” or “hard to use”. We must therefore investigate some easier methods to control the game as an option for some children. Future research is needed to investigate the benefits of the system as an exercise intervention for children and to examine how training using Wobbleball could be integrated into the existing physical education curriculum in schools. (Fitzgerald et al., 2008, p. 66)
|
Material Type |
In-text Citation |
Bibliography |
|
A book |
(Sapolsky, 2017) |
Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst. Penguin Books. |
|
Chapter in an edited book (If the chapter is from an authored book, use the book citation) |
(Dillard, 2020) | Dillard, J. P. (2020). Currents in the study of persuasion. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (4th ed., pp. 115–129). Routledge. |
|
An article in a print journal |
(Weinstein, 2009) |
Weinstein, J. (2009). “The market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology, 104(4), 439-458. |
|
An article in an electronic journal |
(Grady et al., 2019) |
Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185 |
|
A website |
(Bologna, 2019) |
Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e |
Most of these examples came from the Reference Examples page on the APA website. Use the same format for print books and ebooks. For ebooks, the format or device (e.g., Kindle) is not included in the reference.
An American Psychology Association hosted website with information on APA citation and related resources.
Double-check that you've formatted author names correctly and have listed the authors appropriately with these examples.
The APA website provides tips on adapting the basic structure of a reference to a published work that has missing information, along with the corresponding in-text citations.
From APA: For written material that does not contain page numbers (e.g. websites, some ebooks), provide readers with another way...
There are special requirements for using clip art and stock images in APA Style papers.
Online writing lab with formatting tips and sample papers. The "Cite your source automatically" feature on Purdue Owl pages is part of another website, and not recommended.
Citation examples, videos, and formatting guides for MLA, APA, and Chicago styles.