How to Document an APA Paper
Don't Be a Copy Cat!
Hey, whose paper is this anyway? Well, of course it’s yours, but anytime you use anyone else’s ideas to back up your claims, you have to give him or her credit. Not only does this protect you from being accused of plagiarism, but it also makes you look really smart and organized, and that translates into a better grade from your professor. Okay, you say, but what does APA have to do with it? Plenty! APA, which stands for the American Psychological Association, is a document style with two main parts:
- Inside your Paper - Citations
- End of your Paper - References
Citations are like a shorthand version of the complete entry you make on the last page of your paper, the References. The citation connects the summary of the sources to the location of the source on the References page, giving credit where credit is due.
1. Inside your paper - Citations
The purpose of the citation is to let the reader know you have used someone else’s ideas in your paper:
When men are unfair to women, they are participating in a behavior that could one day be used against their own female family members (Tampson, 1996).
The citation in parentheses says that the ideas came from a source by Tampson, and 1996 is the year Tampson’s work was published. The citation was tacked on to the end of the sentence with the period coming after the parentheses. The citation could start the sentence:
Tampson (1996) believes when men are unfair to women, they are participating in a behavior that could one day be used against family members.
2. End of Your Paper - References Page
The purpose of the References page at the end of your paper is to let the reader know where to acquire the source that you used in the paper.
Tampson, M. (1996). Our sisters and the quest for freedom. Chicago: McGraw-Hill.
Notice that title of the book is capitalized like a sentence with only the first word and proper nouns capitalized. The author, the title, and the publisher information are all separated by periods. All lines under the first are indented one tab space. To get the second line to indent, touch CTRL + T.
Reference
Tampson, M. (1996). Our sisters and the quest for freedom. Chicago: McGraw-Hill.
Other Sources Frequently Used in Papers
[Model for e-journal without DOI]
Smith, R. (2003). The Jewish tradition. Retrieved from http://www.jewishcen.org/
[Model for book by more than one author]
Denton, S., & Brown, J. (1996). Our silent aggression. Chicago: McGraw-Hill.
[Model for chapter in a book]
Dixon, J. (2003). Slavery in colonial America. In T. Smith (Ed.), Colonial America (45-53). Chicago: Dell.
[Model for e-journal found on the IU Southeast database]
Dixon, J. K. (2003). Slavery in the time of colonial America. Journal of Anthropological Research, 41(2), 339-347. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/
[Model for newspaper story]
Snyder, M. (2003, March 15). A angry mob in Williamsburg. Virginia Gazette, pp. A2-4
