APA Style: APA Style

Helpful Resources 

APA 7th edition

Below is a summary of the major changes in the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual.

Essay Format:

• Font - While you still can use Times New Roman 12, you are free to use other fonts. Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans 10, and Georgia 11 are all acceptable.
• Headers - No running headers are required for student papers.
• Tables and Figures - There is a standardized format for both tables and figures.

Style, Grammar, Usage:

• Singular "they" required in two situations: when used by a known person as their personal pronoun or when the gender of a singular person is not known.
• Use only one space after a sentence-ending period.

Citation Style:

• Developed the 'Four Elements of a Reference" (Author, Date, Title, Source) to help writers to create references for source types not explicitly examined in the APA Manual.
• Three or more authors can be abbreviated to First author, et al. on the first citation.
• Up to 20 authors are spelled out in the References List.
• Publisher location is not required for books
• Ebook platform, format, or device is not required for eBooks.  
• Library database names are generally not required
• Hyperlinks -
  • No "doi:" prefix, simply include the doi.
  • All hyperlinks retain the https://
  • Links can be "live" in blue with underline or black without underlining

General APA Guidelines (from Purdue OWL)

Your essay should be typed and double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11"), with 1" margins on all sides. Include a page header (also known as the “running head”) at the top of every page. For a professional paper, this includes your paper title and the page number. For a student paper, this only includes the page number. To create a page header/running head, insert page numbers flush right. Then type "TITLE OF YOUR PAPER" in the header flush left using all capital letters. The running head is a shortened version of your paper's title and cannot exceed 50 characters including spacing and punctuation.

Commonly Used Terms

Citing: The process of acknowledging the sources of your information and ideas.

DOI (doi): Some electronic content, such as online journal articles, is assigned a unique number called a Digital Object Identifier (DOI or doi). Items can be tracked down online using their doi.

In-Text Citation: A brief note at the point where information is used from a source to indicate where the information came from. An in-text citation should always match more detailed information that is available in the Reference List.

Paraphrasing: Taking information that you have read and putting it into your own words.

Plagiarism: Taking, using, and passing off as your own, the ideas or words of another.

Quoting: The copying of words of text originally published elsewhere. Direct quotations generally appear in quotation marks and end with a citation.

Reference: Details about one cited source.

Reference List: Contains details on ALL the sources cited in a text or essay, and supports your research and/or premise.

Retrieval Date: Used for websites where content is likely to change over time (e.g. Wikis), the retrieval date refers to the date you last visited the website.

Bibliography: Is a list of documents consulted but not necessarily referred to in a specific essay or assignment. A bibliography can also be a comprehensive list of works on a specific subject, for example, The Bibliography of Bioethics. When researching a topic it is a good idea to prepare a bibliography for your own use, even if in your essay you need to cite only some of these items in a works cited or references list.

Descriptive elements: Are the necessary parts of a reference. A few examples of these elements are: author, title, edition, date of publication, internet address, etc.

Electronic: Is a generic term used to describe documents available from the internet or from databases or published in a digitized format.

Introduction to APA 7th ed

Major Paper Sections

Your essay should include four major sections: the Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References.