Module 08

Module 08: APA style
Posted by: Angelita P. Oblianda
Sources: Interactive Technical Writing by P.C. Villamarzo et al.

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 Introduction

      The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is a large reference book that contains guidelines on the format of citations and tips on writing. 

 Study the following guidelines:

   

 1. Separate the four main parts of a citation (author, date, title, and publication details)  with periods. Use commas within  each part except between the place of publication and the publisher where a colon is used. Enclose in parentheses other information like edition number.

2. Should the book have a later edition, enclose this in parentheses right after the title.

3. Indent the first line of an entry.

4. Write the last name of the author, followed by the initials of his first name.

5. Enclose in parentheses the year of publication. Add the month only when a periodical has no volume number. 

6. Do not underline the title of the article; underline or write in italics, however, the name of the periodical  (journal, magazine). 

7. Underline or write in italics the title of a book.

8. Do not capitalize the entire titles of books and articles in the list of references. Capitalize only the first letter of the first word in the titles, the word after a colon, and the first letter of a proper name. 

9. Capitalize the first letter of the first word and the first letter of each major word in the title of the journal. Short prepositions, conjunctions, and article should not be capitalized unless they are the first words in the title.

10. Start with the title when alphabetizing for a book that has no author.

11. Cite the encyclopedia articles in the same way as articles in an edited book.

12. Write the name of the corporate author or editor in position, such as committee or an association , for alphabetizing purposes.

13. Abbreviate the name of the publishing company as much as possible by omitting initials and words such as company or corporation.


14. Use the symbol & instead of and between names of authors.

15. You may write References instead of Bibliography for the list of source materials.

(cited in Menache, 1997)

Study carefully the following Examples that illustrate the APA format:

1. book written be a single author

          Menache, L. (1997). Writing a research paper. (2nd ed.) Michigan: Michigan University Press.

2. book written by two authors

          Elbow, P. & Belanof, P. (1995). A community of writers : a workshop course in writing (2nd ed.). U.S.A.: Steven Pensinger, Inc.

3. article in journal

         Maldonado,N.S. (1992). Making TV environmentally safe for children. Children Education, 68, 229-230.

4. article in a magazine

         Possner,M.I. (1993, October). Seeing the mind. Science, 262.673-674.

5. article with no author from a newspaper

         New drug appears to sharply cut risks of death from heart failure. (1993, July 15). The Washington Post, p.A12.

6. article from an encyclopedia or dictionary

         Sadie, S. (ed.). (1980). The new grove dictionary of music and musicians (6th ed., Vols. 1-20). London: McMillan.

7. unpublished doctoral dissertation

         Juffs. A. (1993). Learnability and the lexicon: Chinese learners' acquisition of English argument structure. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

8. for electronic publications

        There are no periods at the end of entries because periods are part of electronic addresses and adding periods will only confuse the readers. You may add the date of access in brackets at the end of an on-line entry.

EXAMPLE:

          Ling, R. (1996). Cyber McCarthyism:witch hunts in the living room. Electronic Journal of Sociology 2. Available : http://olympus. Lang.arts.alberta.ca:8010/vol002.001/Ling.article.1996.html [1997, January 3].

Arrange the following references according to APA format:


1. Angelita P. Oblianda. Cebu: Cebu University Press. (2009). Writing in Discipline. (1st ed) .

2. Cuyag, Charlie and Grace Mantica, Techical Writing, ULA: Fixer Inc. (2011).

3. Philippine Journal, Jose Amigo (2001), Children Education, 53-60.

4. (1999, December). Fhin Jamora. Family Life Journal, Mother's Love to Her Daughter. 119-121.

5. Perseus, Villaflor A. Technical Writing. USA: Sphinx Inc. (2002). APA Style.