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Key Concepts
- APA format, also known as the American Psychological Association style, is a citation and formatting style most researchers use.
- Students will likely use APA format in upper-level classes when writing papers.
- Purdue Owl is a fantastic resources for all information related to APA format.
- APA formatted papers include a Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References page.
- All APA formatted papers should be double-spaced and in 12 point font.
APA format, also known as the American Psychological Association style, is a citation style developed by a group of researchers as a guide to format papers. In many of your upper level classes, you will use this format when submitting papers or publishing research.
Citing sources can get tricky, which is why the library has several tools to help you make it as easy as possible. If you need to create citations with a citation generator and keep track of them in folders, get an account with RefWorks: go.rowan.edu/Refworks
If you need help understanding APA format better or help creating citations for formats not in RefWorks, APA Academic Writer has the entire APA manual for you to review: go.rowan.edu/APAacademicwriter
In general, Purdue Owl is a fantastic up to date resource for everything you need to know about APA formatting. As style guidelines tend to change frequently, it’s important to double check that any old guidebooks still have accurate information.
The following chapter explores the basics of APA formatting, including formatting the References page, citing in-text, and formatting an APA-style paper.
While it’s absolutely fine to use a citation machine for you, it’s invaluable to understand on your own what a proper APA citation should look like. Purdue Owl always has up to date information on citation styles and answers any question you might have about APA format.
In general, for most standard articles, you will fill out the information below with your source’s information:
Muhammad, K. R. (2015). Everyday people: Public identities in contemporary hip-hop culture.
Social Identities, 21(5), 425-443. doi:10.1080/13504630.2015.1093467
Author(s): Last name and Initials of the first and middle name ONLY
Your references page should be in alphabetical order, starting with the first letter that appears in each citation (this isn’t always the author’s last name).
- You should use hanging indentations on your references page.
- Use a page break after the end of your essay and before your references page. To do this:
- Once you get to the end of your essay/conclusion, finish it with a period.
- Then hit either control+enter (windows) or command+enter (Mac) at the same time. This should work on Word or Drive. You can also typically go to “Insert” and then “Page Break” or “Break” then “Page Break”
The tools mentioned above will also help you with in-text citations. In-text citations are when you give appropriate credit in the body of your work. There are a few ways to do that and the Pu