TO ALPHABETIZE REFERENCE LIST TO APA Book (pp.

181-183) RULES 1

Rule 1: Alphabetize letter by letter andnothing comes before something.

Swaen, G., comes before Swaenen, K.
Pater A, T., comes before Pater Batel, A. K. S.
Mascherano, B., comes before Mascher-Beno, T. S.
Rule 2: A prefix like M, Mc and Mac are taken as spelled and not as sounded out.
MacArthur comes before McAllister
MacNeil comes before MCarthy
Rule 3: For sources with just one author, you sort based on the publication date of the
source, listing the oldest source first with two publications.
Swaen, B. (1996).
Swaen, B. (2012).
Rule 4: Sources with one author come before sources with multiple authors, when the
first author is identical between the two source types.
Swaen, B. (2012).
Swaen, B., & Driessen, K. (1999).***
***Even if the publication date is earlier, one author still comes before multiple authors.
Rule 5: For multiple-author sources listing the same first author, but with
different second and third authors, sort based on the second author. If the
second author is the same, then sort based on the third author. And so on, per
author.
Swaen, B., & Driessen, K. (2004).
Swaen, B., Laak, R. van, & Schweinsteiger, B. (2003).
Woziaski, B. J., Totti, F., & Mascherano, K. (2009).
Woziaski, B. J., Totti, F., & Vidal, P. (2006).
Rule 6: For sources with multiple identical authors, sort by publication date, as in
Example 3 for single authors. The oldest source comes first.
Totti, F. J., & Schweinsteiger, B. (1999).
Totti, F. J., & Schweinsteiger, B. (2005).
Rule 7: For sources with the same author(s) and the same publication date, you
alphabetize based on the title of the source. Dont consider the prefixes
(excluding A or The).
Totti, F. J., & Schweinsteiger, B. (2005). Better home than away.
Totti, F. J., & Schweinsteiger, B. (2005). A view to a kill.
Exception to Rule 7: If the sources are articles in a series of multiple articles, then sort
the sources bases on this series (Part 1, Part 2 and so on). Place lowercase
letters a, b, c and so on directly after the year.
Totti, F. J., & Schweinsteiger, B. (2005a). The semifinals explained.
Totti, F. J., & Schweinsteiger, B. (2005b). The finals explained.
Rule 8: If different first authors have the same surname, then sort based on the initials of
the first names. Also note these initials in source referencing in the text.
Totti, F.J. (2010)
Totti, K.J. (2009)
In conclusion: When the author is not a person but an organization, this doesnt change
the order of the reference list. You still sort based on alphabet. You write out
abbreviations of organizations before you alphabetize them. Only if the author
TO ALPHABETIZE REFERENCE LIST TO APA Book (pp. 181-183) RULES 2

shows as Anonymous use Anonymous as the authors name. If there is no

available author, then record the title of the source in place of the author.