APA STYLE SAMPLE

Assignment 3: Essay Styles and RefWorks

Daniel Siciliano
University of Notre Dame Australia
Assignment 3: Essay Styles and RefWorks 1

Contents
Discussion .................................................................................................................... 2

Examples ...................................................................................................................... 2

Format .......................................................................................................................... 3

Summary ...................................................................................................................... 4

References .................................................................................................................... 5

Introduction to ICT for Teachers Daniel Siciliano | 32009456

Assignment 3: Essay Styles and RefWorks 2

American Psychological Association

Style Sample
The American Psychological Association (APA) style is primarily used in the

social science disciplines. It is formatted like Modern Language Association (MLA),

and shows many similarities, but is unique in several key points. This paper

discusses the APA in detail. Addressing plagiarism has become a major challenge in

education and educating students in referencing correctly with the APA 6th is one

way of trying to overcome the problem (Bretag, 2013; Manar & Shameem, 2014).

Discussion

APA uses parenthetical (or in-text) citations within sentences, but rather than

indicating the author's name and page number, APA includes author's name and date

of publication. The page number, represented with a p. or a pp., is only added to the

citation when using a direct quote (not a summary or paraphrase). If the author's

name is mentioned in the sentence, then place the date of publication in parentheses

directly after the name. If the name is not mentioned include the author's name and

date in parentheses at the end of the source material. And, if you use a direct quote,

place the page number after the publication date within the parentheses.

Examples

Note the difference between the following three examples:

Terrence (1999) has presented poignant examples from 150 interviews.

However, it has been pointed out that the research was conducted in a selective,

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Assignment 3: Essay Styles and RefWorks 3

highly biased, way (Strong & Porter, 1998). All of the interviewees have been called

“exceptions to the norm” (Strong & Porter, 1998, p. 5).

Note the first example paraphrases an author that is named in the sentence,

the second example paraphrases authors that are not named in the sentence, and the

third example provides a direct quote (thus the inclusion of the page numbers) but

also does not identify the authors within the sentence. If the authors were identified

within the sentence in the third example, the authors' names would be followed by

the year of publication and only the page numbers would be in the parentheses at the

end of the quote.

Format

Finally, the bibliographic page in APA style differs from MLA, what APA

calls the Reference page. You will notice a few immediate differences from the MLA

Works Cited format. With APA you include the initial of the author's first name

rather than the complete name, the publication date immediately follows the author's

name in parentheses, and titles of articles are not surrounded with quotation marks.

The lists are still alphabetized by author's last name (or title in the absence of an

author) and the first line is flush left while subsequent lines in the same entry are

indented in (approximately 5 spaces or one tab). A good resource to help you with

referencing is Notre Dame’s referencing guide at

http://library.nd.edu.au/referencing/apa#s-lg-box-3040351. There is also a summary

downloadable help document available at:

http://library.nd.edu.au/ld.php?content_id=8053459. In APA Style, you include a

reference list rather than a bibliography with your paper (APA, 2017). A reference

list consists of all sources cited in the text of a paper whereas a bibliography may

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Assignment 3: Essay Styles and RefWorks 4

include resources that were consulted but not cited in the text as well as an annotated

description of each one.

Summary

The School of Education, University of Notre Dame Australia, uses the APA

6th referencing style for all written documents. In addition to in text referencing and

the reference list there are a number of formatting requirements to ensure your essay

complies with APA standards. Get to know the APA 6th.

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Assignment 3: Essay Styles and RefWorks 5

References

APA. (2017) Bibliography versus reference list. Retrieved from

http://www.apastyle.org/learn/quick-guide-on-references.aspx#Bibliography

Bretag, T. (2013). Student success in community colleges. PLoS Med, 10(12),

e1001574. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001574

Manar, H., & Shameem, F. (2014). Attitude of students towards cheating and

plagiarism: University case study. Journal of Applied Sciences, 14(8), 748-

757. doi:10.3923/jas.2014.748.757

Terrence, H. S. (2007, November 1). Student Success in Community Colleges. The

West Australian, p. 6-7

Strong, R. L., Porter, M. (1998), Grammatical Combinations. In S. Parker & K.

Gibson (Eds.), Language and Literacy (p 540-578) Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

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