APA Writing Style

Nadeena Spice
Ivy Tech Community College
Professionalism

A higher level of writing skills are
required of college students

To articulate thoughts in an organized
manner

To enhance communication skills

To portray professionalism

Plagiarism

Definition:

Stealing words or ideas from someone
else and portraying them as your own
without giving credit to the original
source (Encarta World English Dictionary, 2009).


Plagiarism Examples
All of the following are considered
plagiarism:

Turning someone elses work as your
own
Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving
them credit
Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
Providing incorrect information about the source of a
quotation
Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a
source without giving credit (Plagiarism, 2010).


Plagiarism




Plagiarism can be avoided by citing the
source(s) from which thoughts, ideas,
or quotes have been borrowed.

Citing Sources
Identification of material in your
work that came from another source
Provides readers with information for
locating that source, such as:

Information about the author
The title of the work
The name and location of the works publisher
The date of publication
The page number(s) of the material borrowed or quoted
APA Writing Style
Required by the School of Nursing
for written papers

Additional APA Resources:
http://www.apastyle.org/electext.html
http://www.apastyle.orgelecmedia.html
http://www.apastyle.org/stylehelper
http://www.referencepointsoftware.com
http://owl.english.purdue.edu
Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association (6
th

ed.). (2010). Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association





Overview


8 x 11 paper size
Double-spaced
12-point font size and type comparable to Times
New Roman
Pages sequentially numbered in upper right hand
margin following page header, beginning with the
Title Page
Written in third person
Use one space after punctuation marks(American
Psychological Association, 2010).

Title Page

Horizontally and vertically centered
Title of Paper
Name of author
Name of school
Date written

Page Header: First 2 or 3 words of the title of the paper
positioned 5 spaces to the left of the page number
Composition
Paragraph construction
Minimum of three sentences
Covers a single topic, thought, or idea
Indent each new paragraph five spaces
New paragraphs at the bottom of a page need at least
two lines, otherwise begin the paragraph on the following
page

Written assignments usually begin with an introductory
paragraph and end with a conclusion paragraph after the
logical progression of discussion on the identified topic.

Mechanics
Use abbreviations sparingly
They should be spelled out the first
time they are used and then identify the
abbreviation in parentheses:
Cerebral vascular accident (CVA)
Quotations are used for exact words from another
person or written source
Use an in-text citation after the quote if less than four
typed lines
Use block quotations for those longer than four lines; all
lines indented five spaces from the left margin, double-
spaced, and without quotation marks (American
Psychological Association, 2010)

Citations
Use author-date method
One author:
.. (Smith, 2009).
Two authors:
..(Jones & Brown, 2008).
Three, four, or five authors:
The first time the reference is used:
(Berning, Marks, Fischer & Felding, 2005).
Subsequent citations for the same authors:
.(Berning et al, 2005)
Six or more authors:
Use the last name of the first author followed by et al and the
date (American Psychological Association, 2010)


Reference Page

Center the word References on the first
line one-inch from the top of the page
All references are double-spaced
The first line of each reference begins at the one-inch left
margin; additional lines should have a hanging indent (5
spaces from the left margin)
List references in alphabetical order by the authors last
name
All sources cited in the body of the paper should be listed
on the reference page
All works listed on the reference page should be cited in
the body of the paper (American Psychological
Association, 2010)
Examples
Book
Burns, J. (1978). Leadership. New York, NY: Harper and Row
Journal
Barbuto, J. (2005). Motivation and transactional, charismatic, and transformational leadership: a test of antecedents.
Journal
of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 11(4), 26-40.
Newspaper
Hurricane Edwardo to hit coast of Florida this week after much destruction in Cuba. (2004, September 8). The
Indianapolis Star, p.
A12.
Journal article taken from a website
ERIC. (1992). Transformational leadership. ERIC Digest, Number 72. Retrieved from
http://www.ericfacility.net/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed347636.html
Journal article taken from an electronic database
Han, Thuzar. (2006). Effectiveness of standard short-course chemotherapy for treating
tuberculosis and the impact of drug resistance on its outcome. International Journal of
Evidence-Based Health, 4, 101-117. Retrieved from CINAHL database.
Internet document
Kline, B. & Stewart, T. (n.d.). Interacting with children of cancer patients. Retrieved July 7, 2005 from
http://stiv.gov/articles/cancerpatients/387645_edu.focus.htm
References
Encarta World English Dictionary[North American Edition].
(2009). Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved from
http://www.bing.com/Dictionary/search?q=define+plagiarism&
FORM=DTPDIA
What is Plagiarism? (n.d.) Retrieved October 1, 2010 from
http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.
html