Title of Paper

Your Name

Course Number and Course Name

(section)

(date)

APA Style Sheet for Research Papers

Must be typed

Must have cover sheet

Use margins 1 inch on top, bottom, left, and right.

Double space.

Note that where italics occur in this stylesheet, they are used for illustration purposes and should not be part of the actual writen portion of the paper.

Although grammar will not be a major portion of the points for the paper, misspellings, poor sentence structure and the like will count against you.  If you have problems with this, have someone else proofread your paper. 

 

You will be required to use the referencing style of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th edition).  This style is preferred because it does not require footnotes.  The following pages give the fundamentals of APA style.

How to reference in text

using APA style

I.  If you are not using a direct quote from an author, but are using the author's

      main idea (paraphrasing), reference in this manner:

            Nonverbal communication is the major way people gain meaning out of

            messages (Weaver, 1996).

      OR

            Weaver (1996) claims nonverbal communication is the major way people

            gain meaning out of a message.

NOTE: The last name of the author(s) and the date the book or article was published

            are included in the reference in the text.

II. If you are directly quoting an author, reference the quote like this:

            Short quote

                  "Nonverbal communication is two-thirds of the meaning we receive in a

                  message" (Weaver, 1996, p. 147).

            OR

                  According to Weaver (1996), "Nonverbal communication is two-thirds of

                  the meaning in a message" (p. 147).

 

            Long quote

            For a longer quote, you indent the quote five spaces, and double space the

            quote.  A quote is considered long if it requires more than five lines in your

            paper, or 40 words.  This is an example of how to build a long quote:

                  Meyers and Meyers (1994) said it this way:

                        More specifically, feedback is an essential part of your contact with

                        others.  You ask questions and expect answers.  You speak to someone

                        and expect a response in the form of words or nonverbal signs that say

                        you have been heard.  In short, one should always try to provide

                        adequate feedback that gives the receiver ample information about

                        how to interpret a given message. (p. 89)

      NOTE: There is no need for quotation marks around a long quote.

The Reference Page

References

Murstein, B.I. (1972).  Physical attraction and                           journal article,        

marital choice.  Journal of Personality and                                             one author, not paginated  

Social Psychology, 22, 412-453.                                                            by issue.

Taylor, L.C., & Compton, N. H. (1989).  Personality                journal article,   

correlates of dress conformity.  Journal of                                             two authors, paginated 

Home Economics, 60 (8), 153-156.                                                        by issue.

Molloy, J. T. (1995).  Dress for success.  New                          book, one author.

York, NY: Warner Books.                                                                  

Unruh, A., & Willier, R. A. (1996).  Public relations                 book, two authors.

in schools.  Belmont, CA: Fearon Publishers.                                    

Litwin, G. H. (1994).  Climate and motivation: An                     chapter from

experimental study.  In D. Kolb, I. M. Rubin &                                    edited book,                

J. M. McIntyre (Eds.), Organizational psychology:                               (2nd edition) 

A book of readings (pp. 24-48) (2nd ed.).  Englewood Cliffs,               

NJ: Prentice Hall.

The blood business. (1997).  Time, September 11,                     magazine article           

 pp. 47-48.                                                                                              no author.

Jasem, I. (1999).  Where have all the heroes gone.                     On-line journal

Journal of Communication Inquiry [On-line], 12.                                  article.

Available: http://www.whashappenin.com/heroes/

Reyes, R. M., & Jacks, D. L. (1999). Two knows                      Web-based document

better than one [On-line].  Available: http://www.

Onehitwonder.com/better/

 

GENERAL NOTES ABOUT REFERENCE PAGE:

      The page starts on a separate page from the main text of the paper.

      The page is to be numbered, The references are not.

      The only heading necessary is "References".

      The references are double spaced (between and within entries).

      The references are to alphabetized (although they are not in this

            sample) by the first letter of the last name of the author. If

            there is no author, use the first letter of the first signifi-

            cant word (not 'the', 'a', or 'an') in the title.  For

            example, the first significant word in "the blood business" is

            "blood".

      Take note of what is underlined, what is capitalized, and how

            spacing is used.  Use underlining in place of italics.

      Additional information for the format and use of internet references can be found on the

            on the following APA website:

 

            http://www.apastyle.org/elecsource.html