Running Head: TITLE OF PAPER ABBREVIATED 1

Title of Paper:
Beginning About Half-Way Down the Page

Your Name

Section: Course Name

Professor’s Name

Date


2

TITLE OF PAPER ABBREVIATED

Title of Paper

To use this template, first go to the File menu and choose Save As... to save it under a different name. Then you can highlight and type over elements of the template without losing any formatting. For example, to change the running head, you can double-click on the header, highlight the TITLE OF PAPER ABBREVIATED and type your title.

Word’s Help feature has good explanations of how to create indents for block quotations (quotations longer than 40 words) and hanging indents (which you’ll need for the reference list). You may also work with a template that already has the formatting you need.

Creating Headings

If your paper has many sections, you may need to add some headings and subheadings. If you’re a visual learner, the model paper in Chapter 2 of The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2010) may be the quickest way to see how headings work. You can also consult Table 1 (which also provides an example of how to include graphical material in your paper. Information on figures in covered in Chapter 5).

Table 1: Levels of Heading in APA-Style Documentation

Level 1 Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase.

LEVEL 2 Flush Left, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase.

LEVEL 3 Indented, boldface, lowercase paragraph heading. Paragraph headings are also called run-in heads because they flow right into the paragraph.

LEVEL 4 Indented, boldface, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading.

LEVEL 5 Indented, italicized, lowercase paragraph headin.g

Note. Adapted from Table 3.1 “Format for Five Levels of Heading in APA Journals,” Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2010), p. 62.

As explained in section 3.03 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2010), the number of levels you use depends on your paper’s “length and complexity. If only one level of heading is needed, use Level 1; for a paper with two levels of heading, use Levels 1 and 2...and so forth” (p. 63). In this paper, Using Quotations on the next page is a Level 1 heading; Block Quotations and Parenthetical Citations are Level 2 headings. If only one Level 2 heading was needed, no Level 2 headings would be used at all, as explained in section 3.02.

Titles in the running head should be 50 characters or less, so you may need to shorten your title. For example, “Comparing and Contrasting Characteristics of Productive and Unproductive Workers” might become “Productive and Unproductive Workers.”

Using Quotations

Block Quotations

At times, you may use a quotation longer than 40 words. Such quotations should be used judiciously. Your paper should be a reflection of your ideas, not just a collection of other people’s words that you have cut-and-pasted together. Any quotations should be used to support your ideas. Even when reviewing research that has previously been done on a topic, you should maintain control of your sources by searching for themes.

For example, Patti Shank (2001), an e-learning expert interested in how social interaction helps online learning, provided this summary of earlier research on this topic:

The Web is essentially a social medium. "Technologies are social, because they are produced by, facilitate, and shape human interaction. Correspondingly, the Web is a technology with social and technical dimensions and implications" (Falk, 1995, Introduction section). Many researchers assert the need to use instructional strategies that promote social interaction. Social interaction, in fact, has been shown to have clear cognitive and affective benefits. Gunawardena and Zittle (1997) found that social presence contributed to more than 60% of the learners' satisfaction with an online course. Booher and Seiler (1982) showed that learners' avoidance of learner-instructor interaction in a classroom harmed academic achievement. Interaction with others, then, is not merely a nice-to-have adjunct to an essentially internal experience. (p.6)

Long quotations like this one are called block quotations. In APA style, quotations of 40 words or more are indented on the left side. No quotation marks are used with block quotations. If you use a long quotation, put it in context by introducing the source of the quotation and highlighting the most important information. A short quotation can often be introduced by a short phrase, such as According to Jones (2005). However, longer quotations generally require at least a full sentence to create a context. According to APA style, verbs in such introductory sentences should be past tense. For example, in the preceding paragraph, “Shank . . . provided . . . .”

Parenthetical Citations

Parenthetical, or in-text, citation briefly identifies the source in a way that allows readers to find complete information about it in the reference list. One of the best ways to get used to in-text citation is to read a model that follows APA guidelines. One such model, with annotations, is available from Diana Hacker’s Reference and Documentation site (Mirano. 2010).

For a more detailed explanation, consult Chapter 6 of the Publication Manual or an online tutorial. A helpful guide from University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Writing Center explains three different styles of parenthetical citation (“Where,” 2010). These examples illustrate where to place author and date information for each of the three types:

1. researcher-focused — Burns (2003) has stated that leadership begins “where change begins” (p. 140).

2. idea-focused— The innovator’s approach to leadership is exemplified by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first days in office (Burns, 2003, p. 181).

3. chronology-focused—In 1978, Burns published Leadership, a seminal work in an emerging field. In 2003, he proposed solutions to global problems in Transforming Leadership.

In the second example, a page number is not strictly necessary. If you’re not quoting, you may provide a page number as a convenience to your reader. However, when you’re quoting from a printed source or a PDF file, you should provide page numbers. For quotations from Internet sources, APA says you should provide headers and paragraph numbers, as in this example:

Mann (2005) developed a (10+2)*5 method for overcoming procrastination: work for ten minutes, take a two-minute break, and go back to work, repeating the cycle for an hour. His advice seems counterintuitive: “Breaks cannot be missed. Period. Go surf the web. Now. Seriously. GO!” (Important squirrely rules section, para. 3).

Your instructor may not require you to include section and paragraph numbers for Internet sources.

Using an idea-focused citation makes it easy to show where your source material ends. However, Internet sources and electronic articles often have no page numbers. How can you show where ideas from such sources end and your own thoughts begin? Insert an editorial comment at the end of the source material:

According to Tannen (1991), genuine debate has been replaced by an “argument culture” in which people reflexively attack others’ positions. Some readers might assume that Tannen believes everyone should just get along. However, her views are not that simplistic.

Editorial comments like Some readers..., This observation suggests ... or That concern might be addressed ... help readers distinguish your views from those of your sources. They are known as source-reflective statements.

Relationship Between Parenthetical Citations and Reference List

In general, every source that appears in a parenthetical citation should be included in the reference list. No source should be included in the reference list unless it has a parenthetical citation.

The two exceptions to the principle that every source cited in an in-text citation should also appear in the reference list are

1. entire Web sites. Give the name of the site and provide the universal resource locator (URL) in parentheses.

2. sources that would be difficult for readers to find, such as emails, letters, or interviews. Provide parenthetical documentation for nonrecoverable sources, but do not include them in the reference list. (Section 6.20 of the Publication Manual explains how to format the in-text citations. You can also use a search engine to find examples of APA interview citation.)

Additional Resources

Permission is hereby granted to download this template for noncommercial educational use from http://writebetteratwork.com/downloads/APA/APAtemplate_6th_edition.doc Related material (including a checklist that explains why the sentence above did not end with a period) is available from http://writebetteratwork.com/downloads/APA

APA has a website (http://APAstyle.org) with tutorials and model papers. You can also follow the editors of the APA Style Blog (http://blog.apastyle.org) on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/APAStyle) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/APA_Style). For links to APA style resources, including blog entries on some of the finer points of APA-style documentation, see the Appendix.


References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Author.

Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper Row.

Burns, J. M. (2003). Transforming leadership: A new pursuit of happiness. New York, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press.

Mann, M. (2005, October 11.) Procrastination hack: (10+2)*5 [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.43folders.com/2005/10/11/procrastination-hack-1025

Mirano, L. (2010). Can medication cure obesity in children? A review of the literature. Retrieved from Diana Hacker’s Research and Documentation site:

http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/pdf/Hacker-Mira-APA-2010.pdf

Shank, P. (2001). Learning anew: An exploratory study about new online learners’ perceptions of people interaction and learning to learn in an online course. Retrieved from the Learning Peaks Web site: http://www.learningpeaks.com/discussion_study.html

Where to place APA parenthetical citations. (2010). Retrieved from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center Web site: http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocAPACitations_Place.html


Appendix

Ask an APA Style Expert

Books and Book Chapters: What to Cite
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/04/feel-like-a-number-a-tax-day-tribute.html

Changes Parentheses Bring
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/02/changes-parentheses-bring.html

Feel Like a Number? A Tax Day Tribute (first of a series)
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/04/feel-like-a-number-a-tax-day-tribute.html

Frequently Asked Questions About APA Style®
http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/index.aspx

The Generic Reference: Who?
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/01/the-generic-reference-who.html

How to Use Five Levels of Heading in an APA Style Paper
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/04
/how-to-use-five-levels-of-heading-in-an-apa-style-paper.html

Punctuating Around Quotation Marks
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around-quotation-marks.html

Punctuating the Reference List Entry
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/07/punctuating-the-reference-list-entry.html

Writing In-Text Citations in APA Style
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/01/writing-in-text-citations-in-apa-style.html