APA Format What you need to know A tutorial prepared for Florida Technical College Students

Background Way of presenting information Mostly used in Behavioral Sciences (i.e. Psychology) 6th edition presents general principles to follow More specific visit http://www.apastyle.org APA stands for American Psychological Association. This entity developed a standard way to present research background, methods, and conclusions. It is mostly used in the Behavioral Sciences, such as Psychology, but other disciplines have started using this publication format to ensure transparency and understanding of content. We will be using the latest edition of the Publication Manual, which is the 6th edition, as a guideline to present our assigned papers in our courses. This presentation will cover the general aspects of the format, therefore, if you need additional information on specifics, it is highly suggested to read the manual and/or access the website (since it presents more updated information).

Types of Articles Empirical Studies Literature Reviews Theoretical Articles Methodological Articles Case Studies Other At FTC, the type of essays most students will be developing fall under the categories of Literature Reviews and Theoretical Articles. The first one is done when we present a critical evaluation of material that has already been published. So, Literature reviews basically do the following: Define and clarify a problem Summarize previous investigations to inform the reader of the state of research Identify relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the literature (body of written knowledge) Suggest the next step or steps in solving the problem. Theoretical Articles present empirical information only when it advances a theoretical issue by tracing the development of theory to expand and refine theoretical constructs to present a new theory or to analyze a theory.

Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism Give credit when using others’ ideas or published work When using exact wording, use “ ” When paraphrasing or summarizing, acknowledge the source Self-Plagiarism Submitting previous work as new To avoid this, make reference of previous work Definition of plagiarism: Claiming other’s works/ideas as if these were our own. In most of your classes you will be asked to conduct research on a given topic, or on a topic of your choosing. Chances are you will develop the main idea of the paper while conducting your research, or you already have the idea (thesis statement) and you need evidence to support your argument, therefore the need of looking for references. Giving credit to writers/authors strengthen your paper and your argument: you are showing other people agree with you. To avoid plagiarism, make sure to:

Manuscript Elements Running Head Title Different first page Include page number Title Summarize the main idea of the essay Spell all words; avoid abbreviations It should not exceed 12 words Title [read the information] Notice that the information presented on the example is not really in the middle of the paper. Rather, it is on the upper half area. This is called the focal point. So, to simulate this content, make sure to count 5 enters (double spaced).

Author’s Name and Institutional Affiliation First Name, Initial, Last Name(s) Use the same form throughout your career Avoid including titles and degrees Affiliation demonstrates where you completed your research As a nota bene, if working in groups, then the names should be listed in order of contribution

Abstract Summary of the article Brief Typically from 150-250 words Word limits vary Done after completing the article The abstract is one of the most important aspects of the paper. It is the first impression the reader will have of your work. It needs to present a the main idea of the article; it needs to be brief, and it usually has a word limit. If your instructor requests an abstract, make sure you follow his/her instructions as to how may words it needs to carry. Abstracts are mostly requested by journals that publish our investigative work. As a rule of thumb, for our classes, if the paper has less than 10 pages, then no abstract is required (unless otherwise specified by your instructor).

Paragraph with no indentation Left justified Second page Titled “Abstract” Paragraph with no indentation Left justified This is a visual example of how an abstract looks like. Keep in mind that it goes on the second page, that the page has the running head and pagination number, and as title, it reads abstract. Also, keep in mind that the paragraph is not indented. This is the only instance in which the paragraph does not reflect and indentation. Additionally, notice the running head. It no longer has the running head phrase.

Content of Manuscript Introduction Body Conclusion References After the abstract, we have our manuscript. This is where the presentation of the topic, its discussion, and concluding remarks will take place. Technically, because there is a chance of your papers not being over 10 pages long, there is not really a need to separate sections. This does not mean you may not do so (you can if you want to), but please keep in mind that the introduction is never labeled as such.

Sample of Paper This is the template most of our students have. It is good to save it because it provides the guidelines for writing a paper. Here we are looking at a screenshot of the first page of our actual paper. Notice how we don’t have the label “Introduction,” but rather, we have the full title of our paper. Each paragraph is indented, and it follows a line of thought.

The last portion of your paper (at least for the purposes of this tutorial) should be your references page. Notice how it is titled “References” and how each source is being presented in alphabetical order. Also, notice that when an entry takes more than one line, the second line is indented. This is to show when the bibliographical information ends, and another one begins.

Conclusion Background information on APA format Types of Articles Plagiarism and self-plagiarism Manuscript elements Sample of paper So far, we have learned a little bit of background information on APA formatting style and why we use it; we also went over the types or articles there are and which ones we will be more likely drafting in our classes at FTC. We also learned the distinction between plagiarism and self-plagiarism, went over the manuscript elements, and saw an example of an APA paper. Next, we will be learning how to properly cite our sources in APA style.