1. APA style requirements
based on information supplied by
Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderlund, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). General format. Retrieved from

2. Citations – general rules
If you got the idea from an item you read, it must be cited, otherwise, it is plagiarism.
No first names or reference to the gender of the author(s). Initials are used in the Reference page and in citations if there is a possibility of confusion regarding pieces (more than one piece with the author having the same last name).
The name of the item generally does not appear in the paper, it is available on the Reference page.
Typically, it is not mentioned what the source is (you will not say “Perkins in his article Technology use in the Social Studies states that…”).
Only items you actually used can be listed on your Reference page (it is not an annotated bibliography). If it is on the Reference page, it must be cited in the paper.
If it is cited, it must be on the Reference page.

3. Citations - components
Consist of three possible parts inside parentheses (or outside) with rules governing each:
1 2 3
(Perkins, 2013, p. 44)
Last name- appears if the name is not part of the sentence.
Year- appears only the first time an item is cited in a paragraph. Year does not appear again in that paragraph unless more than one piece has the exact same authors, then year appears every time the item is cited.
Page number – appears only if there is a direct quotation.

4. Citations - authors
If there are one or two authors, they are listed every time.
If there multiple authors and they are part of the sentence, the word “and” separates them. Jones and Smith (2010)…
If they are in parentheses, the “&” separates them. …(Jones & Smith, 2010).
If there are 3-6 authors, the first time, they are all listed (Jones, Smith & Harris). All other times, they are listed as first authorLastName, et al. (Jones et al., 2010).
If there are more than six, it is listed as first authorLastName et al. from the beginning, there is no full list.
They will all be listed on the Reference page (no et al.).
If more than one item addresses the same concept (a good thing!), the citations are separated by semi-colons. Each one will individually follow the year rule stated previously.

5. Citations - unusual
You have an article by Smith (2004) who has a great quotation from Jones (2001). It would be: Jones (as cited in Smith, 2004).

6. Reference page General Rules
No first or middle names, only initials – even if the item did list first and middle names.
Listed alphabetically by each item’s first author listed (you do not rearrange the author list for each item, the order has been specified by the authors and must be maintained.
First line for each item will go to the left margin, all other lines will be indented (hanging indent works great) ½ inch.

7. Reference page
Books Author, A. A. (year). Title of work: Subtitle of work. Place: Publisher. Perkins, R. F. & Burke, W. Q. (2014). Using technology to teach your cat: Why would you want to? Boston, MA: Pearson Publishing. Journal Article Author, A. A. (year). Article title: Subtitle of work. Journal Name, volume(issue), pages. (if you accessed it electronically) Perkins, R. F. (2010). Why you shouldn’t teach your cat: How to get yourself hurt. Journal of Pet Education, 1(1), ERIC Document (always found using ERIC database and has number starting with ED) Author, A. A. (year). Title of work: Subtitle of work. Retrieval information. (ERIC document number). Perkins, R. F. (2010). Don’t disturb the cat: Wish I hadn’t done that. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED654321).

8. Reference page Resources
There are too many variations (newspaper, Kindle book, web site, etc.) to list here. For all others, you must follow the rules provided by the APA Publication Manual (6th edition).
Suitable resources include:
Purdue OWL web site at:
Additional resource for information on ERIC Documents From McConnell Library, Radford University

9. Editing Parentheses: Spaces
It is obvious that it is not healthy for you to try to train a cat (Perkins & Burke, 2014).
Spaces
Burke and Perkins (2015, p. 13) stated that “Only a fool would try to train a cat.”
Space between initials.
Remove Space Before Paragraph and Space After Paragraph.
Quotations vs. paraphrase regarding citations

10. Reminders What does Take Away mean? Volume and Issue
EJ from ERIC Documents