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Library in D2L: APA Style

Welcome to the APA-7 Citation Resource


       


 

APA Style Resources

The following resources contain examples and/or information to assist in preparing a research paper in APA Citation Style.

OWL Citation Help
Video Tutorials
Paper Set-up

The APA Citation Style

This resource guide will focus on the 7th edition of the APA publication style developed by the American Psychological Association, which is used by the Social Sciences and other curricular areas.

Take a look at the links on the left for examples of APA 7 in-text citations, reference pages, and some useful sites and tutorials. 

Resources from APA
Setting up an APA Paper

Before you begin writing your research paper, it is important to have it correctly formatted following APA guidelines. This includes setting up a title page, correcting line spacing, text font, and margins in a paper.

To set up your paper for APA formatting you will complete the following: 

  • Make sure the margins in your paper are set to 1 inch
  • Use one of the approved APA fonts: 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, 12-point Times New Roman, or 11-point Georgia. 
  • Set the spacing in your paper to Double. 
  • Create a title page. 

To create a title page for your paper, or to see a visual of any of the above formatting guidelines, check out the library's APA 7 video tutorials. 

The Document Formatting guides prepared by HCC Learning Support Center staff are a great tool to help you step-by-step through the process of setting up your document.  We recommend you use these guidelines to set up your paper before you begin writing. 

Citations are tricky, and there are lots of questions you may have when creating your citations. This guide covers the basics of APA, but for more detailed questions about specific citations, make sure to check out the resources along the left. The Excelsior OWL citation guide is especially helpful for creating citations for different sources. 

Image: Vecteezy

The APA References list

Once you have completed your research and have gathered the information you would like to use to write your paper, your next step should be to create the list of the resources you will use in your paper. This list is called a Reference List and includes any source (publication, video, lecture, etc.) that you are using information from in your paper. It is very important that you cite sources in your paper because you want to show where you are getting your information from and avoid Plagiarism! 

General formatting tips when creating your references page: 
  • The references page will begin on a separate page at the end of your research paper. 
  • Each citation will be in alphabetical order based on the authors' last names. If there are not authors, you will alphabetize by the source's title. 
  • Double-space all entries. 
  • Include a hanging-indent with each citation. To learn how to create a hanging indent, watch the second part of the library's APA Citation Video Tutorials. 
  • Include the word References at the top of the page, centered on the page and in bold text. 

For help with creating citations, or how to set up your references page, watch the library's APA Citations Video Tutorials! 

 

 

Examples of Common Citations

Use the examples shown below to help you format correct citations for the most popular sources. 

 

Scholarly article from a database:

Elements: Author's last name, Author's first and middle initials. (Date). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume number(issue number, if any), Page numbers. 

Mershon, D.H. (1998, November). Star trek on the brain: Alien minds, human minds. American Scientist, 86(6), 585. 

Website:

Elements: Author's last name, Author's first and middle initials. (Date published). Title of webpage. Website Name. URL. 

Price, D. (2018, March 23). Laziness does not exist. Medium. https://humanparts.medium.com/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01 

Book by multiple authors (less than 20): 

Elements: Author's last name, Author's first and middle initials. (Year of Publication). Title of book. Publisher. 

Rivano, N. S., Hoson, A., & Stallings, B. (2001). Regional integration and economic development. Palgrave.

Social Media Post (Instagram): 

Elements: Author's last name, Author's first and middle initials. [@username]. (Year, Month, Day published). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [description of type of post]. Site name. URL. 

Sulic, L. [@lukasulicworld]. (2019, December 31). We wish you a happy new year! [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/B6vTyaZHNU9/?igshid=141g9y12b4gfn 

 

For more examples of how to cite specific formats, or more specific help with citations, visit the Excelsior Online Writing Lab for detailed descriptions! 

In-Text Citations

In-text citations are the second way you will cite your sources in a research paper. Unlike the citations found in the References page, in-text citations are shorter and appear in the body of the text. Any time you use information from a source (whether you paraphrase it or use a direct quotation), you must include an in-text citation. So you will have multiple in-text citations for one source. 

APA in-text citations will appear in parentheses within the paper you are writing, and will appear at the end of the sentence where the source is being cited. You will include only the author's last name, followed by the date of publication. If a source has two authors, list both names separated by an ampersand (&). If there are more than two authors, list only the first author's last name followed by the phrase 'et al'. 

In-text citation examples: 
Source with three or more authors:

The concept of social class is rapidly becoming obsolete (Calvert et al., 1987). 

Source with one author, using a signal phrase (a signal phrase uses part of the citation in the body of the text):

Calvert (1982) argued that it is impossible to measure social class. 

Source with two authors:

Two techniques that have been associated with reduced stress and increased relaxation in psychotherapy contexts are guided imagery and progressive muscle relaxation (McGuigan & Lehrer, 2007). 

For more examples of creating in-text citations, check out the library's video tutorials or the Excelsior OWL citation page for help! Or explore the resources on this guide for more information! 

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