APA Style Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed. Note these are publication guidelines. The assignments you turn in for class assignments must be publication-ready. What does this mean?
Publication-ready means that your document is free of errors and is formatted to the exact standards of the APA publication manual. To make a publication-ready document, follow the general guidelines exactly as they are presented in the APA manual.
Publication-ready means you are writing to an appropriate audience, which in your case is a specifically identified subset of the general audience identified as belonging to the behavioral and social sciences. See chapter 1: Writing for the Behavioral and Social Sciences
Because you know your audience, you know how you want to speak to them in other words, you know how you must organize your words in the document. You know that your audience is accustomed to seeing information presented in a certain order, following a certain pattern. See chapter 2: Manuscript Structure and Content
That certain order, that certain pattern, is not a product of pure whimsy. Following a certain order, a certain pattern, is the best way to communicate clearly and effectively your thoughts & ideas about the research you have done. It is the best way to make your communication readable. See chapter 2: Manuscript Structure and Content
A strategy for increasing readability is to organize your document with headings. Headings are navigational signs. They tell the reader what to expect and where to find what they are looking for, and they reveal the level of importance you are attaching to each heading. Headings are a kind of map. See chapter 3: Writing Clearly and Concisely
Then, within the headings See chapter 3: Writing Clearly and Concisely
Words--APA asks you to be actively aware of a) the words you use to present your ideas, b) the social and cultural context and content of the words (bias), and c) how the words fit together to express what you mean. See chapter 3: Writing Clearly and Concisely
Words And in this regard, play close attention to chapter 4, The Mechanics of Style, that lays out all the details about putting words together. After you make your draft copies (which can be as messy and incoherent-looking as you like after all, it is your document), you then call in the clean-up crew to make sure that See chapter 4: The Mechanics of Style
Your Words are Styled as They Should Be All the little punctuation squigglewiggles are where they should be You spelled everything correctly! Including the names of your mentors! You use CAPITAL letters when and where they need to be used You use italics and bold only as prescribed. See chapter 4: The Mechanics of Style
Your Words are Styled as They Should Be Abbreviations are used exactly as prescribed, as are numbers and statistical symbols. See chapter 4: The Mechanics of Style
Your Words are Styled as They Should Be You understand how and when to punctuate capitalized and abbreviated words acronyms, initialisms (because many authors provide too many abbreviations), and how to punctuate numbers and statistical copy. And that furthermore See chapter 4: The Mechanics of Style
You understand the mechanics of displaying results: How and when to place tables & figures How to announce tables and figures in your narrative Correct placement of table numbers and titles, table notes, and figure captions and notes And beyond the mechanics the role of tables and figures in allowing you to present concisely and efficiently information that would occupy valuable writing space, especially if you are working under tight page or word count restrictions. See chapter 5: Displaying Results
All of which, the writing you are making for your targeted audience(s), your manuscript structure and organization, your mechanics, your displayed results, all of which is rendered irrelevant without crediting your sources. See chapter 6: Crediting Sources
This is actually very big, very serious business. You will be rewarded with big frowny faces if you are sloppy or imprecise with citations and references. Not to speak of the reaction from your faculty mentors. See chapter 6: Crediting Sources
Your job is to document every source you have used, record it as a reference source, and insert it following correct procedures in the appropriate place in the text. So: Each and every citation has a corresponding reference entry and vice-versa. Without exception. See chapter 6: Crediting Sources
Reference List The documentation includes making a reference list. The entries in the reference list give your audience(s) the information they need to easily find the works you have cited in your narrative. See chapter 6: Crediting Sources
Reference List In the work* you make that you are planning to present to other academic audiences, you must always provide this additional structure. * Class papers for assignments; posters for presentations; conference presentations; journal articles; capstone final projects intended for submission to the Office of Research and Graduate Studies for format review. See chapter 6: Crediting Sources
And So Some specifics, beginning with a document requirement common to almost all the papers you will write: The Running Head. The running head is inserted in the header of all pages. Here s a handy link from APA explaining all: http://www.apastyle.org/learn/quick-guide-on-formatting.aspx
Tips on Basic Organization Use headings correctly. Headings directly reveal the structure of your argument, the process of your thinking. Page numbers font and location. Running head. Learn how to use and insert page numbers in running head. Line spacing, paragraph indents, and block quote indents. Space between sentences: just use one tap of the space bar, not two. Most of you who learned keyboarding will by habit tap twice, as you were taught. But don t worry. All rough drafts can be done how you like. But at the end, to create the presentation copy, all you need do is perform a find-and-replace on the final copy of your manuscript.
Headings 1. Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading: APA Requires Double Line Spacing Throughout, Including in Headings 2. 3. Left-aligned, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading Indented, boldface, lowercase heading with a period. Begin body text after the period. 4. Indented, boldface, italicized, lowercase heading with a period. Begin body text after the period. 5. Indented, italicized, lowercase heading with a period. Begin body text after the period.
Note that the three latter heading levels are paragraph headings. When it says indented, it means begin the paragraph with the heading. The heading is formatted according to the examples shown, and the text following the title is formatted as regular text.
Numbers The simple rule: Number 10 and above are in Arabic, while numbers nine and lower are spelled out. Exception: Any number beginning a sentence is spelled out. This applies to cardinal numbers (1, 2, 3, etc., ) and to ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). Format Note: Ordinal numbers anywhere do not use superscript (1st, not 1 st ). Exception would be within any quoted material, including titles in references.
APA Editorial Doctor of Style Nursing for DNP Practice Students These numbers are expressed as figures Statistics, mathematical functions, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, percentiles and quartiles. Note that numbers expressing percentage always use the % sign; e.g. 1%, 100%, 98.6%. Time, dates, ages, scores and points on a scale, exact sums of money, and numerals as numerals. Exception: Use words for approximations of days, months, and years. Numbers that denote a specific place in a numbered series, parts of books & tables, each number in a list of four or more numbers.
APA Editorial Doctor of Style Nursing for DNP Practice Students The number formatting guidelines beginning on p. 111 cover many specialized uses of numbers and include exceptions to the simple rules on numbers. This includes commas in numbers, metric unit style, and presenting statistics and math copy.
APA Editorial Doctor of Style Nursing for DNP Practice Students Numbers Continued The presentation of information is important because it tells us clearly what you mean. Many of you will be presenting all kinds of statistical data, so follow very carefully the formatting as described in the APA manual. For example, the equation d = 0.65. Note the spacing. It is not d=.065. Or if you mention probability: It is not p<.001; observe the spacing: it is p <.001. See sections 4.46 through 4.49 on pp. 118-124.
APA Editorial Formatting Style Guidelines for DNP Students Numbers Continued And in all cases throughout, ensure you correctly format all symbols and abbreviations. See APA s Table 4.4 on p. 109 and Table 4.5 beginning on p. 119. Make a note that some abbreviations or symbols are presented in lowercase, some uppercase, some in italics, some in regular typeface your job is to use these symbols and abbreviations exactly as they are presented.
APA Editorial Formatting Style Guidelines for DNP Students And while we re on the subject Acronyms and Initialisms Please read carefully the information on abbreviations beginning on p. 106, sections 4.22 4.30, including the rules for Latin abbreviations. The rules for using some unique abbreviations are mentioned elsewhere. For example, the rule for using U.S. as an abbreviation is found under section 4.02 Period in the punctuation section. Note the emphasis on spacing between periods in initials and abbreviations. There is no spacing in certain kinds of abbreviations.
APA Editorial Doctor of Style Nursing for DNP Practice Students In your publication copy, make sure you examine the formatting of all punctuation (including as the previous slide mentioned, periods), especially Hyphens and dashes Ellipses (formed by holding down ctrl + alt + period if you re using a PC). Ellipsis ending a sentence must include period (e.g.. ). There should be one white space before and after the ellipsis. Format of Double and Single Quotation Marks and their use with punctuation marks.
APA Editorial Formatting Style Guidelines for DNP Students In-Text Citations and References All citations must have a corresponding reference entry and all reference entries must appear in text. The only exception for APA formatted publications is the category of Personal Communication, which is noted in-text but not given a reference entry.
APA Editorial Formatting Style Guidelines for DNP Students Parenthetical matter is placed in alphabetical order by name of author. Attend to this carefully, especially when you have entries by multiple authors. Example: (Barend, Dubrovnik, & Lassy, 1989; Mentzer, 2007; Oscar, Hammerstein, & Abraham, 2009). Also attend carefully to punctuation and the spacing separating list items within parentheses.
APA Editorial Doctor of Style Nursing for DNP Practice Students Spelling of author names in text must be exactly the same as in references. Editorial check always compares these items. Print out and carry with you at all times Table 6.1 on p. 177 that shows how to format citations depending on number of authors. See next slide.
APA Editorial Formatting Style Guidelines for DNP Students All references must be formatted correctly, including spelling of author names and titles of books, articles and other material. Publication information, too. You must be very picky about punctuation, proper spacing, the material placed in italics, and capitalization.
APA Editorial Formatting Style Guidelines for DNP Students Be exacting in documenting sources, especially those from the Internet. Use the DOI if at all possible. See APA section 6.32 (pp. 189-192) for instruction on how to format the information in your reference entries. DOI stands for Digital Object Identifier and is a collaborative system for embedding permanent links to information made available on the Internet. Many publishers now routinely supply a DOI, listed with the publication information on the title page of article. See table on the next slide for information how to discover a DOI if you do not already have one. Note also the particular formatting of doi: in reference entries.
APA Editorial Doctor of Style Nursing for DNP Practice Students Where to Find Help Use http://blog.apastyle.org/ APA style experts run this very helpful blog. They cover many of the more common problems encountered by writers. The blog has a searchable database and includes a link to the official APA site: http://www.apastyle.org/, that in turn has several handy links to FAQs.
APA Editorial Formatting Style Guidelines for DNP Students Last, but not least, add this URL to your bookmarks: http://uiw.edu/orgs. Resources include UIW formatting guidelines, page templates, and an online writing center, https://uiwtx.mywconline.com/, where you can sign up for help sessions that are available in person or online.