APA Style Notes -- 7th Edition

Since APA style has been updated to the 7th edition, a few things in my earlier blog post have changed. I have copied it over here and made the changes!

This is a quick tip sheet on what I am looking for regarding APA style for your papers. 

The first thing, and most important thing, that I care about is your references. Make sure all of the references in your literature review are in your references list at the end of your paper. Never list a reference you haven't pulled, made sure is accurately represented in your paper, and is in your references list. 

There is no things as citing too much. If you are using someone else's idea, cite cite cite. Even if it feels like you are citing every sentence. You probably are, and that's OK. 

IN-TEXT CITATIONS 

In-text citations should read in one of two ways. If you are introducing the author in the body of the sentence, it should read something like this: 

• Lorenzetti (2019) states that.... (for one author)
• Lorenzetti and Tillman (2019) state that... (for two authors -- be sure to use the word and as opposed to an ampersand [&])
• Lorenzetti et al. (2019) state that... (for more than two authors)

[Side note: "et al." is Latin for "and others." Think of it as, "and friends."]

If you are putting the reference at the end of the sentence, it looks like this, with the period coming after the parentheses: 

• Because I said so (Lorenzetti, 2019). (for one author)
• Because we said so (Lorenzetti & Tillman, 2019). (for two authors -- note the ampersand [&])
• Because we said so (Lorenzetti et al., 2019). (for more than two authors)

REFERENCES PAGE

All of your references should be uniform, with a hanging indent. They should read like this (but with a hanging indent, which is hard to do on a blog):

Last name, first initials with a space between each letter (year of publication). Title of article with only first letter capitalized: Subtitle of article with only first letter capitalized. Journal Name in Italics with All Words Capitalized, Volume(Issue -- non-italicized with no space between volume # and start of parentheses), encompassing page numbers with numbers only.

Lorenzetti, N. L. (2019). One-hit wonder: This is the best article you will ever read. Journal of Awesome Articles, 86(2), 332-335.

Lorenzetti, N. L., & Tillman, W. A. (2019). (For more than one author -- make sure that you put a comma after the first author even if there are only two authors. Use the ampersand here.)

QUOTES 

Avoid quoting when possible. You should only quote when you absolutely cannot put it in your own words. My rule of thumb is no more than one quote for every three pages of (double spaced) writing. Otherwise, it's not your work, but rather a copy-and-paste job. 

If you do choose to quote, you will need to edit your citations: 

If you start your sentence with referencing the authors, you will just need to end your sentence with the page number of the quote: Lorenzetti (2019) states that "chocolate chip cookies are the best" (p. 3). Note that the parentheses with the page number goes outside of the quotation marks and the period goes at the end of the parentheses.

If your reference is at the end of the sentence, your will add your page number to the end of the parentheses: "Chocolate chip cookies are the best" (Lorenzetti, 2019, p. 3). Note that the parentheses with the citation goes outside of the quotation marks and the period goes at the end of the parentheses.

OTHER NOTES 

If you are submitting your work to me electronically, please make sure your name is on the document, not just in the email you send me.

No footnotes or endnotes.

Review some of the Paper Writing Tips I have on the blog -- you will find them helpful.