TABLE OF CONTENTS
American Psychological Association Style Sample ....................................................................................... 2
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................2
Discussion .....................................................................................................................................................................................2
Examples.......................................................................................................................................................................................2
Format .........................................................................................................................................................................................3
Summary.......................................................................................................................................................................................3
References ....................................................................................................................................................................................4
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION STYLE SAMPLE
INTRODUCTION
The American Psychological Association (APA) style is primarily used in the social science disciplines. It is formatted
like Modern Language Association (MLA), and shows many similarities, but is unique in several key points. This paper
discusses the APA in detail. "Addressing plagiarism has become a major challenge in education and educating
students in referencing correctly with the APA 6th is one way of trying to overcome the problem” (Bretag, 2016;
Hosny & Fatima, 2014).
DISCUSSION
APA uses parenthetical (or in-text) citations within sentences, but rather than indicating the author's name and page
number, APA includes author's name and date of publication. The page number, represented with a p. or a pp., is
only added to the citation when using a direct quote (not a summary or paraphrase). If the author's name is
mentioned in the sentence, then place the date of publication in parentheses directly after the name. If the name is
not mentioned include the author's name and date in parentheses at the end of the source material. And, if you use
a direct quote, place the page number after the publication date within the parentheses.
EXAMPLES
Note the difference between the following three examples:
Terrence (2015) has presented poignant examples from 150 interviews. However, it has been pointed out that the
research was conducted in a selective, highly biased, way (Strong & Porter, 1998). All of the interviewees have been
called “exceptions to the norm” (Strong & Porter, 1998).
Note the first example paraphrases an author that is named in the sentence, the second example paraphrases
authors that are not named in the sentence, and the third example provides a direct quote (thus the inclusion of the
page numbers) but also does not identify the authors within the sentence. If the authors were identified within the
sentence in the third example, the authors' names would be followed by the year of publication and only the page
numbers would be in the parentheses at the end of the quote.
FORMAT
Finally, the bibliographic page in APA style differs from MLA, what APA calls the Reference page. You will
notice a few immediate differences from the MLA Works Cited format. With APA you include the initial of
the author's first name rather than the complete name, the publication date immediately follows the
author's name in parentheses, and titles of articles are not surrounded with quotation marks. The lists are
still alphabetized by author's last name (or title in the absence of an author) and the first line is flush left
while subsequent lines in the same entry are indented in (approximately 5 spaces or one tab). A good
resource to help you with referencing is Notre Dame’s referencing guide at
http://library.nd.edu.au/referencing/apa#s-lg-box-3040351. There is also a summary downloadable help
document available at: http://library.nd.edu.au/ld.php?content_id=8053459. In APA Style, you include a
reference list rather than a bibliography with your paper (APA, 2017). A reference list consists of all sources
cited in the text of a paper whereas a bibliography may include resources that were consulted but not
cited in the text as well as an annotated description of each one.
SUMMARY
The School of Education, University of Notre Dame Australia, uses the APA 6th referencing style for all written
documents. In addition to in text referencing and the reference list there are a number of formatting requirements
to ensure your essay complies with APA standards. Get to know the APA 6th.
REFERENCES
APA.Bibliography versus reference list. Retrieved from http://www.apastyle.org/learn/quick-guide-on-
references.aspx#Bibliography
Bretag, T. (2016). Handbook of academic integrity. Singapore: Springer.
Hosny, M., & Fatima, S. (2014). Attitude of students towards cheating and plagiarism: University case
study. Journal of Applied Sciences, 14(8), 748-757. doi:10.3923/jas.2014.748.757
Strong, R. L., & Porter, M. (1998). Grammatical combinations. In S. Parker, & K Gibson (Ed.), Language and
literacy (pp. 540-578). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Terrance, H. S. (2015, Nov 1). Student success in community colleges. The West Australia, pp. 6-7.
