The Writing Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

by Jason Swarts

Introduction
"In 1928 editors and business managers of anthropological and psychological journals met to discuss the form of journal manuscripts and to write instructions for their preparation. The report of this meeting . . . was published as a seven-page article in the February 1929 issue of the Psychological Bulletin, a journal of the American Psychological Association (APA). The group agreed that it would not dictate to authors; instead, it recommended "a standard of procedure, to which exceptions would doubtless be necessary, but to which reference might be made in cases of doubt" From the Foreword to Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 4th Edition.

For a more comprehensive look at APA documentation guidelines, please consult the 4th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Copies are available in the Writing Center and the Rensselaer Library.

In using APA style, sources are acknowledged in two locations in your document: a "References" page and within the body of your paper using In-Text Citations. All examples of citations are from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 4th Edition.

The "References" Page
All sources that you use must be listed alphabetically at the end of your document on a page titled "References", centered at the top of the page. The alphabetized list of sources begins two lines down from this title; each citation is double-spaced within and between citations.

An example:

References American Psychological Association. (1992). Ethical

principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American

Psychologist, 47, 1597-1611.

Brown, H., & Milstead, J. (1968). Patterns in poetry: An

introductory anthology. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.

Each citation begins with a standard paragraph indentation. The citations themselves are not numbered; however, they are ordered on the page. There are two ordering principles to keep in mind: alphabetical and numerical.

Alphabetical

By first letter of the author's last name. i.e. Brown precedes Jones

Letter by letter if the last names are the same. i.e. Brown. A.R. precedes Brown. J.R.

Alphabetize last names with articles or prepositions as if the article or preposition is a part of the name.

Alphabetize numerals as if they were spelled out. i.e. 9 (nine) precedes 2 (two).

Alphabetize group written works by the first significant word of the group's name. i.e. The American Red Cross precedes The Federal Communications Commission.

If no author is listed, the title shifts to the author position - alphabetize by the first letter of the title.

Numerical

One author entries by the same author are arranged by the year of publication.

One author entries precede multiple-author entries beginning with the same last name. i.e. Brown, A.R. precedes Brown, A.R. & Wallston, J.

References for group authors where the first author is the same are arranged by the second author's last name (or the first last name that differs between the two citations) .

References by the same author (or by the same two or more authors in the same order) with the same publication date are listed alphabetically by the title.

Citing a Book
Format:
      Author's last name, first initial. (Date of publication in
parenthesis). Title of the book underlined. City of

publication: Name of publisher.

Example:
     Harris, M. (1986). Teaching One-to-One. Urbana, IL:

NCTE.

NOTE: Only the first letter of the title of books and journal articles is capitalized (with the exception of proper names).

Citing a Book with more than one author
Format:
     Author's last name, first initial, & second Author's last

name, first initial. (Date of publication in parenthesis). Title

of the book underlined. City of publication: Name of

publisher

Example:
     Mitchell, T.R., & Larson, J.R., Jr. (1987). People in

organizations: An introduction to organizational behavior

(3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

NOTE: List authors in the order that they appear on the cover of the book regardless of alphabetical order.

Citing a Journal Article
Format:
     Author's last name, first initial. (Date of publication in

parenthesis). Title of article - no quotation marks. Title of the

periodical underlined, volume, number, page numbers.

Example:
     Bekerian, D.A. (1993). In search of the typical

eyewitness. American Psychologist, 48, 574-576.

Citing a Journal Article with more than one author
Format:
     Author's last name, first initial., & second author's last

name, first initial (Date of publication in parenthesis). Title of

the article - no quotations. Title of the periodical underlined,

volume, number, page numbers.

Example:
     Borman, W.C., Hanson, M.A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos,

E.D., & White, L.A. (1993). Role of early supervisory

experience in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied

Psychology, 78, 443- 449.

Citing the Internet
Format:
     Author's last name, first initial. (Date of publication or

page update in parenthesis). Title of source underlined,

Retrieval information including date of access, and source

of information: URL.

Example:
     Land, T. (1996, March 31). Web extension to American

Psychological Association style (WEAPAS), Retrieved April

24, 1997 from the World Wide Web:

http://www.beadslands.com/weapas.

Citing an Encyclopedia or Dictionary
Format:
     Editor's last name, first initial. (Ed.). (Date of publication

in parenthesis). Title of the source underlined (edition and

volume in parenthesis). City of publication: Name of

publisher.

Example:
     Sadie, S. (Ed.). (1980). The new Grove dictionary of

music and musicians (6th ed., Vols. 1-20). London:

Macmillan.

Citing an Article or Chapter in an edited book
Format:
     Author's last name, first initial. (Date of publication in

parenthesis). Title of article or chapter. In Editor's first initial

and last name (Ed.), Title of the source book underlined (pp.

starting page -ending page). City of publication: Name of

publisher.

Example:
     Bjork, R. A. (1989). Retrieval inhibition as an adaptive

mechanism in human memory. In H. L. Roediger III & F. I. M.

Craik (Eds.), Varieties of memory & consciousness (pp.

309-330). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

NOTE: For less well known cities of publication, you should also include the postal abbreviation of the state or country where that city is located.

Citing Technical and Research Reports
Format:
     Author's last name, first initial. (Date of publication in

parenthesis). Title of the technical or research report

underlined (report, contract, or monograph number in

parenthesis). City of publication: Name of publisher.

Example:
     Mazzeo, J., Druesne, B., Raffeld, P.C., Checketts, K.T.,

& Muhlstein, A. (1991). Comparability of computer and

paper-and-pencil scores for two CLEP general

examinations (College Board Rep. No. 91-5). Princeton,

NJ: Educational Testing Service.

Reference Citations in Text
It is of the utmost importance to give credit to the authors whose work you are using. Any material in your document that is derived from another source either by direct quotation, paraphrase, or inspiration must be cited immediately.

Direct Reference
When appropriate, and when it can be done so smoothly, you may wish to cite your sources directly in your text.

Example:
On page 276 of her study, Miele (1993) found that "The 'placebo effect' . . . disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner."

NOTE: Whenever you wish to edit out a portion of a quote replace the edited section with an ellipse (. . .)

Parenthetical Citations
A parenthetical citation must include (if not already given) the first author's last name or one significant word from the title of the source followed by a comma, and the date of publication. If you are quoting something specific from the source, you must follow the date of publication with another comma, and include the page where the material is located.

Examples:
She stated, "The 'placebo effect' . . . disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner" (Miele, 1993, p. 276), but she did not clarify which behaviors were studied.

NOTE: When quoting another quote you must use single quotations ('') to mark the beginning and end of the quoted quote.

Miele (1993) found that "the 'placebo effect,' which had been verified in previous studies, disappeared when [only the first group's] behaviors were studied in this manner: (p. 276).

NOTE: Whenever you wish to include words in the middle of a quotation, which did not originally appear there, put those words in [square brackets].

Notes on citing multiple authors

For a work with two authors: Cite both author's last names at every reference.
For a work with three, four, or five authors: Cite the all author's last names at first reference, thereafter only cite the first author's last name followed by "et al."
For a work with six or more authors: Cite only the last name of the first author followed by "et al."

Punctuating your Citations

If your parenthetical citation concludes a sentence, you should place the period after the parenthesis.
If you place the parenthetical citation in the middle of the sentence, you need not follow it with special punctuation, only that required to make the sentence grammatically correct.
If you use a block quotation, the period should come before the parenthetical.

Block Quotation
If the quotation that you are using is more than 40 words long, you must use a block quotation. In a block quotation, you should not use any quotations at all unless they are needed to indicate a quoted quotation. To format a block quotation correctly you need to begin the quotation on a separate line that is indented 10 spaces from the left and right margin. The block quotation should have the same line spacing as the rest of the document.

Example:

Miele (1993) found the following: The "placebo effect," which had been verified in previous studies, disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner. Furthermore, the behaviors were never exhibited again, even when real drugs were administered. Earlier studies (e.g., Abdullah, 1984; Fox, 1979) were clearly premature in attributing the results to a placebo effect. (p. 276)

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