American
Psychological
Association
(APA)
Formatting
Guidelines
Developed for
Florida Gulf
Coast
University
By Writing
Center Staff
APA Style is used in research
writing for several majors.
Always check with your
professor if you’re not sure
which format to use.
Business
Education
Criminology
Economics
Psychology
Sociology
Nursing
Title page
• Header should read “Running head:” followed by shortened
title in capitals, followed by the page number:
Running head: PRIMARY EDUCATION
1
• The running head should be no more than 50 characters
(including spaces and punctuation)
• Full title (12 or fewer words) should be centered in the upper
half of the page
• Title is followed by student’s name and university.
Title page
No more than
1
50 characters
Running head: SHORT TITLE ALL CAPS IN HEADER
1
Full title is
centered in
upper half of
the page
Full Title of Paper: Sentence Case, Centered Left to Right
Name of Student Author
Name of University
Abstracts
When required, an abstract should be placed on the page
immediately following the title page.
• Indicate the thesis and main points of the paper.
• Touch on the conclusions or implications of the research.
• Do not indent on the first line.
Abstract

Brief summary describing
purpose and findings of the
paper
 Average length 150- 250 words



RISK FACTORS
2
Abstract
Community violence is recognized as
a significant public health problem.
However, only a paucity of research
has examined risk factors for
Written as a single paragraph
with no indentations
community violence exposure across
Word “Abstract” centered at the
top
using longitudinal data. This study
Includes a header (title and
page number)
in relation to community violence.
domains relevant to adolescents or
examined youth aggressive behavior
Source: Lambert, S., et al. (2005). Risk factors for community violence exposure in
adolescence. American Journal of Community Psychology. 36(1-2), pp. 29-49.
Page Formatting
Font
 Times New Roman
 12-point
Margins
 1 inch
Spacing
 double
 5-space indent at
the beginning of
each paragraph
Justification
 Left
INTERACTIVE CONFLICT
5
Begun primarily with the focus on the study of peace and
prevention of war (Harty & Modell, 1991), the field of conflict
resolution has since expanded its influence to all spheres
from family, to business and community, to international relations.
The effort, in fact, has been to shift international conflict
resolution from being primarily the domain of the government
and the military to that of social scientists.
The most difficult aspect of intergroup and international
conflicts is their tendency to become protracted. Azar (1990)
suggests that such conflicts occur “when communities are
deprived of satisfaction of their basic needs on the basis of
their communal identity” (p. 12).
Paraphrase
Writers cannot claim the words OR ideas of
another as their own.
Each time you paraphrase another author (put his
or her ideas in your own words or summarize a
passage), you must credit the source in the text.
Paraphrase
 In your own words
 Cite with author and year of publication
Critics of the workshops again called into question the applicability of a
very intense method of human-relations training (the Tavistock model)
to the situations of sensitive and volatile intergroup relations (Fisher,
1997).
Short quotes
fewer than 40 words




Appears exactly the way it does in the original text
Surrounded by quotation marks
Cited with author, year of publication, and page number.
If no page number, use paragraph number.
Short quotes
fewer than 40 words
Azar (1990) suggests that such conflicts occur when “communities are
deprived of satisfaction of their basic needs on the basis of their
communal identity” (para. 12).
Such conflicts occur when “communities are deprived of satisfaction of
their basic needs on the basis of their communal identity” (Azar, 1990,
p. 12).
Block Quotes
• Longer than 40 words
• No quotation marks
• Starts on a new line
• Double-spaced
• Whole quote indented ½”
• Citation after the period
Block Quote
Contrary to conclusions reported by Dylan (1979) and Forbes (1980), new
research demonstrated many things about placebo effects on behaviors.
The placebo effect, which had been verified in previous studies,
disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner. Earlier
studies were clearly premature in attributing the results to a placebo
effect. (Smith, 1982, p. 234)
Such future work must be both methodologically and scientifically sound.
Citing multiple authors
Use ‘&’ in parenthetical citations

One author
Smith (2002) or (Smith, 2002)
 Two authors
Jones and Smith (2000) or (Jones & Smith, 2000)
 Three to five authors (first citation)
(Williams, Jones, Smith, & Torrington, 2003)
•
Six and more authors
(Williams et al., 2003)
Citing an indirect source
Name the original source in your signal phrase.
List the secondary source in your reference list
Include the secondary source in the parentheses.
Levine (1998) (as cited in Barr, 2000) feels that students often fail to
maximize their potential.
Reference list: Use secondary source (Barr).
Citing using titles
when no author is listed

Book title
(Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2000)

Article or chapter title
(“Rats and Placebos,” 2003)

Organization name
(National Institute of Mental Health, 2001)
Citation <---> Reference
In-text citations must always match with the reference entries:
 In-text Citation
“The club-and-bar scene is a new addition to the [student fun] list” (Levine
& Cureton, 1998).
 Reference Entry
Levine, A., & Cureton, J. (1998). When hope and fear collide: A portrait of
today’s college student. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.
References
 Alphabetize by author’s last name
 Double-space
 Hanging indent for each entry
 Article title - only capitalize first word
 Book title - italicize, only capitalize first word
 Journal title - italicize and capitalize all words
References
GUIDE TO WRITING
5
References

Fine, M., & Kurdek, L. (1993). Reflections on determining authorship credit and
authorship order on faculty-student collaborations. American
Psychologist, 48, 1141-1147.

GVU’s 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.gatech.edu/gvu/ usersurveys/survey1

Nicol, A., & Pexman, P. (1999). Presenting your findings: A practical guide for
creating tables. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Resources
Tutorial about APA style
• http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htm
Sample APA paper
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090212013008_560.p
df
Robin Sontheimer University of
Missouri-Kansas City Writing
Center 2009
For more information
please refer to the APA Manual or
go to or go to www.apastyle.org