APA Guidelines and Writing Tips
General Information on APA Format
APA format represents a writing style for most academic papers in a college environment. If students follow this style, they will have a well organized essay which will be constructed to effectively avoid plagiarism. While a lot of students consider this format to be complicated, it involves a lot of basic steps which are easy to understand if they are explained correctly. These steps involve the basic format of the paper, parenthetical citations for source information, and an organized reference page.
Basic Format
The basic format for APA involves the title page, page numbering, and spacing of the entire essay. The title page itself must include a running head, the title of the essay, the author, and the university where the paper is presented. A sample title page would have information like:
Differences Between 1
Running head: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN

Differences Between Victims of Domestic Abuse and Victims of Cult Abuse
Clara E Gerl
Northwestern State University

As seen in the title page above, the pages are numbered with a short version of the title before the page number itself. This is placed on the upper right hand side of each page. It is important that the short version of the title is placed on every page number. The spacing of the entire essay deals with the margins and the spaces between the lines of text. All margins in APA format are 1 inch and everything in APA is double spaced.
Parenthetical or In-text Citation
Anytime a writer has specific information that comes from a certain source, it must be cited. If things are not properly cited, then the author will plagiarize by not giving credit where it is due. The basics for parenthetical citation are that the author’s last name and the year that the article or journal was published must be clear within the text. A sample citation could read (Dunn 1991) or if there is no author available, an abbreviated version of the title could be used. For instance, if someone was citing from an article called “California Cigarette Sales Fall 10% in September of 1998” but there was no author for this work, the citation could read (“California” 1998).
All parenthetical citations within the essay must refer to the references page. For every entry on the reference page, there should be at least one parenthetical citation. Without the references page, the audience would never be able to understand exactly where the information could be found. This is essential because a good references page will give a lot of credibility to anyone as a writer.
References List
The basic format for source on a separate references page is to list the author’s last name first then list the first initial of the first name only. After that, the date of the publication is listed then the title of the source itself is written. The last two things to be written are the location where the work was published, and then the publishing company. Specific pages numbers can be listed at the end as well. A sample references page is seen on the next page. The References page comes at the end of the paper on its own page.
Note: Everything is double spaced. The sources are not indented on the first line, but the second lines are indented using the hanging-indent feature (See Format>Paragraph.) in MS Word.

References
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Online Periodical, volume number (issue number if available). Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
Bernstein, M. (2002). 10 tips on writing the living Web. A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 149. Retrieved from http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving
Smyth, A. M., Parker, A. L., & Pease, D. L. (2002). A study of enjoyment of peas. Journal of Abnormal Eating, 8(3), 120-125.
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
Parker-Pope, T. (2008, May 6). Psychiatry handbook linked to drug industry. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
Berry, D. (1995) The Domestic Violence Sourcebook Los Angeles: Lowell House.
Black, C. (2003). Translating Principles into Practice: Implementing the Feminist and Strengths Perspectives in Work with Battered Women Affilia 18, 332-349.
Brecklin, L. (2004). Self-Defense Training, Women's Victimization History and Psychological Characteristics Violence Against Women, 5, 479-497.
Carich, M. (2004). Basic Principles of Intervention The Family Journal 405-410.
Dalla, R. (2003). You Just Give Them What They Want and Pray They Don't Kill You Violence Against Women 9, 1367-1394.
Gregory, C. (2002). The Effects of Batterer Intervention Programs Violence Against Women, 7, 206-232.
Hamberger, L. (2002). Men's and Women's Use of Intimate Partner Violence in Clinical Samples Violence Against Women, 8, 1301-1331.

Student Resources (Link found under Course Home)

Writing Source
These mini video tutorials contain helpful writing information.

HELPFUL APA LINKS: http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch09_o.html http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/citations/apa/index.html http://www.ccp.rpi.edu/resources/handouts/citation-styles/apa-style/ http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/researchsources/documentation/apa/index.cfm http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ http://www.wcu.edu/11743.asp http://writingcenter.gmu.edu/writing-resources.php Tips to Enhance Writing Effectiveness 1. Use the page header function in Word. Do not manually put in the page header by using page breaks.

2. Double-space paragraphs and indent the first line of each paragraph. Avoid using paragraph formatting to add space above or after text.

3. DO NOT hard key (hit enter) at the end of each line to create manual line breaks. Let the text flow and break at the end of a paragraph. This will create problems with the grammar/spelling checker.

4. Use the outline provided in the assignment instructions as headings and subheadings in your paper.

5. A good paragraph focuses on ONE theme of thought. The best paragraphs are those that do not exceed 6-8 lines. Paragraphs that are longer than 6-8 lines result in the human eye becoming "lost in a sea of of words."

6. The best sentences are those that contain FEWER than 25 words. The longer the sentence, the more punctuation is required… and the more difficulty a person has reading AND comprehending that which you have written.

7. Sentences should have commas when the sentence begins with a dependent phrase. A dependent phrase is a phrase that cannot stand by itself. An example: After you read this, you will remember the comma.

8. Sentences and phrases should not end in a "dangling" preposition -- this includes to, for, about, toward, on, under, etc. These sentences should be reworded so the preposition appears within the sentence.

9. Avoid starting sentences repeatedly with the same words -- the, there, this, we, they. Vary the structure of your sentences.

10. Never begin a sentence with the word but or and or also. Use However or In addition.

11. Write in THIRD person -- avoid using I, you, your, we.

12. As a rule, avoid using contractions in your paper -- don't, won't, it's, didn't, shouldn't, etc. Write out both words instead.

13. To and too are two different words. Too means "in addition," or "besides," or "also," or "to an excessive degree." To is a preposition that means "movement towards." When it is used at the end of a sentence, it is correct to use a comma before "too."

14. There and their -- two different words. There is a place -- notice the word there includes the word here. Their is the possessive form -- it contains the word heir, e.g, "heir to the throne." The speedboat is their pride and joy! Lose and loose -- two different words. Lose is as in lost. Loose is as in "baggy."

15. Numbers below 10 that stand by themselves are written as words -- instead of using 5, use five.

16. Periods and commas go INSIDE the quotation marks. Semi-colons and colons go OUTSIDE.

17. Semi-colons are used to separate TWO independent phrases (or sentences) that are closely related. An independent phrase is a sentence… it can stand alone. They may also have a COMMA to separate a conjunction, e.g., however.

18. Cities and states have commas that follow them -- "I lived in Havertown, Pennsylvania, as well as in Amherst, New Hampshire.

19. When you use the word which in a sentence, it should almost always be preceded by a comma. When you use the word but in a sentence, it is almost always preceded by a comma when the phrase that follows is a sentence. The use of that/which and who/whom are frequently interchanged… incorrectly. Who/whom refers to animate objects, e.g., human beings. That/which refers to inanimate objects, e.g., companies.

20. Use Grammar/Spellchecker. Proof your work sloooooooowly. Look for those red or green "squiggle" lines that often will appear under an entire sentences or several words. These suggest that your Microsoft Grammarcheck/Spellcheck have detected a likely error. These could be errors in spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. Use your cursor to hover over the "squiggle" line. RIGHT CLICK. Although such "squiggle" lines are not always accurate when it comes to detecting an error, more often than not you will find that they ARE correct.

Remember: You can post questions in the "Q & A Forum" for your instructor. Your classmates may have the same question and will be glad that you asked it first.