CADS Student Resources: APA Style Guidelines

This resource contains APA style guidelines and examples for in-text citation of references, creating a reference list for a research paper, and formatting a research paper.

Basic Rules for In-text Citation (APA Style)
The American Psychological Association (APA) format follows an "author-date" style of in-text citation. When using this style, the author's last name and the year of publication for the source material appears in the text. Every source used in the paper, direct quotation, paraphrase, summary or translation must be cited in the text of the paper and listed in the References.

Basic Rules for Reference Lists (APA Style)
A reference list is placed at the end of your paper but before any appendices. Its primary purpose is to provide the reader with all necessary information to retrieve any source cited in a paper. It also allows the reader a preliminary means to judge the credibility of your sources and the breadth and depth of your research. To this end, every source you cited in the text of a paper must appear in the reference list; similarly, every entry in the reference list must be cited in-text.

Basic Rules for Formatting a Paper (APA Style)
APA has set out rules for the formatting of research papers including margin width, line spacing, font style and size, justification, positioning of page numbers, indentation, and heading styles. Remember that if you are writing a paper for a course, your professor's specific instructions (e.g., headings with letters added) take precedence over those of the Publication Manual.