Educational Leadership ‘s APA Documentation
Formatting for Research Paper

This is a guide of how to format your Educational Leadership Department research paper, and a reference to the relevant page(s) in the APA Publication Manual.

Click on the following to see information on these topics:

Title page

Page Numbers

Margins

Headings

Long (more than 3 lines or more than 40 words) quotations

Short (less that 3 lines or fewer than 40 words) Quotations

References

Tables and figures

Title page

The title page is the first page of your completed paper, and it will be numbered as page 1 (see Page Numbers for how page numbers should appear throughout your paper). Use 12 font in Times New Roman or an equivalent font through out the paper and including tables or graphs.  Do not use Arial or any of the rounded fonts.  It should contain the following information:

All of this information should be double-spaced, and centered both horizontally (between the margins) and vertically (from top of the page to the bottom). An example:

 

Does Computer-aided Instruction Increase Learning
 
In Spanish I More Than Traditional Instruction
 
                    (vary space before & after name
                    to center vertically on page)
 
Jane Doe
 
 
 

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

 

Specialist In Education Degree

 

Department of Educational Leadership

 

Middle Tennessee State University

 

Fall 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Example Title Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page numbers

All pages, except the title page, will have the following in the upper right corner:

An example of this, using the paper example given for the title page:

 

                                          Effects of Subliminal   1

 

The header appears between the top of the page and the first line of text, approximately 1” from the top of the page, and 1” from the right margin. There should be 3 spaces between the “short name” and the page number.  Set your word processor to insert the header on each page automatically. For more information on page numbering and page headers, see page 241 of the APA Publication Manual.

 

 

 


Margins

Leave a 1" margin on all sides of the page except the top which should 1.3”.  There should be a double spaced between the runninghead and the 1st line on the page.  This applies to all pages except the 1st page of each Chapter which should have and 1.5” top margin.

 

 


Headings

The APA establishes guidelines for headings and subheadings within documents. See pages 90-93 and 242-243 in the APA Publication Manual.

 

1 Level of Heading:

 

Method ( Level 1)

 

 

2 Levels of Headings:

 

Method (Level 1)

 

Apparatus and Procedures (Level 2)

 

 

3 Levels of Headings:

 

Method (Level 1)

 

Apparatus and Procedures (Level 2)

 

               Pretraining Period. (Level 3)

 

 

4 Levels of Headings:

 

Method (Level 1)

 

Experiment (Level 2)

Apparatus and Procedures (Level 3)

 

               Pretraining Period. (Level 4)

 

 

5 Levels of Headings:

 

Main Topic (Level 5)

 

Method (Level 1)

 

Experiment (Level 2)

Apparatus and Procedures (Level 3)

 

               Pretraining Period. (Level 4)

 

 


Long (3 lines or more)quotations

Any quotation longer than 3 lines must be set apart from the text of the paper, in its own paragraph. It should be introduced and set in 10 spaces from the left margin as in this example below.  No quotation marks are used.

               The paragraph is introduced like this:
 
           Evaluate the Web site you are considering for instructional use according 
           to the criteria described below. Circle the number which you feel the site 
           deserves for each category: 5 = Excellent and 1 = Poor (McLachlan, 1996, pp 12.
When you continue your own text after the block quotation, do not indent the first line unless you begin a new paragraph. 
Each paragraph of your text begins with an indent of five spaces. If the source you are quoting includes quotation marks, 
you should include them "as they appear in the original document."  The reference appears at the end of the paragraph. 
For more information on the formatting of long quotations, see pages 95-96 and 245 in the APA Publication Manual.

 

Short Quotations

To indicate short quotations (less than 3 lines or fewer than 40 words) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author, year, and specific page citation in the text, and include a complete reference in the reference list. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quotation but after the parenthetical citation.

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.
 
 
 
     According to Miele (1993), "the placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were 
 
     studied in this manner" (p. 276).

 

 

References

Your reference list should appear at the end of your essay. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the essay. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list.

Basic Rules

  1. Authors' names are reversed (last name first); give last name and initials for all authors. Your reference list should be alphabetized by authors' last names. If you have more than one work by a particular author, order them by publication date, oldest to newest (thus a 1991 article would appear before a 1996 article). When an author appears as a sole author and as the first author of a group, list the one-author entries first. If no author is given for a particular source, alphabetize by the title of the piece and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.
  2. Capitalize only the first word of a title or subtitle of a work. Underline titles of books and journals.
  3. Each entry is separated from the next by a double space (thus the entire reference list is double spaced, with no extra returns added).
  4. All references should be double-spaced as should the entire paper
  5. Use "&" instead of "and" when listing multiple authors of a single work. Note that the underlining in these entries often continues beneath commas and periods.
  6. The first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented ˝ inch from the left margin. Subsequent lines should be flush with the left margin.
  7. See APA Publication Manual for other specific citations

 

Basic Forms for Sources in Print

An article in a periodical (such as a journal, newspaper, or magazine)

          Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year of
 
     Publication, add month and day of publication for daily, weekly,
 
     or monthly publications). Title of article. Title of periodical,
 
     Volume Number, pages.

N.B. You need list only the volume number if the periodical uses continuous pagination throughout a particular volume. If each issue begins with page 1, then you should list the issue number as well: Title of Periodical, Volume (Issue), pages.

 

A non periodical (such as a book, report, brochure, or audiovisual media)

          Author, A. A. (Year of Publication).  Title of work: Capital  
 
     letter also for subtitle.  Location: Publisher.

N.B. For "Location," you should always list the city, but you should also include the state if the city is unfamiliar or if the city could be confused with one in another state.

 

Part of a non-periodical (such as a book chapter or an article in a collection)

          Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of Publication). Title
 
     of chapter. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book
 
     (pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.

N.B. When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use "pp." before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). This abbreviation, however, does not appear before the page numbers in periodical references.

 

Basic Forms for Electronic Sources

A web page

          Author, A. A. (Date of Publication or Revision). Title of 
 
     full work [online]. Available: full web address. (Date of access).

N.B. "Date of access" should indicate the date you visited the website. This is important because online information is frequently altered.

 

An online journal or magazine
 

          Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of Publication).
 
     Title of article. In Title of full work [online]. Available: full
 
     web address (Date of access).

 

Email

Because e-mail is a personal communication, not easily retrieved by the general public, no entry appears in your reference list. When you cite an email message in the body of your paper, acknowledge it in your parenthetical citation: The novelist has repeated this idea recently (Salman Rushdie, email to author, May 1, 1995). 

 

Specific Examples

Some of these examples were taken from the APA Publication Manual.)

Journal article, one author

          Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology
 
     journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological
 
     Psychology, 55, 893-896.

 

Journal article, more than one author

 

          Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A.,
 
     & Harlow, T. (1993). There's more to self-esteem than whether it
 
     is high or low: The importance of stability of self-esteem. Journal
 
     of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1190-1204.

 

Work discussed in a secondary source

 

          Coltheart, M., Curtis, B., Atkins, P., & Haller, M. (1993).  Models
 
     of reading aloud: Dual-route and parallel-distributed-processing approaches.
 
     Psychological Review, 100, 589-608.

N.B. Give the secondary source in the references list; in the text, name the original work, and give a citation for the secondary source. For example, if Seidenberg and McClelland's work is cited in Coltheart et al. and you did not read the original work, list the Coltheart et al. reference in the References. In the text, use the following citation:

     Seidenberg and McClelland's study (as cited in Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, &
 
     Haller, 1993)

 

Magazine article, one author

 

          Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade in today's 
 
     schools. Time, 135, 28-31.

 

Book

 

          Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to 
 
     preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC:
 
     American Psychological Association.

 

An article or chapter of a book

 

          O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender
 
     role journeys: Metaphor for healing, transition, and
 
     transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across
 
     the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York: Springer.

 

A government publication

 

          National Institute of Mental Health. (1990). Clinical
 
     training in serious mental illness (DHHS Publication No.
 
     ADM 90-1679). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

 

A book or article with no author or editor named

 

          Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1993). 
 
     Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
 
 
          New drug appears to sharply cut risk of death from heart
 
     failure. (1993, July 15). The Washington Post, p. A12. 

N.B. For parenthetical citations of sources with no author named, use a shortened version of the title instead of an author's name. Use quotation marks and underlining as appropriate. For example, parenthetical citations of the two sources above would appear as follows: (Merriam-Webster's, 1993) and ("New Drug," 1993).

 

A translated work and/or a republished work

          Laplace, P. S. (1951). A philosophical essay on probabilities
   
     (F. W. Truscott & F. L. Emory, Trans.). New York: Dover. (Original 
   
     work published 1814)

 

A review of a book, film, television program, etc.

 

          Baumeister, R. F. (1993). Exposing the self-knowledge
   
     myth [Review of the book The self-knower: A hero under control].
   
     Contemporary Psychology, 38, 466-467.

 

An entry in an encyclopedia

 

          Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new encyclopedia
   
     britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501-508). Chicago: Encyclopedia
   
     Britannica.

 

An online journal article

 

          Kenneth, I. (1995). A Buddhist response to the nature of
   
     human rights. [9 pars.] Journal of Buddhist Ethics [online serial], 2.
   
     Available: http://www.cac.psu.edu/jbe/twocont.html. (June 15, 1998)

 

A web page

 

          Daly, B. (1997). Writing argumentative essays. [online].
   
     Available: http://www.eslplanet.com/teachertools/argueweb/frntpage.htm.
   
     (May 12, 1998)

 

A Note on Footnotes and Endnotes

Because long explanatory notes can be distracting to readers, most academic style guidelines (including MLA and APA) recommend limited use of footnotes/endnotes. An exception is Chicago-style documentation, which relies on notes for all citations as well as explanatory notes. But even in that case, extensive discursive notes are discouraged. Proper use of notes would include:

1. evaluative bibliographic comments, for example:

          1 See Blackmur (1995), especially chapters three and four, for an insightful 
   
     analysis of this trend.
   
          2 On the problems related to repressed memory recovery, see Wollens (1989) pp. 120-
   
     35; for a contrasting view, see Pyle (1992).

 

2. occasional explanatory notes or other brief additional information that would seem digressive if included in the main text but might be interesting to readers, for example:

          3 In a recent interview, she reiterated this point even more strongly: "I am an 
   
     artist, not a politician!" (Weller, 1998, p. 124).

 

Footnotes in APA format are indicated by consecutive superscript arabic numbers in the text. The notes themselves are listed by consecutive superscript arabic numbers and appear double-spaced in regular paragraph format (a new paragraph for each note) on a separate page under the word Footnotes (centered, in plain text without quotation marks).

 

 

Tables and figures

            Each Table/Figure should clearly identified as “Table ##” or “Figure ##.”  In the Table of Contents there should be a separate page for Tables and a separate page for Figures which will included at the behind the regular Table of Contents pages. See the APA Publication Manual for specific guidelines.  For tables, see pages 120-141; for figures, see pages 141-163.

 

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References

 

APA Publication Manual


http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html

 

http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocAPAFormatting.html

 

Updated 12/6/00