APA Tips
Provided by Marsha Floyd, MS, MEd, RN
Assistant Professor, Cox College
Reviewed: March 2017
Students and faculty alike seem to be frustrated when trying to format a
document according to American Psychological Association (APA) “rules”. While
this guide is certainly not intended to be a replacement for the APA Manual, it does
cover some basic tips that you might find helpful. These tips are intended to be
one person’s best understanding of how to apply the information in the APA
manual to some of the more common writing errors seen in student writing.
Obviously, it is not an inclusive list and there is no guarantee that this
interpretation of the manual is correct. The reference for everything below is the
6th edition of the APA manual, but a reference citation is only included in areas
where you might want to refer to specific page numbers. (No…that would NOT be
accepted from our students! )
Tip #1—The Title Page
The title page should contain the following.


The very top line of the title page should contain the running head and the
page number. The running head is an abbreviated title. Prior editions of the
APA manual indicated that the running head should be the first few words of
the title, but the 6th edition just says “an abbreviated title” (American
Psychological Association, 2010, p. 229) that is no more than 50 characters
including letters, punctuation, and spaces between words (APA, 2010, p.
229). When typing the running head, it should look like this: Running
head: THE JOYS OF TEACHING. Note the lowercase “h” in “head” and the
all uppercase of the actual running head. The page number is flush with the
right margin and Arabic numerals are used. There should be nothing other
than the numeral—meaning no “page” before the numeral.
Once the “header” information above is complete, the only remaining
information on the title page should be the actual title, the author’s name,
and the institutional affiliation.
o APA recommends that the title avoid abbreviations and be no more
than 12 words in length (APA, 2012, p. 23). “The title should be typed
in uppercase and lowercase letters, centered between the left and
right margins, and positioned in the upper half of the page” (APA,
2012, p. 23).
o The author’s name is written without titles and the recommendation is
first name, middle initial, and last name. The author’s name is typed
one double-spaced line below the title.
o The institutional affiliation is Cox College and is typed one doublespaced line below the author’s name.
Tip #2—The First Page of Text
The first page of text has a header similar to the title page, but there is one
important difference. The words “Running head” no longer appear before the
actual running head in the upper left corner. Note that if you have the first
printing of the 6th edition, the sample papers in that edition still show the words
“Running head” on subsequent pages. Be aware that this is an error. The
running head does remain in all uppercase letters and the number 2 appears in the
upper right corner designating the page number. This describes the “header” for
all remaining pages of the paper.
A common student error is that they forget to repeat the full title on the first page
of text. While I can’t find specifically in the APA manual where writers are
instructed to do this, it is consistently done on all sample papers both in the APA
manual and on the APA style website (www.apastyle.org). The full title should
appear as the very first line on the first page of text. It should be uppercase and
lowercase letters without boldface type, underlining etc.
Tip #3—Don’t use a heading for the introductory section
This is another common error that students make. According to the APA manual,
the body of the manuscript should begin with an introduction and this should be
clear by the content. “Because the introduction is clearly identified by its position
in the manuscript, it does not carry a heading labeling it the introduction” (APA,
2010, p. 27).
Tip #4—Space twice after punctuation marks at the end of a sentence, but
only once after other periods.
Probably the biggest error here is spacing twice after a colon or after a period
following a person’s initial (J. D. Doe vs. J. D. Doe).
Tip #5—Use a comma between elements in a series of three or more
items.
“Correct” writing style has varied over the years so depending on when a student
had his/her basic writing instruction, this is an error that is frequently made. The
bottom line is that if you are listing a series of three or more items, you should
place a comma after each item until the conjunction. For example, I would
describe the colors in the American flag as red, white, and blue as opposed to red,
white and blue.
Tip #6—Use of abbreviations
The APA manual recommends using abbreviations sparingly. Specifically, they
recommend using abbreviations only “(a) if it is conventional and if the reader is
more familiar with the abbreviation than with the complete form or (b) if
considerable space can be saved and cumbersome repetition avoided” (APA, 2010,
p. 107). Before an abbreviation can be used in text, it must be written out in full
the first time followed immediately by the abbreviation in parentheses. For
example, if I were writing about the American Nurses Association (ANA), I would
first write it this way. From that point forward, I would only use the abbreviation,
ANA. You should not switch between the abbreviated and written-out forms (APA,
2010, p. 107). There are a few abbreviations that do not require an
“explanation”; in other words, it is not necessary to write them out in full the first
time. These “accepted” abbreviations can be found in Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary (which we happen to sale in the bookstore!). If an
abbreviation is listed in this dictionary and it is not labeled abbr, it is accepted as a
“word” and does not require being written out in full the first time. Interestingly,
RN is an example of such a “word”. However, if I am writing about the United
States (US) or the United States of America (USA), I would need to first write
them out in full as I have done here as they are not accepted as “words” in
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.
Tip #7—If a direct quote is 40 words or more, type it as a block
indentation and omit the quotation marks.
Students frequently type long quotes just as a part of the text. However, APA
style requires all quotations that are 40 words or longer to be typed as a block
indent. The block quotation should be started on a new line and indented about a
half inch from the left margin. The entire quotation should still be double-spaced.
Quotation marks are omitted completely as the block indent tells the reader that it
is a direct quote. At the end of the direct quote, a parenthetical citation should
include the author(s), year of publication, and page number(s) or paragraph
number. One of the “quirks” of APA formatting in my opinion is that in this
situation, punctuation occurs at the end of the sentence instead of after the
parenthetical information. Note the last example on page 171 of the APA manual
and note how there is a period after the word “assembly”, but no punctuation after
the parenthetical citation. Now compare that to the examples above where
shorter direct quotes occur as a part of the narrative. Note that in those
situations, the final punctuation comes after the parenthetical information, not
before it! You gotta love APA!
Tip #8—Use paragraph numbers for direct quotes from sources that are
not paginated.
Students use so many electronic sources in their writing today and often these
sources are not paginated. If the student quotes from this source, it is important
that the reader be able to locate the quote. In this situation, students should use
paragraph numbers if they are visible in the document. If the document has
headings, but no paragraph or page numbers, the heading and the paragraph
following it should be cited. For example, if I were citing something from the
following website http://www.nursecredentialing.org/MagnetModel.aspx , I would
do it like this. “The organization's senior leadership team creates the vision for
the future, and the systems and environment necessary to achieve that vision”
(American Nurses Credentialing Center, 2012, “I. Transformational Leadership,”
para. 2).
Tip #9—Always give credit to original authors.
Although APA recommends using secondary sources sparingly, the reality is that
our students use them frequently. I allow this as long as they cite the primary
and the secondary source correctly. According to the APA manual, the rule is to
“give the secondary source in the reference list; in text, name the original work
and give a citation for the secondary source” (APA, 2010, p. 178). For example, if
I was using an article written by Wagner and within the article, Wagner cited a
study done by Brett and I wanted to cite the Brett study, I would do it like this.
According to Brett (as cited in Wagner, 2012),… This way, the primary author
(Brett) is given credit and I’ve indicated that I used a secondary source (Wagner).
Students often miss this completely.
Tip #10—Be sure to adequately cite your references in text.
Students commonly make the mistake of paraphrasing several sentences from one
of their sources and then providing a reference citation at the end of the
paragraph. Since the student has not introduced the reference in any way earlier
in the paragraph, it’s impossible for the reader to know how much of the
paragraph is paraphrased from the source. On the other hand, students
sometimes feel like we want them to reference every sentence! I encourage them
to always introduce each new source that they use. From that point forward, it
needs to be clear to the reader what is paraphrased from that source and what the
student’s original thoughts/ideas are. Sometimes this does mean referencing
every sentence. However, I encourage students to work on scholarly writing and
to write in such a way that they don’t need a parenthetical citation for every
sentence. One thing that I have found helpful in this regard is at the bottom of
page 174 of the APA manual.
Within a paragraph, when the name of the author is part of the narrative…,
you need not include the year in subsequent nonparenthetical references to
a study as long as the study cannot be confused with other studies cited in
the article. Do include the year in all parenthetical citations:
Among epidemiological samples, Kessler (2003) found that early onset
social anxiety disorder results in a more potent and severe course. Kessler
also found….The study also showed that there was a high rate of comorbidity
with alcohol abuse or dependence and major depression (Kessler, 2003).
(APA, 2010, p. 174)
As you can see from the second paragraph in the example above, the writer
introduces the work of Kessler at the very beginning. Because Kessler is first
mentioned in narrative, meaning nonparenthetically, when Kessler is mentioned
within that same paragraph in the second sentence, no year is needed.
Conclusion
I hope you have found these tips to be helpful. There are many other APA topics
that could be addressed, but at least this is a start! In addition to the manual, I
encourage students to use the official APA style website (www.apastyle.org) for
further questions.