Abbreviated APA Guide: Library Research
In response to some of your questions about the paper's format, I've adapted
the format guide sent out previously
to the types of library research papers that most students have planned to
write.
Manuscripts should be in the style of the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association (4th
edition, 1994). Papers should be typed on one side of the paper, double spaced
throughout (including the
references), with margins of at least 1 inch. All pages must be numbered.
The first page should include the title of the paper, first name, middle
initial and last name of the
author, and a short institutional address (St. Olaf College).
The second page should repeat the title and contain an abstract of no more
than 200 words.
The third page should repeat the title as a heading to the main body of the
text.
Include headings and subheadings within lengthy sections to clarify their
content.
Length: There is no rule which you must follow on length; however,
the intention in this class was to spread out the
writing over the term so that your writing was more continuous, rather than
a massive project at the end (when all your other
massive projects were due). Thus, a rough guideline is 5-7 or 6-8 pages
of actual text (not counting the abstract or references). If your subject
matter can't be adequately addressed within this, you may do more, but don't
use "filler", or expand needlessly, and don't use less. In short, do
what is needed to adequately deal with your topic.
References
References should follow APA style. All publications cited in the text should
be listed following the
text; all references listed must be mentioned in the text.
Within the text, references should be denoted by the author's name and year
of publication in parentheses, e.g.
(Woods, 1995) or (Mansell & McGill, 1995) or, if there are more than
two authors, (Gallico et al., 1986).
Where several references are quoted consecutively within the text the order
should be alphabetical, e.g. (Elford
& Sherr, 1989; Folkman, 1992). Similarly, where several references are
quoted within a single year, the order
should be alphabetical (Mansell & McGill, 1995; Woods, 1995). If more
than one paper from the same author(s)
and year is listed, the date should be followed by (a), (b) etc., e.g. (Blazer,
1995a).
References should be listed at the end of the paper in alphabetical order,
typed in double spacing.
Responsibility for the references and their verification against the original
documents lies with the author(s).
References should be listed on a separate sheet(s) in the following standard
form, capitalisation and punctuation:
a) for periodical articles (titles of journals should not be abbreviated):
Woods, B. (1995). Dementia care:
progress and prospects. Journal of Mental Health, 5, 115-124.
b) for books: Norman, A. (1987). Aspects of ageism. London: Centre for Policy
on Ageing.
c) for chapters within multi-authored books: Robertson, I. T. (1994). Personality
and personnel selection.
In C. L. COOPER & D. M. Rousseau (Eds.), Trends in organizational behavior
(pp. 75-89). Chichester: Wiley.
Illustrations All illustrations (including photographs, graphs and
diagrams) should be referred to as Figures. APA style
indicates that each figure should be submitted on a separate sheet of paper;
for the present paper, you may do this separately
or within the text. If separately, indicate within the text where it
is to go (<Insert Figure 3 here>).
Tables In APA style, tables should be submitted on separate sheets,
numbered in Arabic numerals, and their position
indicated in the text (e.g. Table 1). For this paper, I will also permit
tables within the paper. Each table should have
a short, self-explanatory title. Any explanatory notes should be given
as a numbered footnote at the bottom of the table.
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