Getting Started with APA Style
Apr 16th, 2008 by Scott Hebert
When I started researching APA format, my biggest concern was how different it might be from the MLA format. Having written dozens of papers for previous coursework using the MLA format, it seems likely that I could easily slip back into that style of writing. Fortunately, the differences between the formats are mostly minor. For example, in parenthetical citations, APA style includes the date of publication in addition to the author’s last name and the page number (Harris, 2006). This is in contrast to MLA format which only includes the author’s last name and page numbers.
Although I was familiar with using footnotes as a way to expand on a concept, I was not aware that they should also be used to recognize that the author has permission to use copyrighted material. Although this seems generally less useful than content footnotes, it may allow for easier citation of larger block quotations. It’s worth noting that Harris (2006) does not include any footnotes in her example APA-styled research paper. This obviously indicates that footnotes are discouraged in general.
Please refer to the following examples of in-text citations and references for more information.
Online Source
In-text citation:
“spreadsheets could be applied to much more than coffee” (Whittaker, 2008, ¶ 7).
Reference list:
Whittaker, M. (2008, April 10). Coffee and statistics. Retrieved April 16, 2008, from http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2008/04/coffee-and-statistics.html
Newspaper Article
In-text citation:
Cueto notes that “Japanese food began to enjoy world wide popularity” (2008, p. 4B).
Reference list:
Cueto, L. (2008, April 16). Luis Cueto brings Sushi Caliente to Cedar Park. Hill Country News, p. 4B.
Interview
In-text citation:
“You’re not charging enough!” (K. Smith, personal communication, April 2, 2008).
Reference list:
“Personal interviews are not included in the References list” (Harris, 2006, p. 14).
Harris, M (2006). Student Guidebook to Proper Citation in APA Style. In Prentice Hall Reference Guide, Sixth Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall