APA: Formatting Rules, Informational Sites, & Example Reference List

APA: Formatting Rules, Informational Sites, & Example Reference List The following sections offer  formatting rules for a Reference List page,  URLs for web sites with more information about APA documentation, and  an example APA reference list using entries from the "APA Citation Rules & Examples" page by Tarleton Libraries.

APA REFERENCE LIST FORMATTING RULES An APA reference list is formatted as follows:

 Sources used in preparing your paper must appear in the reference list, and all entries in the reference list must be cited in your paper. Make sure the entries match. o Note: APA rules exclude some source types from reference lists. For example, communications like personal interviews and letters do not provide recoverable data. Therefore, they would be cited in a paper, but excluded from the reference list. Check the APA manual for additional information.

         

See the APA handbook for rules about listing works you read, but did not use. Put the reference list at the end of the paper. Start the reference list on its own page. Put the page number in the upper right-hand corner, at least one inch from the right-hand edge of the paper and between the top edge of the paper and the first line of text. Title the page References (or Reference if there is only one entry). Do not underline or italicize the title. Do not put it in quotation marks. Center the title on the top margin (usually an inch from the top of the page). Double space the entries. Begin the first line of each entry at the left margin. Indent subsequent lines five spaces or 1/2 inch. This is called a hanging indent in most word processing programs. List entries alphabetically based on the first letter of the first element. (e.g. by the first author's last name or by the first word in a title -- ignoring any initial A, An, and The) Consult the APA handbook (at the Reference/Information Desk) for additional citation rules, as well as detailed rules for punctuation, abbreviations, and capitalization. The APA Research Style Crib Sheet by Dr. Abel Scribe offers a synopsis of these rules.

SITES WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Additional information about documentation styles is available from the following web sites: ~ American Psychological Association: http://apastyle.apa.org/ ~ APA Citations: Rules & Examples: from Tarleton Libraries at Tarleton State University http://www.tarleton.edu/~library/userhelp/document_apa_lh.html ~ APA Writer's Handbook: from The Writing Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocAPA.html ~ Assembling a List of Works Cited in Your Paper: from Duke University Libraries http://library.duke.edu/research/citing/ ~ Citing Your Sources: Print & Electronic Style Guides: from A. Frank Smith, Jr., University Library Center at Southwestern University, Georgetown TX http://www.southwestern.edu/library/research-support/citing-sources.html

EXAMPLE APA REFERENCE LIST The following example reference list uses proper APA format. The entries come from examples used on the Tarleton Libraries’ APA Citations: Rules & Examples page.

References American Library Association. (2002). Intellectual freedom manual (6th ed.) Chicago: Author. Bambara, T. (1980). The salt eaters. New York: Random House. Black, C. P., Arlo, S. T., Rechit, R., Machlen, J. P., Sempson, K., Bee, A. L., et al. (2001). APA format for psychology students. Newark, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Blaufuss, D. (2008, February). Music thrives at Jackson High. The Instrumentalist, 62, 16-20, 59-60. Brock, D. W. (1986). The value of prolonging human life. Philosophical Studies, 50, 401-426. Clay, R. A. (2008). Shrinking student loans: The mortgage crisis is reverberating in the student lending industry, but funding is still available [Electronic version]. Gradpsych, 6(4). Retrieved December 7, 2008, from http://gradpsych.apags.org/2008/11/loans.html The Canadian encyclopedia (2nd ed.). (1988). Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Hurtig. Daniels, J. (1992). The Indian population of North America in 1492. William and Mary Quarterly, 49, 298320. Retrieved December 7, 2008, from JSTOR database. Duggan, S. (2008, November). Timpani maintenance [Electronic version]. The Instrumentalist. Retrieved December 12, 2008, from http://207.58.128.136/articles/The-Instrumentalist/ November-2008/Timpani-Maintenance/ Forbes, S. (2007, December 10). Mob rule. Forbes, 180, 27. Retrieved December 7, 2008 from Business & Company Resource Center database. Frazier, M., & Okada, B. (2008, January 17). UFO fervor has spread beyond Stephenville. Fort Worth StarTelegram, p. B1. Gong, V., & Rudnick, N. (Eds.). (1986). AIDS: Facts and issues. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Greeley, A. (1987, May 17). Today's morality play: The sitcom [Late edition]. The New York Times, pp. B1, B40. Retrieved June 6, 2000, from LexisNexis Academic database. Hyde, M. O., & Forsyth, E. H. (1986). Suicide: The hidden epidemic (Rev. ed.). New York: Franklin Watts. Lambropoulos, V., & Miller, D. N. (Eds.). (1987). Twentieth century literary theory: An introductory anthology. Albany: State University of New York Press. Lehr, D., Katzman, L., Clinton, L., & Sullivan, E. (2006). Character education and students with disabilities. Journal of Education, 187(3), 71-83. Lorence, J. (2008). Texas TAAS scores revisited. Educational Research Quarterly, 31(4), 3-32. Lorenz, Inc. (1992). Research in social studies teaching. Baltimore: Arrow Books. McCann, B. M. (2006). The relationship between learning styles, learning environments, and student success [Electronic version]. Journal of Agricultural Education, 47(3), 14-23. Maccoby, E. E., & Martin, J. (1983). Socialization in the context of the family: Parent-child interaction. In P. H. Mussen (Series Ed.) & E. M. Hetherington (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Socialization, personality, and social development (4th ed., pp. 1-101). New York: Wiley. Mayer, A. (2008). Understanding how U.S. secondary schools sort students for instructional purposes: Are all students being served equally? American Secondary Education, 36(2), 7-25. Retrieved December 7, 2008 from Academic Search Complete database. Mehta, P. B. (1998, June 6). Exploding myths. The New Republic, 218, 17-19. Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster. Morgan, Y. (2005, July). Kosher camping: How to "rough it" and enjoy every camping minute. Kashrus Magazine, 25, 34-36. Nervous robber accidentally shoots himself in the mouth [State final edition]. (1986, January 15). Houston Chronicle, p. A17. Parker, H. (1996). Melville: A biography (Vol. 1). Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Pettit-Johnson, H. (2008, February). Many paths to the podium: Teaching in an international school. The Instrumentalist, 62, 22-26. Poe. E. A. (2004). Eureka. (S. Levine & S.F. Levine, Eds.). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman. Robelen, E. W. (2008, December 16). Experts debate “neovouchers” for public schools. Education Week, 28. Retrieved December 16, 2008, from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/12/16/ 16tuition.h28.html?tmp=1681669279 Schlesinger, A. M. (Ed.). (1973). History of U.S. political parties (Vol. 1-4). New York: Chelsea House. Smith, G. (2001). Prufrock as key to Eliot’s poetry. In E. McGeagh (Ed.), Poetry criticism: Excerpts from criticism of the works of the most significant and widely studied poets of world literature (Vol. 31, pp. 361-374). Detroit: Gale Group. (Reprinted from Approaches to teaching Eliot’s poetry and plays, pp. 88-93, by J. S. Brooker, Ed., 1988, New York: Modern Language Association of America). Stagg, J. C. A. (2002). The political essays of William Shaler. William and Mary Quarterly, 59. Retrieved December 18, 2008, from http://oieahc.wm.edu/wmq/Apr02/stagg.pdf Thomas, L. (1985). Computers. In M. Howard (Ed.), The Penguin book of contemporary American essays (pp. 153-155). New York: Penguin Group. Thompson-Deloatch, T. B. (2004). Conflicting concepts of time and space: Narrative technique in selected short fiction of Olive Senior. In J. Palmisano (Ed.), Short story criticism: Criticism of the works of short fiction writers (Vol. 67, pp. 135-141). Detroit: Gale Group. (Reprinted from MaComére, 3, pp.141-152, by T. B. Thompson-Deloatch, 2000). Wolchik, S. A., West, S. G., Sandler, I. N., Tein, J., Coatsworth, D., Lengua, L., et al. (2000). An experimental evaluation of theory-based mother and mother-child programs for children of divorce. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 843-856. Retrieved September 12, 2005, from ScienceDirect database.