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Nursing Guide

What's APA Format?

What's APA Format?

The APA is the American Psychological Association.  The APA format is a set of style rules to use when writing papers in the allied health fields.  You are required to follow the APA format; it's not optional.  

Why APA?

There are a few different style guides (MLA, Chicago Manual of style), but health care fields use APA.  APA rules make sure that everyone contributing to the field uses the same standards.  Following APA guidelines is an important part of avoiding plagiarism.

Related Guides

Helpful Links

APA Rules

Citation Rules

For every source (book, article, website) you use, it's required that you use the proper style and format to give credit to the source.  To do this, you'll need to create a references page at the end of your paper.  Your references page has detailed information about each source you use; this information for each source has to be styled in a certain format, and it's called a reference citation .  An in-text citation is a brief note in parentheses immediately after you quote or paraphrase a source.  It just tells the reader which reference citation to look at on the references page.

 

You'll need to use an in-text and reference citation every time you quote or borrow a major idea from another source.  That means even if you're summarizing or paraphrasing, you'll need to cite where you found the idea.  If you don't, you can get into serious trouble with plagiarism.

 

Other APA Rules

  • One inch margins (top, bottom, left and right sides)

  • 12 pt. Times New Roman font

  • Double spacing throughout document

  • Start a new section (abstract, body, references, etc.) on a new page

  • Center the title of the section at the top of the page; don't use bold, underline, or italics

APA Resources

In-Text Citations

Examples

Each type of source (eg. book, website, journal article) has a different format that needs to be used exactly.  

Check out the examples below, or visit Purdue OWL for many more detailed examples.

Format

Example
Books
  
(Author, Year) (Grass, 2011)
   
Website
  
(Author, Year, Month Day) (Grass, 2011, December 15)
   
Website with no author or date
  
("Beginning of title," n.d.) ("Once in awhile," n.d.)
   
Journal Article
  
(Author & author, Year) (Piazza & Nomo, 1996)
   
Journal Article with More than 3 Authors  
(Author et al., Year) (Nomo et al., 2005)
   
Video or Image from a Database or Website  
(Author, Year) (Davis, 2015)

Help

Helpful Links

General Formats

How to Use Reference Citations

Reference citations go on a separate references page at the end of your paper.  Each reference citation has to be formatted according to the rules below.  Each reference citation should have a corresponding in-text citation.

 

Examples

Each type of source (eg. book, website, journal article) has a different format that needs to be used exactly.  

Check out the examples below, or visit Purdue OWL for many more detailed examples.

 

Books
Author, A. A..  (Year).  Title of work in italics: Capital letter only for beginning of

title and subtitle.  Location: Publisher.

 

Website

Author Last Name, First Intial.  (Year).  Title: Only capitalize the first word in

each part. Title of source in italics.  Volume #(issue#), page #s (if

available).  Retrieved from http://urlofwebsite.com

 

Journal Article

Author, A. A., Author2, B. B., & Author3, C. C. (Year). Title of article: Capitalize only

first letter of title and subtitle.  Journal title in italics, volume number, issue number, page range.  Retrieved form http://urlofwebsite.com

 

Video or Image from a Database or Website

Author, A. A., (Year) Title of video with first letter capitalized.  Retrieved

from http://nameofsiteordatabase.com.

Examples

Example

 

Books

Grass, J. (2012).  10 things to do in LA that'll make you throw up or cry.  

Los Angeles, CA: Grass Publishing.  

 

Website

Grass, J.  (2015).  Deep thoughts about stuff: Some things you don't want to

know.jonnysthoughts.com.  Retrieved from http://www.jonnysthoughts.com/deep_thoughts 

 

Journal Article

Piazza, M., Nomo, H., & Valenzuela, F. (2012).  Being amazing Dodgers: Why

we're better than everyone else.  Journal of Awesome People, 23(1), 23-28.  Retrieved from http://www.ebsco.com/journalofawesomepeople.

 

Video or Image from a Database or Website

Grass, J. (2015).  Me eating 1000 apples in 25 minutes.  YouTube.  

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/jonnys_videos/bad_ideas

Reference Citations

How to Create a Reference Citation

Reference citations are on a separate reference page at the end of your paper.  

They tell more detailed information about your sources.

Check out the examples below, or visit Purdue OWL for many more detailed examples.

References Page

Sample reference page