APA Writing Style is generally used for scientific publications, such as psychology, education or other social sciences. It is the official style used by American Psychological Association (APA), developed in 1929 with specific guidelines for page formats, in-text citations and references.

In-text Author Citations

The author's name and date of publication can be cited in parenthesis following a quote (Barry, 2007) or as part of the text as follows:

Dave Barry (2007) said, "As a lover of nature and an outdoors person, I still enjoy going to a remote wilderness where I can relax, ''recharge my batteries'' and possibly be eaten."

If date of quote or publication is unknown, use the abbreviation n.d. (no date)

If there is more than one author for specific resources, multiple names can be listed.

Notice how this descriptive passage engages multiple senses: "The tired old carriage, pulled by two tired old horses, rumbled onto the wharf, its creaky wheels bumpety-bumping on the uneven planks..." (Barry & Pearson, 2004, p.1).

Note the word AND is not spelled out, opt for & instead.

If the numbers of authors on referenced material exceed six, the primary author should be listed, followed by phrase et al, and the date. (Barry, et al, 2001).

If no author name is given, the citation will include the title of the work, and publication date.

"Never argue with idiots. The just drag you down to their level and then beat you with their experience." ("Humorous Quotes", 2007)

Do not substitute an author's name with Anonymous or Author Unknown unless the work is attributed as such. When a work is attributed to Anonymous, treat this as the author's name.

If quoting directly from a source, the citation should also include page number where available.

When paraphrasing, the page number is not required, but recommended.

Dave Barry turned 50 and is advised to change his diet, giving up all the foods Mom used to make include entire food groups: meat, dairy and delicious. (Barry, August 31, 1997, p 2)

Indirect sources should include the original source name and secondary source is listed as cited by. Johnson argued that... (as cited in Smith, 2003, p.102)

If more than on resource is used for a particular passage, the authors/dates will be separated with a semicolon (Jones, 2001: Smith, 2007)

Reference Page

References are listed in alphabetical order by Author's last name, and should include all resources cited in the paper, whether books, articles or electronic source. If no author name exists, the title of the work will be used.

Book titles should be underlined, article titles which should be placed in quotation marks, and words that are longer than 4 letters should be capitalized.

Articles

Barry, D. (1997, August 31) "Needling the birthday boy". The Miami Herald, Section C, p 2.

Notice the Article title is shown in sentence structure, so only the first word in the sentence and proper nouns are capitalized, whereas book titles and publications will have most words in the title capitalized.

Books

Barry, D. & Person, R. (2004) Peter and the Starcatchers, New York: Disney Editions, p 1.

On line Resource

Humorous Quotes (2004). Retrieved September 13, 2007, from http://www.tbns.net/crysania/humourous.html

If no author is given, alphabetize by Title.

Personal Communications, such as interviews, letters or emails, are not included in reference page. The in-text citation will include the author's name, statement of personal communication and the full date in which communication occurred. (Barry, personal communication, August 31, 1999)

This is just a small sampling of the guidelines included in APA Writing Style.