APA STYLE

By: Halima Mirbah Supervisor: Pr Laayadi Driss

What is APA?
APA (American Psychological Association).

The American Psychological Association was founded in 1892 with 31 members and grew quickly after World
War II. Today, APA is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United
States, with more than 121,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students as its members.
APA also has 54 divisions in subfields of psychology.

Its mission is to promote the advancement, communication, and application of psychological science and
knowledge to benefit society and improve lives.

APA Style provides a foundation for effective scholarly communication because it helps writers present their
ideas in a clear, precise, and inclusive manner.
Where did APA Style come from?
APA Style originated in 1929, when a group of psychologists, anthropologists, and business managers convened
and sought to establish a simple set of procedures, or style guidelines, that would codify the many components
of scientific writing to increase the ease of reading comprehension. They published their guidelines as a seven-
page article in Psychological Bulletin describing a “standard of procedure, to which exceptions would doubtless
be necessary, but to which reference might be made in cases of doubt” (Bentley et al., 1929, p. 57).

Since then, the scope and length of the Publication Manual have grown in response to the needs of researchers,
students, and educators across the social and behavioral sciences, health care, natural sciences, humanities, and
more; however, the spirit of the original authors’ intentions remains.
Why is APA Style needed?
Uniformity and consistency enable readers to focus on the ideas being presented rather than formatting and
scan works quickly for key points, findings, and sources.

Style guidelines encourage authors to fully disclose essential information and allow readers to dispense with
minor distractions, such as inconsistencies or omissions in punctuation, capitalization, in-text citations,
references, and presentation of statistics.

When style works best, ideas flow logically, sources are credited appropriately, and papers are organized
predictably and consistently. People are described using language that affirms their worth and dignity. Authors
plan for ethical compliance and report critical details of their research protocol to allow readers to evaluate
findings and other researchers to potentially replicate the studies. Tables and figures present data in an
engaging, consistent manner.
The American Psychological Association (APA) citation style is the most
commonly used format for manuscripts in the social sciences.

APA regulates:
Stylistics
In-text citations
References
 Grammar
First-person pronouns

If you are writing a paper by yourself, use the pronoun “I” to refer to yourself.
If you are writing a paper with coauthors, use the pronoun “we” to refer yourself and your coauthors together.

Referring to yourself in the third person

Correct: I explored treatments for social anxiety.

Incorrect: The author explored treatments for social anxiety.

Editorial “we”

Incorrect: We often worry about what other people think of us.

Correct: As young adults, we often worry about what other people think of us. I explored my own experience
of social anxiety...
 Active vs passive voice

Active voice when stressing the actions of the research

✔: “We asked participants questions.”

🗶: “The participants have been asked questions by the researchers.”

Passive voice when stressing the recipient or object of the action

✔: “The tests were inconclusive.”

🗶: “We found the tests inconclusive.”
 TENSES

From:
https://apastyle.a
pa.org/
 Mechanics of Style

Abbreviations Periods are not used with abbreviations in APA Style (e.g., write “FBI”
and “PhD” not “F.B.I.” and “Ph.D.”).

Capitalization Words beginning a sentence; proper nouns and trade names; job
titles and positions; diseases, disorders, therapies, theories, and
related terms; titles of works and headings within works; titles of tests
and measures; nouns followed by numerals or letters; names of
conditions or groups in an experiment; and names of study factors,
variables, and effects.

Italics and Quotation Marks Italics are used to draw attention to key terms and phrases when
providing definitions and to format parts of reference list entries (e.g.,
titles of books and periodicals). Quotation marks are used to present
linguistic examples and titles of book chapters and articles in the text.

Punctuation Punctuation establishes the cadence of a sentence, telling readers

where to pause (comma, semicolon, and colon), stop (period and
question mark), or take a detour (dash, parentheses, and square
brackets) **neither overuse nor underuse

Spelling and Hyphenation Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, APA Dictionary of Psychology.

Language in an APA paper should be:

Clear: be specific in descriptions and explanations

Concise: condense information when you can

Plain: use simple, descriptive adjectives and minimize figurative

language
Quantitative Articles:
Report quantitative research, which uses empirical and numerical information
often analyzed through statistical means.
Includes:
Title Page
Abstract
Introduction
Literature Review
Method
Results
Discussion
Qualitative Articles:
Report qualitative research, which uses scientific practices to learn more
about human experiences that cannot be numerically quantified.
Includes:
Title Page
Abstract
Introduction
Literature Review
Method
Findings/Results
Discussion
The Literature Review:
Summarizes scientific literature on a particular research topic.
While the APA Publication Manual does not require a specific order
for a literature review, a good literature review typically contains the
following components:
Introduction
Thesis statement
Summary and synthesis of sources
List of References
APA format guidelines
Double-spaced
Have 1” margins
Use 10-12pt. Standard font (ex. Times New Roman)
Be printed on standard-sized paper (8.5”x 11”)
The page number in the upper right (including the title page)
From: The seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association
Major four sections
Title page

Page header:
Student papers contain no running head. Simply insert a page number flush
right.

Title:
(in the upper half of the page, centered)
name (no title or degree) + academic department, course, instructor, and
date.
Page header continues on all pages for
professional papers only. Student
Abstract page
papers contain only the page number.

Abstract: centered and bolded at the

top of the page.

Write a 150- to 250- word summary of

your paper in an accurate, and concise
manner.

Follow the abstract with a short list of

keywords.
The abstract should contain

Research questions,
Participants,
Methods,
Results,
Data analysis,
Conclusion.

It may also include possible implications of your research and future work you see
connected with your findings.

A short list of keywords (labeled with “Keywords” in italics, written in line with the
text)
 Main Body (text)

●Number the first text page as page number 3

●Center and bold the (full) title of the paper at the top of the page

● Type the text double-spaced with all sections following each other
without a break

● Identify the sources you use in the paper with either narrative citations or
parenthetical, in-text citations

● Format tables and figures

 Tables and figures

Table components

● Table number in bold above the table.

● Brief title, in italics and title case, below the table number.
● No vertical lines.
● Horizontal lines only where necessary for clarity.
● Clear, concise labels for column and row headings.
● Numbers consistently formatted (e.g. with the same number of decimal places).
● Any relevant notes below the table.

There are two options for the placement of tables (and

figures) in a paper. The first is to embed tables in the text
after each is first mentioned (or “called out”); the second is
to place each table on a separate page after the reference
list.
 Figure components

● Figure number in bold above the figure.

● Brief title, in italics and title case, under the figure number.
● If necessary, clear labels and legends integrated into the image.
● Any relevant notes below the figure.

All types of visual displays other than tables are considered figures in
APA Style. Common types of figures include line graphs, bar graphs,
charts (e.g., flowcharts, pie charts), drawings, maps, plots (e.g.,
scatterplots), photographs, infographics, and other illustrations.
My references

http://www.apastyle.org
http://owl.purdue.edu
The seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/tables-and-figures/
Thank you for you attention