Running Head: Example Essay

Example Essay
An Example Essay Using
APA Referencing
Tyson Murcott

Example Essay

Contents
Overview............................................................................................2
Summary............................................................................................3
References..............................................................................................3

Example Essay

3
Overview

APA (American Psychological Association) style is primarily used in

the social science disciplines. It is formatted like MLA, and shows many
similarities, but is unique in several key points.

APA uses parenthetical (or in-text) citations within sentences, but

rather than indicating the author's name and page number, APA includes
author's name and date of publication. The page number, represented with a p.
or a pp., is only added to the citation when using a direct quote (not a
summary or paraphrase). If the author's name is mentioned in the sentence,
then place the date of publication in parentheses directly after the name. If the
name is not mentioned include the author's name and date in parentheses at the
end of the source material. And, if you use a direct quote, place the page
number after the publication date within the parentheses. Note the difference
between the following three examples:

Terrence (1999) has presented poignant examples from 150 interviews.

However, it has been pointed out that the research was conducted in a
selective, highly biased, way. (Strong & Porter, 1998) All of the interviewees
have been called 'exceptions to the norm' (Strong & Porter, 1998, pp. 552).

Note the first example paraphrases an author that is named in the

sentence, the second example paraphrases authors that are not named in the
sentence, and the third example provides a direct quote (thus the inclusion of
the page numbers) but also does not identify the authors within the sentence. If

Example Essay

the authors were identified within the sentence in the third example, the
authors' names would be followed by the year of publication and only the page
numbers would be in the parentheses at the end of the quote.

Summary
Finally, the bibliographic page in APA style differs from MLA, what
APA calls the Reference page. You will notice a few immediate differences
from the MLA Works Cited format. With APA you include the initial of the
author's first name rather than the complete name, the publication date
immediately follows the author's name in parentheses, and titles of articles are
not surrounded with quotation marks (however titles of books, magazines,
journals, etc. are still underlined). The lists are still alphabetized by author's
last name (or title in the absence of an author) and the first line is flush left
while subsequent lines in the same entry are indented in (approximately 5
spaces or one tab). For journals and magazines, publication title and volume
number are both underlined, followed by the issue number (not underlined) in
parentheses. Only use a p. or a pp. to indicate page numbers with newspapers.
The only other time you would use a p. is to indicate what pages an article is
on within a collection or anthology. Again, if you have any questions or need
further assistance, come in to see us at the Writing Desk.

References
Booth, W. (1979, November).Writing Essays: Secrets of the Trade.
Composition Today, 13, 78-91. White, A., & Long, B. (Eds.). 1993). Praise for
America's Literacy. Westport, CT: Greenwood

Example Essay

Eckholm, E., & Gibbons, A. (1991). Guide to APA Style. Journal of

Style Manuals, 18, 1561-1562.

Terrence, H. S. (1999). Student Success in Community Colleges. Oregonian,

pp. A6.

Strong, R. L. & Porter, M. (1998), Grammatical Combinations. In S. T.

Parker & K. R. Gibson (Eds.), Language and Literacy (pp 540-578)
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.