APA 6 Style

Both your ideas (content) and how you write about them (presentation) are important
determinants of your success as a doctoral student. Hence, you receive a grade for the content
and a grade for the presentation of each NCU assignment you submit in a course.
Much of what constitutes your grade for presentation reflects your command of basic
English composition rules (as you would find in a book on English grammar, such as Strunk and
Whites The Elements of Style), and your mastery of APA 6 style (which NCU uses as the
standard for student writing).
While most students are familiar with the rules of English composition, writing in
accordance with APA 6 style is not that easy, at least at first, for most students. Because
presentation constitutes 30% of the grade for each assignment (reflecting the importance that
NCU places on it), I have assembled a variety of information on APA 6 style in this document for
your use in all assignments in this course, including the first one.
Please understand that when you arrive at the dissertation stage after you have completed
your orals, formatting your documents correctly using APA 6 style will be a major determinant of
how many revisions you have to make in your concept paper, proposal, and dissertation. And, as
you can understand, the less time you spend revising, the sooner you graduate. So I encourage
you to begin the process of mastering the basics of APA 6 style as soon as you can.
The reference citations for my copies of the two documents mentioned above are:
Strunk, W., & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style (3rd ed.). USA: Macmillan.
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Form and Style Tips (APA 6th Edition)

Category

Correct Formatting

Title Page

Provide a title page for each paper.

Abstract

When required, must be a single, non-indented paragraph.

TOC

Provide a Table of Contents for major papers.

Margins

The standard margins are 1 inch on all four sides.

Spacing

Double space your work, no more or less.

Headings

Use APA-style headings, as shown on page 62 of the APA

manual.

Indentation

Indent the first line of each paragraph by one-half inch.

Font

Use one, size-12 serif font, like Times New Roman, throughout
your paper.

Alignment

Do not justify your work. Left align or center it (exactly).

Highlighting

Do not bold, underline, or use color for emphasis.

Lists

Use (a), (b), (c), and so forth for lists in a sentence. Use bullets
or numbers (i.e., 1., 2., 3., etc.) for lists in an indented series.

Commas

Use a serial comma for your work. Punctuate the series XYZ as
X, Y, and Z. Do not punctuate it as X, Y and Z (which is the
norm in business writing).

Block quotes

Place quotations of 40 or more words in a block quote. Indent

the entire quotation by one-half inch from the left margin.
Double space. Place the in-text citation in parentheses after the
concluding period.

In-text
Citations

Provide in-text citations (in APA style) for the sources of your
assertions and information, and provide corresponding
reference citations (in APA style). Note that you can only cite a
source if you have read it yourself.

Reference
Citations

Must be in APA style. Hanging indent each reference citation by

one-half inch. Double space. Provide the doi number for
electronic citations (lower case, no period after), or the home
page URL of the article (or book or report) publisher if the doi is
not available. Note: Include in the reference list only works you
have cited in your paper.

English

Use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Spell check

your work.

Voice

Strive to write 100% in the active voice.

Person

Write all doctoral papers primarily in the third person, unless

otherwise indicated in the assignment. Write bachelors and
masters papers in the first, second, or third person as
appropriate.

Active versus Passive Voice

Here is a brief review of the difference between the active and the passive voice:

Active voice (i.e., subject-verb-object): The cat ate the canary.

Passive voice (i.e., object-verb-subject): The canary was eaten by the cat.

Most people speak only in the active voice. Yet many people write in the passive voice
for some reason. Maybe they think it makes them sound more educated or they don't realize that
they are doing it?
The inappropriate use of the verb "to be" is the primary cause of the passive voice.
Here is a less dramatic example where the object of the sentence is placed before the
verb, thus making it passive:

The case study method was used by the researcher.

One (better, more powerful) way to say this in the active voice is:

The researcher used the case study method.

I hope this clarifies the difference between the active and the passive voice.
P. S. Sometimes the passive voice is called for, but not very often (see the APA 6 manual).
For more, see a basic book on English grammar, like The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

Using Microsoft Word to Detect the Passive Voice

One of the hallmarks of a good writer is the ability to write in the active voice. For some
students, this can be challenging, since most people are not accustomed to writing in the active
voice. Fortunately, modern word processing software packages provide tools to facilitate writing
in the active voice.
In Microsoft Word, first highlight the portion of a document that you wish the software to
evaluate for readability. If you do not specify any particular text, like a sentence or a paragraph,
Word will evaluate the entire document. Then, from the Tools menu on the main tool bar, select
Spelling and Grammar. If you have enabled Readability Statistics*, Word will provide a
summary of these statistics that will include the percentage of the sentences in the passive voice.
Your goal is to make that number as close to 0% as possible.
To find the individual sentences that are in the passive voice, you will need to highlight
sections of the text and run the Spelling and Grammar check iteratively. For example, you might
highlight each paragraph and, if zero % of the sentences in the paragraph are in the passive
voice, move on to the next paragraph. If the number is greater than zero, you might highlight
individual sentences to find the ones that are in the passive voice. Remember to rerun Spelling
and Grammar on the entire document when you have finished to ensure that you have found and
eliminated all of the sentences in the passive voice.

*Note: To enable readability statistics, open any Word document, click on File, click on Options,
click on Proofing, click on Show readability statistics.

Sample Annotation for an Annotated Bibliography of Key Sources

In contrast to the sample annotation above (which came from an NCU assignment
specification),
1. You may single or double space the reference citation, but you must double space the
annotation itself.
2. You must provide the doi number for journal article reference citations, or the URL of
the journal home page if there is no assigned doi number.
3. You may indent the first line of the annotation by one-half inch if you wish.
4. You must not color code the sections of the annotation as done in the figure above.
5. In contrast to the first line of this sample annotation, you should strive to write 100%
in the active voice.

How to Find the Correct Doi Information for Journal Article Reference Citations
Per APA 6, you must provide the doi number for electronic citations (in lower case,
followed by a colon and the number with no space in between and with no period after the doi).
If there is no assigned doi number, you must provide the URL of the home page of the journal
that published the article, preceded by the words, Retrieved from. Note: Neither the URL of
the database from which you retrieved the article, or the location of the article itself, is
acceptable if there is no assigned doi number. See pages 187-192 and 198-205 of the APA 6
manual for details.
Tips:
1. You can search for a doi at www.crossref.org/simpletextquery
2. If there is no assigned doi, then Google the journal name to find the URL of the home
page of the journal that published the article.
Here are two reference citations with the correct doi information. In the first case, there is
an assigned doi number. In the second case, there is not. Hence, the correct doi information in
this second case is the URL of the homepage of the journal that published the articlexxxx
preceded by the words, Retrieved from.
Akkerman, R., Farahani, P., & Grunow, M. (2010). Quality, safety and sustainability in food
distribution: A review of quantitative operations management approaches and challenges.
OR Spectrum, 32(4), 863-904. doi:10.1007/s00291-010-0223-2
Golafshani, N. (2003). Understanding reliability and validity in qualitative research. The
Qualitative Report, 8(4), 597-607. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/

Other APA 6 Resources

If you want to acquire an excellent, inexpensive, user friendly book that includes the
basic APA 6 style in-text and reference citations for the most common book, journal article, and
electronic sources, you should consider this book by Robert Perrin (be sure to buy the latest
edition if you decided you want it):
Perrin, R. (2009). Pocket guide to APA style (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.
If you want more information on APA 6 style, I suggest the resources in the NCU Writing
Center and the American Psychological Associations website (http://www.apa.org/). You can
find other APA 6 resources by doing a Google search using APA 6th edition as the keyword.
Finally, as APA 6 is the standard that many peer-reviewed journals use, and because it
will be so important to your success to master APA 6 to the degree that you can as soon as
possible, I highly recommend that you read the APA 6 manual from cover to cover. This single
investment of your time will contribute greatly to your development as a scholar, which is, of
course, what you must become to earn a Ph.D.
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.