APA Basics Checklist: Citations, Reference List, and Style
APA Basics Checklist: Citations, Reference List, and Style
Permalink: https://eaziessay.com/apa-basics-check…e-list-and-style/
By the Walden University Writing Center
Writing Center staff created this APA checklist to help students remember the basics of APA citations, reference lists, and style. It is not meant to be comprehensive, but students should use it as a reminder of the various APA rules that academic papers follow. If students are not sure what a particular item in the checklist refers to or entails, they should follow the link for more information.
Additionally, the Writing Center can always help with APA questions at writingsupport@waldenu.edu.
Citations
Citations are included in each sentence a source is used
Sources used and cited in the paper are included in the reference list
The abbreviation “et al.” is punctuated appropriately
Parenthetical citations:
Author(s) and publication year are always included
Page or paragraph number is included for all quoted material, using the appropriate
abbreviation: (p. xx) or (para. xx)
Citation is included within the ending punctuation for the sentence
In-text citations
Author(s) is included within the sentence
Publication year is included in parentheses immediately after the author(s)’ name
Publication rule is followed: publication years are included the first time a source is used
in a paragraph; all subsequent uses of that same source does not include the publication
year (Note: Rule starts over with a new paragraph)
Reference List
Title of the list is centered but not bolded
Sources listed in the reference list are used at least once in the paper
Reference entries:
Each entry has an automatically formatted hanging indent
Each entry has the basic information (as available): author(s), publication year,
title, and retrieval information
Each entry has been compared against the common reference entries and
reference entries FAQs on the Writing Center website, checking for:
Punctuation: periods and commas
Formatting: italics is used only when needed
Parentheses and brackets: used only when needed
Appropriate electronic information is included
APA Style
Past tense is used whenever literature or sources are talked about (i.e., Smith discussed)
Serial commas are used for all lists of three or more items (i.e., lions, tigers, and bears)
Hyphens are:
Used to join words that work together to modify another word (i.e., evidenced-based practice)
Used to join “self” compounds (i.e., self-esteem)
Not used with prefixes such as non, semi, pre, post, anti, multi, and inter
Block quotes (of 40 or more words) are formatted as such
Headings follow proper APA style (i.e., level 1 headings are centered and bolded)
Numbers:
10 and above are expressed using numerals
Nine and below are expressed using words
Expressing specific numbers and time use numerals
Expressing approximate time use words
Complex lists of items follow seriation rules (using letters within the list)
Bulleted and numbered lists are used for specific reasons
The third person editorial we is avoided (including us, our, and you)
Capitalization rules are followed (i.e., names of models and theories are not capitalized)
Formatting:
Template is used
Running head is inserted properly
Title page follows the template
Double spacing is used throughout the paper (including the reference list)
Two spaces (and consistently only two spaces) is used between sentences