Referencing and formatting with APA 7th ed. (STA): APA References

This page provides resources to assist with citing and referencing sources in APA 7th ed. 

• APA Style by the American Psychological Association is the referencing style that the UWI thesis guide states should be used by students in the School of Education (SoE), Faculty of Humanities and Education, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus.

• All SoE UWISTA students from 2022-2023 onward are to use APA Style 7th. ed.

These handouts for APA 7th ed. prepared by the Librarian, Dr Shamin Renwick, at the School of Education Library (SoEL).

APA 7th ed. was released in July 2019.

Source: APA 7the ed. Manual, pp. 306-307

See Handout from APA Style.

• In-Text Citations

• Quoting

Citing and referencing are required in academic works, to support credibility, provide evidence and demonstrate scholarship.

For online resources – Consider the format of the source, that is, is it a book, journal article, etc. to determine which reference format to use. Use the webpage format as a last resort.

For UWI theses, the in-text citation and reference style is consistent with APA reference style. 

The UWI Theses guide formatting guidelines override APA formatting guidelines where relevant.

 Click on the link above to find the relevant section below.

In-Text Citations

- Usually composed of ‘author’ and ‘date’ e.g., (Walcott, 1987)

- Can be in parenthetical (i.e., in brackets) format e.g., ….(Naipaul, 1975)

OR as part of the text, i.e., narrative format. e.g., … as proposed by Smith (1980)….

- When you are paraphrasing, the page numbers do not need to be included in the in-text citation.

- For multiple in-text citations in the parenthetical formal, list references in alphabetical order. [Alphabetical order not needed in narrative form in-text citations]

– e.g., (Brown, 2020; Maraj, 2019; Williams, 2020)

- Same first author with 3 or more authors

- e.g., …Smith, Singh, et al. (2020) and Smith, Jones, et al. (2020).

- Same author, same year

- e.g., Smith (2009a) and Smith (2009b)

- Authors with the same surname

- e.g., J. D. Smith (1988) and C. H. Smith (2001) verified that...

- Secondary citations

- e.g., … showed in the study (Bendz et al., 1990, as cited in Olson et al., 2004).

OR

Bendz et al. (1990, as cited in Olson et al., 2004) showed …

{The item that you used is listed in the references in this case Olson et al.}

Quotations

- For quotations, must include page nos.

- e.g.,  (Smith et al., 2015, p. 1054)

{note the full stop after al. and space between p. and the number}

- For a webpage and a direct quote online, cite the paragraph number in the in-text citation

- e.g., (Ministry of Health, 2009, para. 1)

- Block quotations (40 words or more) - do not need quotation marks or italics. 

- Start on a new line and indent the block 1 cm (1/2 inch) from the left margin. Cite the source in parentheses after the quotation’s final punctuation or cite the author and year in your sentence before the quotation, concluding with the page number/s.

- e.g., ....... high stakes. (Smith, 2020, p. 10)

Contents:

(regarding student assignments)

APA 7th formatting 

APA 7th heading levels

APA 7th cover page format

Formatting changes from APA 6th to 7th

APA tables and figures

APA preferred spelling

Hyphenation in APA

This page provides information on the formatting of student papers according to APA 7th edition.

- Use the info on this page for regular assignments. 

For Research Projects or Theses, please use the UWI Thesis Guide. 

- Guidelines in the Thesis Guide override those recommended in the APA style manual. 

For Professional papers for publications, the guidelines are slightly different. Check the Manual.

Whereas titles of articles and books in references, table headings, and figure notes are written in sentence style, headline style is recommended for in-text titles, all heading levels, paper headlines, periodical titles, figure titles, and table titles (as well as journal titles in references).

Sentence style or sentence case is where most words are going to be lowercase except for:

• The first word in the title/heading/subtitle
• Proper nouns
• The first word after an em dash, semicolon, or end punctuation
• Any noun followed by letters or numbers

Headline style (title case) is where major words are capitalized while minor words are lowercase.

• Major words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, and basically any word four letters or longer.
• Minor words are conjunctions that are three letters or less, short prepositions, and all articles.

In addition, the following words should be capitalized under title case:

• First word of the title — including minor words.
• First word after any punctuation (semicolon, em dash, end punctuation, etc.) except for commas.
• Words four letters or longer (With, After, Then, etc.).
• All major words — including post-hyphen words (“Decision-Making” rather than “Decision-making”).

Create or customise your headings style in MS Word 

For example, Calibri or Arial, 11-point or Times New Roman or Georgia 12-point

Short Quotes - < 40 words

Include quotation in the sentence using double quotation marks.

E.g., Internationally, the middle class could rise “from 1.8 billion people to 3.2 billion by 2020 and to 4.9 billion by 2030” (Kharas 2010, 27).

Long Quotes - > 40 words

E.g., 

Though many people rely on search engines to find information, Noble (2017) acknowledges that

online search can oversimplify complex phenomena. The results, ranked by algorithms treated as trade secrets by Google, are divorced from context and lack guidance on their veracity or reliability. Search results feign impartiality and objectivity, even as they fail to provide essential information and knowledge we need: knowledge traditionally acquired through teachers, professors, books, history, and experience. (para 3)

Quote within a Quotation

Use single quotation marks for the inner quote and double quotation marks for the main quote. 

E.g., Harry said, "When you go home say 'hello' to your mom".

The following is an example of a cover page for a student assignment.  Do find out if your lecturer has a specific format. If not you can use a similar format to the one below. Add elements not stated there if you wish. Use double-space and bold the title.

For UWI SoE assignments, recommend that you replace affiliation with your UWI ID no,  

- No Running Head at the top of the page for student papers

- There are changes in Heading Levels  3 to 5

- Increased flexibility in font options

Source: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/spelling-hyphenation/preferred-spellings

Use hyphens to prevent temporary compounds from being misread. For example, if a compound adjective appears before a noun, use a hyphen (e.g., decision-making behavior, high-anxiety group). If the compound adjective appears after the noun, a hyphen is usually unnecessary (e.g., behavior related to decision making, group with high anxiety).

Source: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/spelling-hyphenation/hyphenation 

Click here for Library staff contact info.

This LibGuide was created to assist the students and staff of the School of Education of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, UWI STA and the wider UWI cross-campus community to find, retrieve and select useful resources to assist in their research and to support their studies.

The SoE Library is located on the ground floor of the School of Education building at Agostini Street, St. Augustine Campus.

The Services of the LIbrary include, among many others:

• Assistance with and training in searching for information beyond Google (individually, groups)
• Acquiring needed material not housed in the Library nor found in the Library's online collections
• Assistance with and training in referencing with APA Style.
• Guidance on formatting theses and research papers

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Online Chat in real time is offered on the SoE Library Website from 2 - 8 pm (Mon-Fri, not on Public Holidays). Offline messages are possible, as well, on the same chat box.