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

Contents:

APA 7th formatting 

APA 7th heading levels

APA 7th cover page format (regarding student assignments)

Formatting changes from APA 6th to 7th

APA tables and figures

APA preferred spelling

Hyphenation in APA

Lists

Numbers

UWI APA Thesis Template

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

see APA Style - sentence case

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”).

See APA style - title/headline case

- 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

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,  

Once a group's acronym is defined in text on first use [that is, spelt out and followed with the acronym in brackets], the acronym should be used in subsequent mentions in the text and the in-text citations.

Example:

World Health Organization (WHO) shared that COVID-19 had become an epidemic. However, by March 11, 2020, WHO Secretary-General Ghebreyesus declared it was now a pandemic (WHO, 2020).

If an acronym is needed only once in a paper, then simply spell out the terms. E.g., the American Psychological Association was founded in 1892. 

In headings, capitalize all words with four or more letters

After a colon, capitalize the first word beginning a complete sentence

 Capitalize Black, White, Asian, African when referring to race and ethnic groups

Do not use hyphens in multiword names, such as Afro Trinidadian

Capitalize proper nouns and adjectives used as proper nouns

Trial 5, Day 2, Experiment 4 . . . BUT chapter 4, row 3, and column 5

See Proper Nouns

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 

Spell out numbers one through nine

(unless used in comparison with a number greater than ten; in that case, use the numeral)

Use numerals for 10 and greater

Use numerals for centuries (20th century)

Do not hyphenate common fractions used as nouns (two thirds)

Use the percentage symbol (25%)

In text, use letters in parentheses for lists: (a), (b), and (c)

Change while to although or whereas and since to because when applicable

Write dates in the month-day-year sequence (January 1, 1999)

 Use lowercase letters with periods for ante and post meridian (a.m., p.m.)

If there is no answer in APA, then refer to Chicago style.