How to reference a paper in APA 7 (Simple Guide)
Understanding APA Style and Format: Test Your Knowledge
Introduction:
As a nursing student pursuing an advanced degree, it is crucial to develop strong communication skills and adhere to scholarly writing standards. This includes properly paraphrasing the ideas of others and appropriately citing their work using APA formatting. To ensure your understanding of these concepts and your preparedness to apply them in your own work, let’s test your knowledge through this quiz. The quiz questions are derived from APA writing standards, plagiarism guidelines, and academic integrity principles.
What is APA Style?
APA style, developed by the American Psychological Association, provides a set of standards followed by social science writers to ensure consistency in publications. These standards encompass crediting sources, document formatting, and writing style and organization. APA guidelines enable readers to distinguish between a writer’s ideas and information, facilitating clear communication and ease of understanding.
Why APA Style?
When writing as a student, you enter a new writing community with its own customs and rules. Academic writing has specific guidelines different from other forms of writing. Adhering to APA style helps improve clarity, avoid reader distractions, indicate sources for evidence, and provide uniform formatting. By following APA style, you allow your readers to focus on the ideas you present in a familiar format.
Getting Started With APA Style:
Starting with APA style may feel overwhelming, but there are resources to help you navigate the process. Begin by familiarizing yourself with APA guidelines for citations, reference entries, capitalization, and numbers. Use APA templates appropriate for your assignments and refer to the APA Checklist to review your work. If you were familiar with APA 6th edition, compare it with the 7th edition to understand the changes. You can also explore webinars and blog posts related to APA style and complete an APA Scavenger Hunt to familiarize yourself with available APA resources.
APA Basics Checklist:
To ensure adherence to APA guidelines, use this checklist as a reminder of the key rules for citations, reference lists, and style:
Citations:
– Follow APA guidelines for citations and include sources used in the reference list.
– Use appropriate abbreviations such as “et al.” when citing multiple authors.
– Place parenthetical citations within the ending punctuation and include author(s) and publication year. Page or paragraph numbers are included for quoted material.
Reference List:
– Center and bold the title of the reference list.
– Include sources cited in the paper in the reference list.
– Ensure reference entries have a hanging indent, contain necessary information (author(s), publication year, title, and retrieval information), and are correctly punctuated.
APA Style:
– Use past tense when discussing literature or sources.
– Utilize serial commas for lists of three or more items.
– Apply hyphens appropriately for word combinations.
– Format block quotations correctly (40 words or more).
– Follow APA style for headings, capitalization, numbers, and formatting.
– Avoid the use of the editorial “we” and follow capitalization rules.
Conclusion:
APA style is an essential aspect of scholarly writing. By understanding and applying its guidelines, you can effectively communicate your ideas and maintain consistency in your work. Remember to review the APA resources and seek assistance from the Writing Center if needed. Now, let’s move forward and test your understanding of APA style and format through this quiz.