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Apa Style

APA Style Essentials
http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.cfm?doc_id=796

Douglas Degelman, Ph.D., and Martin Lorenzo Harris, Ph.D.
Vanguard University of Southern California
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed., 2001) provides a comprehensive reference guide to writing using APA style, organization, and content. Students should plan on using the Publication Manual to answer detailed questions not answered by this APA Style Essentials document. The purpose of this document is to provide a common core of elements of APA style that all members of a department can adopt as minimal standards for any assignment that specifies APA style. Instructors will specify in writing when any of the following elements do not apply to a specific assignment that specifies APA style (e.g., when an abstract is not required). Instructors will also specify in writing when additional APA style elements must be observed.

Because of the nature of Web documents (displayed on different sized monitors at different resolutions on different computer platforms using different Web browsers), this Web document is itself not a model of APA style. For an example of a complete article formatted according to APA style, go to http://www.vanguard.edu/psychology/prayer.pdf. To view this and other PDF documents referenced on this page, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader. To download the free Acrobat Reader, go to http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

General Document Guidelines
Margins: One inch on all sides (top, bottom, left, right)
Font Size and Type: 12-pt. font (Times Roman or Courier are acceptable typefaces)
Spacing: Double-space throughout the paper, including the title page, abstract, body of the document, and references.
Alignment: Flush left (creating uneven right margin)
Paragraph Indentation: 5-7 spaces
Pagination: The page number appears one inch from the right...