Writing APA-Style Scholarly Papers

Why APA? APA stands for the American Psychological Association, and they put out a style guide that is updated regularly called the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

The University of Calgary-Qatar has chosen to follow APA guidelines for referencing and formatting because it is the style used by most nursing researchers. Many nursing journals use APA for publishing articles, so it is very important that those in the nursing profession know and understand the requirements.

What does APA require? At UCQ, an APA-style paper may also be called a scholarly or academic paper (in this case, ‘scholarly’ and ‘academic’ mean the same thing). The requirements may differ from one professor to another, but you will probably be expected to include most or all of the following elements:

 Title page

 Page setup

 Headings

 Introduction, body, and conclusion

 Scholarly information

 Academic language

 References list Writing APA-Style Scholarly Papers

Title page Your title page is the first page of your paper. It comes before the first page of your written text. The title page should look like this:

Note that the running head includes the words “Running head” and a colon ( : ). These only appear on the title page.

University of Calgary-Qatar: Learning Commons Writing Support Page 2 Writing APA-Style Scholarly Papers

Page setup

1. Margins are the white spaces between letters and the edge of page. There are four of them: at the left and right sides of the page, and at the top and bottom. These should all be set at one inch, which is the automatic default setting in Microsoft Word.

2. Font is the size, colour and shape of the letters in the main text of your paper. Always use black lettering. Generally, three font sizes and shapes are acceptable at UCQ:

i. Calibri size 11 (the default setting in Microsoft Word 2007)

ii. Times New Roman size 12 (the default setting in Microsoft Word before 2007)

iii. Arial size 11

3. Running head: This is your title in capital letters. It also includes the page number at the right side. If your title is longer than 50 characters, use only the first 50. This is inserted by using the “Header” function in Microsoft Word.

4. Paragraphs: The first line of every paragraph is indented. All of your main body text should be aligned to the left, which means that the first letter of each line should be all the way to the left

margin of the page. Do not justify the text – the ends of the lines at the right side of your text will be uneven.

5. Line spacing: The entire text, including the title page and references list, must be double-spaced. Do not add extra spaces between paragraphs.

Headings There are five levels of headings in APA style, as follows:

Level of heading Format 1 Center, Bold, Capital and Lowercase Letters 2 Starts at the Left, Bold, Capital and Lowercase Letters 3 Indented, bold, title of a paragraph, only the first letter is capitalized, ends with a period. 4 Indented, bold, italics, title of a paragraph, only the first letter is capitalized, ends with a period. 5 Indented, italics, title of a paragraph, only the first letter is capitalized, ends with a period. (Table adapted from American Psychological Association, 2010, p. 62)

The headings are used in order according to the way you divide your paper. Level 1 headings are for the major sections, such as the Introduction, the Findings and the Conclusion. Level 2 headings are used for subsections. If, for example, you have several parts to your Findings section, you would use a Level 2 heading for each of these. If one of those subsections requires you to divide it even further, use a Level 3 heading. Levels 4 and 5 are not often used in an assignment.

Introduction, body, and conclusion Most academic papers have the same basic structure as essays. Introduce the body of the paper by explaining what it is about and providing a brief description of the sections in a few sentences. The order of points in your introduction should be the same in the body. Be sure to address all of the requirements of the assignment. The conclusion usually summarizes the body and explains why it is important. Tip: The conclusion and the introduction should be linked and should cover the same points.

Scholarly information Unless your instructor gives different instructions, the information that you provide in a scholarly paper must be supported by evidence. Always ensure that the sources you use are trustworthy. This means you must evaluate the quality of the information, and choose the best sources according to your need and your instructor’s requirements.

When you have been assigned a reflective paper, make connections between your ideas and the knowledge you have already acquired in your previous research, your experience, or in course material.

Academic language In most assignments for your classes, you will be expected to use academic language, which is more formal and more professional than conversation. This means you will have to consider the following:

 Personal pronouns: An important question you will have to answer before you start writing is whether or not you can use personal pronouns such as “I”, “you” and “we”. Ask your teacher whether she or he would prefer you to use personal pronouns or not. Most academic writing is intended to be objective, which means it should not be personal and should not express opinions without evidence. In this case, you are generally expected to avoid using personal pronouns. On the other hand, reflective writing must reflect your own subjective thinking, as you are supposed to consider your own thoughts, ideas and learning. In this case, personal pronouns are perfectly acceptable, and probably necessary.  Contractions: Avoid using contractions such as “can’t”, “don’t” and “won’t”. Use the proper long forms instead: “cannot” (which is always one word), “do not” and “will not”.

 Gender-biased language: When writing about people, such as patients or nurses, be sure not to refer to only one gender. There are both male and female patients, and male and female nurses. This can be done in one of three ways:

1. Alternate between “he” and “she”.

2. Consistently use expressions like “she or he” or “his or her”.

3. Use the plural: “they”, “them”, “their”.

 Informal expressions: English, like every other language, has many expressions that are used very much in conversation, but which are not considered acceptable in academic writing. Below is a table of a few informal expressions and words, and their academic counterparts:

Informal Formal Really (e.g. “really hard”) Very (e.g. “very difficult”) Lots of (e.g. “lots of people”; “lots of water”) Many (e.g. “many people”); Much (e.g. “much water”) Into something (e.g. “He is into doing research”) Interested in (e.g. “He is interested in doing research.”) Mess up (e.g. “I messed up the results.”) Make a mistake (e.g. “I made a mistake in the

results.”) Chill out Relax or calm down Guy/guys Man or people (see “Gender-biased language” above)

References list Any time you do research, or use information, words or images from a source, you must acknowledge the source in two places: in your text, and in the bibliography. In APA style, the bibliography should be titled “References”. (See the UCQ Writing Centre’s handout APA Style Referencing for more information on this.)

After the last page of writing in your assignment, include a new page of sources. The references are in alphabetical order according to the author’s last name. Each of them is double-spaced, and has hanging indents. This means that the first word is all the way to the left margin, while each of the following lines is indented. As well, the running head must also appear at the top of the page.

Below is an example, which shows the sources used for this handout.

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