APA Style Manual 1 Running head: APA STYLE MANUAL FOR COMMUNICATION MAJORS APA Style Manual for Communication Majors: Requirements and Guidelines Stefne Lenzmeier Broz Wittenberg UniversityAPA Style Manual 2 Abstract It is essential that Communication majors master proper APA (American Psychological Association) formatting for their papers and citations, as this style is required of most written work in Communication courses. This document provides explanations and examples of APA style so that students understand what is required. The first major topic covered in this document is paper format, which will help you learn how to set up your paper according to APA standards. The second major topic covered in this document is source citation. In-text citations are covered first, enabling students to correctly acknowledge the sources of the information they use in their papers. Next, we will discuss the reference page, where full citations for all sources cited within the text of the paper appear. The third major section of this document provides guidelines for style, such as proper use of italics. Note that this document itself is formatted according to APA requirements, from the layout of the title page and the location of the page numbers to the heading styles and citations. [Important note: While APA format requires an abstract for full-length research papers, most of your assignments in the Communication major will not require you to include an abstract. Always be sure to ask your professor if you have questions about assignment requirements.]APA Style Manual 3 APA Style Manual for Communication Majors: Requirements and Guidelines You may be asking yourself why paper and citation format are so terribly important. You likely have encountered several citation styles in your education thus far, and it may be frustrating that every professor seems to want something different. It may help to know that there is a reason for asking you to format your paper and source citations in a particular style: different disciplines have different standards and format preferences, and part of learning about that field or discipline includes learning how professionals in that field acknowledge and document their sources. Professors in the humanities may ask you to use MLA (Modern Language Association) or Chicago style formatting, while professors in the social sciences may require APA style. Each style emphasizes the details that are most important in that discipline, and each discipline relies on uniformity of citation format so it is easy to identify the sources that have been used in a particular written work. The following information will help you format your paper and your source citations according to proper APA style guidelines. This style is required of most written work in Communication courses, so it is in your best interest to master it as early as possible. Whenever you are in doubt about whether to capitalize a title, to include a page number or to do anything else related to formatting your paper and citations, you should consult this document. There is nothing magical or mysterious about APA format, and its requirements do not change without warning. Therefore, carefully following the guidelines in this document will ensure that you always correctly adhere to APA requirements. This document itself also is formatted entirely according to APA requirements, so please take note of its features as you read. For ease of reference, a table of contents is provided at the end of this document (see Appendix).APA Style Manual 4 APA Requirements for Paper Format Papers that adhere to APA guidelines look different from papers formatted according to other styles. The following topics will help you know which elements to include (and where), ensuring a paper that adheres fully to all APA format requirements. Title Page Every paper needs a title page, which indicates the full title of the document, the author(s), the institution, and the running head that will appear at the top of each page. See the title page on this document for an example of what a title page looks like in proper APA format, and follow it as a model when formatting the title page for your papers; of course, your particular word choices should be your own. If there is more than one author, each name should go on a separate line. The words following “Running Head” should be a shortened version of your full title (no more than 50 characters long including spaces) and typed in all capital letters. Note that the header in the top right corner of the title page (next to the page number) is a shortened version of what you listed as the running head, and it appears in the top right corner of every page. Do not use all capital letters or any part of your name for the running head! Also, do not manually type your header and page number at the top of every page – your word processing program will do this for you once you set it up properly. In Microsoft Word 2007, go to the “Insert” tab and click on “Header” in order to type your running head. Then space over several spaces. Still under the “Insert” tab, click on “Page Number” and select “Current Position” and “Plain Number.” Margins, Font and Spacing APA requires one-inch margins all the way around the document. You can set up your document to automatically apply one-inch margins to your entire document. Setting those margins as your default ensures that each new document has the correct margins. Justification should be leftAPA Style Manual 5 only, meaning that all of the text lines up on the left side but the text is jagged on the right side (just like in this document). APA also requires use of a standard 12-point font and double-spacing of all text in the document, including the title page and the reference page at the end, just as this document illustrates. The only exception is that the examples we provide in subsequent sections of this document will appear in a different font (Times New Roman) than the rest of the text (Calibri). This is only intended to help separate them visually from the surrounding explanations so that you can easily spot the examples. In all of your papers you should plan to use a single standard font throughout the entire paper, including your title page, headings, quotations, page numbers, and all other text. Do not use a slightly smaller font size and slightly narrower line