SHORTENED VERSION OF TITLE SHORTENED VERSION OF TITLE (APA style requires a

SHORTENED VERSION OF TITLE

SHORTENED VERSION OF TITLE (APA style requires a running header of no more than 50 characters long [including spaces] in ALL CAPS, Times New Roman, 12 pt., aligned along the left-hand side of the page. The running header should include a short form of the title of your paper. Page numbers should be in the top right-hand corner)

The Complete, Precise, Highly-Functional Title of the Paper

Your Name (First and Last)

Georgia Southern University

Abstract

An abstract is a short paragraph that describes the aim of your paper, the method used to pursue that aim, and (if applicable) the conclusions you drew. It may also identify the exigence. Do not indent the abstract. You may begin your abstract with a signal phrase like “This paper reviews…” Immediately below the abstract, provide a list of three to five keywords pertaining to your topic. Think of keywords like hashtags — they tag your paper in search engines (like Discover).

Keywords: keyword, keyword, keyword

Full Title of Your Paper Again

Introduction

For this kind of paper, the title should be functional and precise rather than creative or clever. I recommend a very clear, direct title like, for example, “A Review of the Literature on ___ Published within the Last Ten Years.” Use title case capitalization, but do not make the title bold or italic. The short title in the running header should be in all caps. There is no extra space after your full title before you include your first section heading. Level one headings (according to the APA manual) are centralized and in bold (more on this below).

Your first level one heading should be “Introduction.” The introduction should identify the topic, provide background and context for the topic including a brief overview of the research on the topic prior to the studies you review. Then explain the exigence for your paper, your aim, how you pursue the aim, and (if applicable) conclusions drawn from your review.

Use paragraphs and indent them (rather than having block paragraphs). Keep in mind the purpose of paragraphs. They help to guide a reader through your content. There are no exact rules for when to end one paragraph and when to begin another, but any time you need to somewhat shift the attention of readers you can provide a visual cue to this shift in focus by breaking the paragraph. Short paragraphs are generally more reader-friendly – a large block of text can feel overwhelming to a reader.

For APA-style in-text citations include the writer’s last name and the year of publication, for example, (Keane, 2020). The last name-year combination serves as a tag to the reference list at the end of the paper, where the full reference is found. All sources that are cited in the text must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper. The in-text citations and end-of-paper references must match each other. Refer to specific sources by the author’s last name and year. For example: “Smith (2019) found…” and “According to Keane (2018), previous studies of…” The last name-year combination serves as a tag to point readers to the full reference entry in the references page. Generally speaking you should only provide the titles of papers in the references page (there are exceptions, but don’t worry about that for now).

If you are directly quoting from a work, include the author, year of publication, and the page number for the reference (preceded by p.). Introduce the quoted content with a signal phrase that includes the author’s last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses. For example: According to Keane (2020), “APA places more emphasis on publication date than MLA does” (p. 3). Some students mistakenly think that APA does not require page references; however, this is not the case. If the author is not named in a signal phrase, place the author’s last name, the year of publication, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation. For example: One way in which APA is different from MLA is that “APA places more emphasis on publication date than MLA does” (Keane, 2020, p. 3), but she did not offer an explanation as to why.

Review of Literature

Level two headings

Level one headings in APA style are centralized, in bold typeface, and use title-case capitalization. Level two headings, for subcategories within a level one section, are justified against the left-hand margin, one their own line, in bold, and use sentence-case capitalization. In title-case, all words are capitalized, except for minor words that are not the first or last word of the title; sentence-case capitalization means only the first word in the title is capitalized (so it looks like a sentence). You may use level two subheadings if you wish, so long as you use at least two of them (APA discourages use of the level two heading if you only have one). If you do use level two headings in the review, you should review more than one source under each of the level two headings.

Block quotes

For long quotations, place direct quotations that are 40 words, or longer, in a freestanding block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks.

Start the quotation on a new line (as I have done here), indented a full inch from the left margin. The entire quotation should be indented a full inch, not just the first line. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark. (Keane, 2017, p. 89)

Only use a block quote if you are going to spend some time focusing on the quoted material, as Joseph Harris explains in the second chapter of Rewriting (p. 30). Do not use block quotes as a way to get out of summary or paraphrase. Only use block quotes when you want to focus on exactly what a writer said or how she said it. Therefore, you should generally follow a block quote with comments of your own, telling readers what you want them to notice about the quoted material. Remember, evidence does not speak for itself. Just providing a piece of evidence is insufficient; you have to explain it as well.

First person.

Students frequently ask me if they may use first person in their academic writing. There are no absolute rules in writing; decisions about language, style, and formatting are governed by the expectations of the audience, the purpose of the paper, and (if applicable) the style manual required (i.e., APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.). Genre samples (like those provided to you in this module) provide an excellent means for figuring out how to meet audience expectations. Published academic writing in most disciplines typically does use first person (E.g., I/we, my/our, etc.).

The APA manual recommends the use of first person and explicitly discourages hiding the active role of the scholar who did the research and wrote the paper by use of a third-person or passive-voice construction. Some academic journals and some university faculty, however, do not allow the use of first person, so it is important to check with the specific requirements of the journal or the professor for whom you are writing the paper to ensure that you meet the expectations of your specific audience.

Third Section Heading

This APA paper template was inspired by and draws from two other templates, which you may wish to examine for yourself. The first is the sample APA paper with commentary found on the Purdue Online Writing Lab website. The second is Rose (2017), a template prepared by a professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville for his students. Links to both of these sources are provided in the References list below.

Please note that in APA style, the list of sources is titled References, not Works Cited (as in MLA style). References should begin on its own page, labeled “References.” The heading should be centralized (like a level one heading) but should not be in bold, just as your title should be centralized but not in bold. Remember to use sentence case capitalization for the title of the article, but title case for the title of the journal. You must include both titles. Finally, do not forget to double-space the references and to use hanging indentation.

References

APA sample paper. (n.d.). Purdue Online Writing Lab. Retrieved from

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_sample_paper.html

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition. (2010).

Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Rose, P. (2017). APA format template. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Retrieved

from https://www.siue.edu/~prose/classes/APAFormatTemplate.doc