aspen university apa style guide

Format and Organizational Requirements for Papers in Aspen University Courses

APA Formatting

Students must be able to write essays and reports that are clear, concise and well supported. Student research papers and essay question responses must follow APA format. Points will be deducted for failure to follow APA formatting guidelines or repeated use of improper formatting. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2009, 6th ed.), hereinafter referred to as APA's manual, is the primary source for the rules set forth in this guide.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition
By: American Psychological Association
ISBN: 9781433805615

This paper is produced using the guidelines set forth in APA's manual. You may use this paper as a model for your work: Sample Paper

Aspen University strongly recommends that you purchase the following text from the APA website if you are struggling with APA formatting:

Mastering APA Style: Student's Workbook and Training Guide, Sixth Edition
By: American Psychological Association
ISBN: 9781433805578

For additional help with APA style guidelines, please refer to these links:

American Psychological Association (APA)

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)

APA PERRLA is software compatible with Microsoft WORD to help write your papers in proper APA format and can be obtained here: http://www.perrla.com/

American Psychological Association (APA) How to Cite Information From the Internet and the World Wide Web [WWW document]. http://www.apastyle.org/manual/related/electronic-sources.pdf

Citation Machine is an interactive web tool designed to assist high school, college and university students, their teachers and independent researchers in their effort to respect other people's intellectual properties. http://citationmachine.net/

• ACADEMIC HONESTY

• All assignments submitted must represent the individual effort of the student. Any cases of suspected cheating will be promptly dealt with through formal Aspen University processes. In general, student performance is governed by the Academic Honesty Policy in the Aspen University Catalog.

• PLAGIARISM

• Your work must be original, yet you are expected to use numerous references to develop your paper. In doing so, you must give appropriate credit through proper citation for all sources of information.  Guides on documenting references are given below. Using the words, facts, and ideas of others without proper reference is considered plagiarism.

• USE OF REFERENCE SOURCES

• Your papers should be based on authoritative information gathered from various sources. You must cite your references so that readers can follow up, should they desire. Your sources will add strength to your position. You should use recent publications and ones that will provide credibility to your thesis. Books, periodicals and the Aspen University ProQuest and ERIC Libraries will likely be your main resources for gathering information for research reports. Many organizations have libraries and research tools, and you are encouraged to use them if permitted by company policy.

• ORGANIZATION

• Length
  The body of your paper will vary in length depending on the class for which the paper is being prepared. The Getting Started guide and assignments in each module of your course will inform you of the length requirement. As indicated below, the paper is to be double-spaced. A table of references, diagrams, and appendices are covered, in addition to the length guide.

  Format
  The paper must be well organized. A portion of the grade will be based on this aspect. Use section headings. Start with an abstract and conclude with a summary. As a guide for preparation of your paper, use the following:

  1. Margins: Top, bottom, left, and right should be one inch

  2. Double space: Use double spacing at all times

  3. Title page: Title of paper, your name, course name, date

  4. Table of contents: A separate page

  5. Page numbering: Number every page in the upper right-hand corner. Page number one is the page after the Table of Contents.

  6. Headings: The hierarchy of headings Aspen recommends are: Section, Subsections and Sub-subsections. Not all three levels are required.

  Section headings should be centered and underlined or in bold.

  Subsection headings should be left-justified, underlined, or bold and on a separate line.

  Sub-subsections should be left-justified, not underlined, and on the same line as the text, and followed by a colon.

  Note: APA's manual lists up to five levels.

  7. Typed: Papers must be typed. Erasures are not acceptable. For this and other reasons, you are urged to use electronic processing.

  8. Spelling and grammar: Inaccuracies will be deducted from the grade of the paper.  You are urged to use a spell checker and carefully edit your English grammar or use a grammar checker.

  Reference of sources of information:  All references (e.g., books, periodicals, reference manuals, newspaper articles, internal company publications and online sources such as Dialog, Internet, CD-ROMs and interviews) must be documented. Failure to include references when using information from one of these sources is considered plagiarism. Rules for citations in the body of the paper and the reference list at the end of the paper are given in this guide.

• SOURCES OF INFORMATION

• There are many sources of information available for your research study. The Internet is an appropriate source. In addition, many books and periodicals are available that may be appropriate.

  You must cite the information sources that you use on the Internet and elsewhere.

  You are welcome to use a topic related to your employment. If so, you may use company documentation as references.  However, this must not be your only source. You must use public sources such as those mentioned above.

  If you interview individuals for your research, they may be quoted or paraphrased.

• CITATIONS IN THE BODY

• According to the APA style guide, you should cite your source in the text where the referenced information appears, and place an entry in the Reference section of your document for any citation in the text. Likewise, any entry in the list of references should be cited in the text.

  The following examples illustrate the method for citing references in a body of text:

  According to Thomas Able (1999), the...

  In Able's (1999) landmark text, we find evidence...

  The hypothesis is supported by Baker's (1999, p. 9) quote, "xxxxxxxx."

  Further weight is added to this argument when the author (Baker, 1999) argues that..."The evidence shows... " (p. 10).

  Information gathered in personal interviews or by listening to a speaker should be given in the text as shown below:

  ...in speaking to the CEO, Jane Doe (1999), it was concluded that 70% of telecommunications...

  I spoke to several employees. The situation was described as... (Johnson, et. al., 1999).

  CITING A WEBSITE
  To cite an entire Website (but not a specific document on the site), it's sufficient to give the address of the site in the text. No reference entry is needed.
  
  ...Kidspsych is a wonderful interactive Web site for children (http://www.kidspsych.org).

• TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

• Tables and illustrations should be included at the end of the paper. Tables should be numbered consecutively and should have a suitable caption. All notes and references within tables should be included with the tables, separately from the main text. All table columns should have appropriate headings. Example 1 shows the basic elements of a table.

  Example 1, Table X

  Errors for Younger and Older Groups by Level of Difficulty

  	Younger	Older
  Difficulty	M   SD    n	M    SD   n
  Low	.05  .80  12	.14  .15  18
  Moderate	.05  .07  15	.17  .15  12
  High	.11  .10  16	.26  .21  14

  Note: Tables contain only horizontal lines.

  Illustrations should follow the same guides but should be referred to as figures. The difference is that the title for figures is listed at the bottom whereas the title for tables is listed at the top.

• FOOTNOTES AND ENDNOTES

• Footnotes in text are of two kinds: content footnotes and copyright permission footnotes. Endnotes are used the same as footnotes except they are listed at the end of the document. APA's manual does not recommend the use of endnotes. Footnotes or endnotes should be numbered chronologically throughout the paper.

• FORMAT OF REFERENCE LIST

• All references should be grouped together in a section at the end of the paper in alphabetical order and should be single-spaced. Each line of reference should be left justified.

  Sample of a Book Reference:

  Able, T. S. (1994). History of technology. Dallas, TX: Smith Publishing.

  Sample of a Periodical Reference:

  Baker, J. J. (1994, September 15). Management techniques. Modern Management Journal, p 33-44.

  (If the periodical is daily or weekly, put day in addition to month and year.)

• SOURCE OF CITING INTERNET REFERENCE

• American Psychological Association (APA) (n.d/1998) How to Cite Information From the Internet and the World Wide Web  [WWW document]. http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

• REFERENCE

• Author. (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.