APA style update

APA style was developed by social and behavioral scientists to standardize scientific writing. Here at LSU, the School of Nursing and some departments in the School of Allied Health use APA style to cite references in their papers.

Why is standardized scientific writing necessary, anyway? A big reason is to enable others who read your paper to find the references that you used. Scientific research is built upon the ideas and experimentation of others, and it is critical to credit the shoulders of giants on which you stand.

APA style can be confusing if you’ve never written a paper before. Luckily, there is a great tutorial on http://www.apastyle.org/ that is the perfect introduction to citing books and journals, both in a paper and on your reference page.

If you don’t have time to view the 20 minute tutorial, check out these slide numbers for quick reference:
Link to APA style tutorial: http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htm

Slides 14, 15, 16: Citing references in text
Slide 15 includes a handy table of in-text citation styles depending on the number of authors
Slide 18: Components of a citation
Slide 21: Formatting references to journal articles
Slide 22: Formatting a reference to an entire journal issue
Slide 23: Formatting a reference to a book chapter in an edited book
Slide 24: Formatting a reference to an entire book

There’s also a tutorial on What’s new in APA style, 6th edition, if you’re used to using the 5th.

Happy citing!