by Timothy McAdoo

Like so many aspects of writing, when formatting block quotations, the devil is in the details! Here’s everything you need to know about block quotations: 

• When do you use block formatting? According to the Publication Manual (p. 171), “If the quotation comprises 40 or more words, display it in a freestanding block of text and omit the quotation marks.” 

• Do you still use quotations marks around the block? No (see the previous bullet).

• How far should you indent? Indent “about a half inch from the left margin (in the same position as a new paragraph)” (p. 171).
• Does the citation go before or after the period? The citation should include the page(s) or paragraph number and should appear after the end punctuation (see the examples in this PDF). 

• I’ve already cited the author in the paragraph. Do I still need to include the author name and year? Yes. All quotations, both in-line and block quotations, must include the complete citation (see earlier blog posts). The author name(s) may appear in your introductory sentence or in the parentheses (see the examples in this PDF).
  
  

• Should the quotation begin or end with ellipses? No. Ellipses should not be used at the beginning or the end of the block quote. (See our earlier post for the appropriate uses for ellipses.)

• Does the first letter have to be capitalized? Sorry, no short answer here: This is a matter of opinion, debate, and editorial judgment. The Manual says, “The first letter of the first word in a quotation may be changed to an uppercase or a lowercase letter.” Note the word may. If the block quote begins with a full sentence, keep the uppercase first letter. However, if the quote begins midsentence, you may or may not want to change the first letter to uppercase. If your introduction to the block quote leads directly into the quote, a lowercase first letter may be fine (see the examples in this PDF).

• If I’m quoting multiple paragraphs, how should I format the second and subsequent paragraphs? The second and subsequent paragraphs within the block quote should be indented within the block (see Example 5 in this PDF).

• My quote includes a list. Do I need to include the citation after each item? No. Just include the citation, including page or paragraph number, at the end of the quoted material.

• What about my own text that follows the block quote: Should it be indented or flush left? Your text following the block quote should be either (a) indented, if it is a new paragraph, or (b) flush left, if it is a continuation of your paragraph (see Examples 4 and 5 in this PDF).

Click here to download this document with five sample block quotes:

by Melissa

By executive order, American presidents have created mental health care commissions, directed national councils to prioritize health care, and removed barriers to the funding of scientific research. Executive orders directly affect the field of psychology.

When you discuss executive orders, reference and cite them as shown in Section A7.07 (pp. 223–224) of the sixth edition of the APA Publication Manual and this blog post.

Reference Format
These are the essential elements of a reference for an executive order that appears in the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.):

1. Order number
2. Volume number and name of the code in which the order appears (e.g., executive orders always in appear in 3 C.F.R.)
3. Page number
4. Year that the order was promulgated

Here’s the basic format for an executive order reference:

Exec. Order No. xxxxx, 3 C.F.R. page (year).

If the order has been codified in the United States Code (U.S.C.), you can add the following elements at the end of the reference:

5. Volume number and abbreviated name of the code
6. Section number
7. Explanatory information indicating that that the order was reprinted or amended or that it appeared in an appendix to the code (app. at xxx–xxx)
8. Year of the most recent code in which the order appeared

Here’s the extended format:

Exec. Order No. xxxxx, 3 C.F.R. page (year), reprinted in title number 
U.S.C. § xxx app. at xxx–xxx (year).

For example, Executive Order 11,609, delegating some of the president’s authority to various federal agencies, is formatted as follows:

Exec. Order No. 11,609, 3 C.F.R. 586 (1971–1975), reprinted as amended 
in 3 U.S.C. § 301 app. at 404–407 (2006).

Text Citation Format
Here’s the in-text citation for executive orders:

Executive Order No. xx,xxx (year)
(Executive Order No. xx,xxx, year)

For more on executive orders, consult the latest edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.

by Melissa

Psychologists use tools ranging from sophisticated computer hardware and software systems to simple sticky notes. Patent documents describe in detail the appearance and operation of many of these tools.

In this post, we describe how to use APA Style when incorporating information from patent documents in your work.

The first step is to gather information from patent documents by searching databases at intellectual property agencies like the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. For information about other intellectual property agencies, consult the Member States page on the World Intellectual Property Organization website. 

With patent information in hand, now you’re ready to create a reference and citation for a patent using APA Style!

Patent Reference Format
The elements of a patent reference list entry are slightly different from those of the typical APA Style author/date/title/source reference.

Here are the four patent reference elements:

• Name of the inventor to whom the patent was issued
• Year the patent was issued,
• Unique patent identifier (i.e., the patent number) 
• Name of the official source of the patent information (usually the name of the patent office).

Below is the general patent reference format:

Surname, A. B. (year). Patent Identifier No. xxx. Location: Source Name.

See section A7.07 of the APA Publication Manual for more information on formatting patent references.

Patent Reference List Examples and Quiz
Reference list entries for a few famous patents appear below. Try to match these patent references with the following famous innovations: ballpoint pens, electrocardiographs, sticky notes, telephones, and microprocessors. The answers are at the end of this blog post.

1. Bell, A. G. (1876). U.S. Patent No. 174,465. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
2. Biro, L. J. (1945). U.S. Patent No. 2,390,636. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
3. Einthoven, W. (1926). U.S. Patent No. 1,592,628. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
4. Fry, A. L. (1993). U.S. Patent No. 5,194,299. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
5. Hoff, M. E., Jr., Mazor, S., & Faggin, F. (1974). U.S. Patent No. 3,821,715. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Patent In-Text Citation Format
In text, cite the patent identifier and the year.

U.S. Patent No. 174,465 (1846)

(U.S. Patent No. 174,465, 1846)

Answers to the Patent Match Quiz
Alexander Graham Bell patented a device that he described in his patent application as improvements in telegraphy (U.S. Patent No. 174,465, 1876), a device commonly known as the telephone.

Laszlo Jozsef Biro invented a fountain pen that had a rotatable ball at one end (U.S. Patent No. 1,592,628, 1945), also known as a ballpoint pen.

Willem Frederik Einthoven’s U.S. Patent No. 1,592,628 (1926) described a device that is the precursor of modern electrocardiographs.

Arthur L. Fry’s patent for sticky notes was granted in the United States (U.S. Patent No. 5,194,299, 1993) and other countries (e.g., Canadian Patent No. CA 1340261, 1980; Canadian Patent No. CA 1340262, 1980).

Marcian Edward Hoff, Jr., Stanley Mazor, and Federico Faggin were among the early innovators who patented microprocessors (U.S. Patent No. 3,821,715, 1974).

For more links to patent resources and patent-related research information, check out the following Library of Congress website: http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/beonline/subjects.php?SubjectID=17

by Melissa

We’re sometimes asked about how to cite international agreements, such as the Charter of the United Nations, in APA Style. You won’t find an example of how to cite that document in the APA Publication Manual.

The Charter of the United Nations is a legal document, so use The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation as your foundation for building APA Style references and citations.

The APA Style reference for the Charter of the United Nations can include these elements:

1. Name of the agreement
2. Article number
3. Paragraph number

References
The reference format and an example using that format appear below.

U.N. Charter art. xx, para. xx.
U.N. Charter art. 1, para. 3.

If you want to reference an entire article of the charter, you can omit the paragraph element:

U.N. Charter art. xx.
U.N. Charter art. 1.

In-Text Citations
In text, use one of these citation formats:

U.N. Charter art. xx, para. xx 

(U.N. Charter art. xx, para. xx)

In the below example of an in-text citation, the article and paragraph numbers (rather than page numbers) pinpoint the location of quoted text from the U.N. Charter.

The founders of the United Nations encouraged countries to work 
cooperatively on “international problems of an economic, social, 
cultural, or humanitarian character” (U.N. Charter art. 1, para. 3).

Consult the latest edition of The Bluebook to learn more about citing United Nations documents and other international agreements.

by Jeff Hume-Pratuch

You read that right: APA has just released the sixth edition of the APA Publication Manual as an e-book from the Amazon Kindle Store! (Sometimes the news is so nice, you have to say it twice.)

Keep reading for more details, or just click on over to Amazon and buy it now (you know you want to).

The manual is available from Amazon’s Kindle store as a Print Replica book. Each page in a Print Replica book looks just like the print version, with the same words and images in the same position, but it includes features such as annotation, highlighting, and zoom functions. Page numbers correspond to the print versions, so you can easily find the information you need. Reading progress is also synced across multiple Kindle apps, so you can “save the page” if you need to switch devices.

Kindle Print Replica books can be read on Kindle Fire tablets, Kindle for PC, Kindle for Android Tablets, Kindle for Mac, or Kindle for iPad reading apps (all available for free download from Amazon), but not on E Ink devices.

The manual’s companion volumes have also been released for the Kindle, so you can put an entire shelf-full of APA Style products on your tablet today!

And now, back to the party!

by Chelsea Lee

Punctuation Junction: A series about what happens when punctuation marks collide.

The hyphen (-), en dash (–), and forward slash (/) are three punctuation marks used to indicate a relationship between words or phrases. Respectively, each mark indicates an increasing level of connection between words. The guidelines below illustrate ways to use these marks effectively, both alone and in combination.

1. Use a hyphen to indicate a temporary, unidirectional relationship between words that without the hyphen might be misread.

• Correct: The low-anxiety group outperformed the high-anxiety group in the number of items they recalled from the to-be-remembered list.
• Incorrect: The low anxiety group outperformed the high anxiety group in number of items they recalled from the to be remembered list.

2. Use an en dash to indicate an equal or bidirectional relationship between words or phrases.

• Correct: The researcher examined the measure’s test–retest reliability.
• Incorrect: The researcher examined the measure’s test/retest reliability.
• Incorrect: The researcher examined the measure’s test-retest reliability.

3. Use a slash to clarify a relationship in which a hyphenated compound is used. Otherwise, use a hyphen, en dash, or phrase to show the relationship.

• Correct: The hits/false-alarms comparison did not yield significant results, indicating the presence of a methodological error, a ceiling effect, or both.
• Incorrect: The hits-false-alarms comparison did not yield significant results, indicating a methodological error and/or a ceiling effect.

For more on how these punctuation marks are used, see Publication Manual §4.11 and §4.13. Keep an eye out for more Punctuation Junction posts coming soon!

by Chelsea Lee

Punctuation Junction: A series about what happens when punctuation marks collide.

Parentheses and brackets are used to enclose and set off material from the main text. Although writers usually need only one set of parentheses or brackets at a time, for more complex material they may need an enclosure within an enclosure (referred to as a double enclosure in this post).

Four guidelines govern how to use these punctuation marks together (or not) to handle double enclosures in an APA Style paper.

1. Use brackets inside parentheses to create a double enclosure in the text. Avoid parentheses within parentheses, or nested parentheses.

• Correct: (We also administered the Beck Depression Inventory [BDI; Beck, Steer, & Garbin, 1988], but those results are not reported here.)
• Incorrect: (We also administered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Steer, & Garbin, 1988), but those results are not reported here.)

2. Separate citations from parenthetical text with either semicolons (for parenthetical-style citations) or commas around the year (for narrative citations). Do not use a double enclosure or back-to-back parentheses.

• Correct: Gender differences may reflect underlying continuous attributes, such as personality (e.g., communion and agency; Spence & Helmreich, 1978). These distinctions are reflected in sexually dimorphic brain structures (see Ellis et al., 2008, for recent meta-analyses).
• Incorrect: Gender differences may reflect underlying continuous attributes, such as personality (e.g., communion and agency) (Spence & Helmreich, 1978). These distinctions are reflected in sexually dimorphic brain structures (see Ellis et al. [2008] for recent meta-analyses).

3. When a mathematical equation contains one level of enclosure, use parentheses, ( ); for two levels, add brackets outside, [( )]; for three levels, add curly brackets outside, {[( )]}.

• Correct: Participants were asked to solve the following math problem for x after completing the priming measures: 8[x + 4(2x + 1)] = 248
• Incorrect: Participants were asked to solve the following math problem for x after completing the priming measures: 8(x + 4[2x + 1]) = 248

4. Avoid adding a level of enclosure to statistics that already contain parentheses. Instead, use commas to set off the statistics from the text.

• Correct: The results were statistically significant, F(1, 32) = 4.37, p = .045.
• Incorrect: The results were statistically significant (F[1, 32] = 4.37, p = .045).
• Incorrect: The results were statistically significant [F(1, 32) = 4.37, p = .045].

For more on how these punctuation  marks are used, see Publication Manual §4.09, §4.10, and §4.47. Keep an eye out for more Punctuation Junction posts coming soon!

***

Example text in Guideline 2 adapted from “Men and Women Are From Earth: Examining the Latent Structure of Gender,” by B. J. Carothers and H. T. Reis, 2013, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104, p. 386. Copyright 2013 by the American Psychological Association.

by David Becker

Have you ever seen a news report that just happened to relate to the topic of a paper you were writing? Did you really want to cite that report but just didn’t know how? For example, say you were writing a paper on psychological disorders and their treatments throughout history. By sheer coincidence, you saw a report about historical DC scandals that covered the tragic tale of Henry Rathbone, who was sitting next to President Lincoln when he was assassinated. Rathbone was stabbed by John Wilkes Booth as he retreated and suffered psychological damage for the rest of his life because of this traumatic event. “This would be a perfect example for my paper!” you think. Unfortunately, a live news broadcast is not a retrievable source in and of itself. However, if you can track down a retrievable version of that report or another source containing the same information, you can cite it.

Many news organizations, whether they are large 24-hour networks or small local stations, have archives of their live news reports available for viewing on their websites. You would cite such reports as you would cite a YouTube video or any other kind of streaming video. Here’s how to cite the online version of the above-mentioned report:

In-text citation: (“A Historical Look,” 2013)

Notice that the title of the video has been moved to the author position. This is because the name of the person who uploaded the video is not specified (see Example 9 on p. 200 of the Publication Manual for more information). Also note that video titles should be italicized.

Hypothetically, let’s say you were not able to find the report you saw on TV. In this situation, it’s best not to worry so much about citing the report itself. You can instead use it as a springboard for further research. There may well be other sources that contain the same information, perhaps even better information, than the report you saw. For example, if you did a little digging for more information about Henry Rathbone, you might find the article cited below that provides much more detail than the TV news report:

In-text citation: (Ruane, 2009)

I hope this article has helped you figure out what to do if you ever see a news report that you would like to incorporate into your research. If you have any questions on this or any other topic, feel free to contact us. Your question may inspire a future blog post!

by Chelsea Lee

Punctuation Junction: A series about what happens when punctuation marks collide.

The proper use of question marks and quotation marks in combination all depends on context: Namely, are you (a) quoting a question or (b) asking a question of a quotation? Let’s look at the two scenarios and how they impact punctuation.

1. When the quotation itself is a question, put the question mark inside the quotation marks.

• Correct: Participants were asked, “How many days, on average, have you felt depressed over the past 2 weeks?”
• Incorrect: Participants were asked, “How many days, on average, have you felt depressed over the past 2 weeks”?

2. When the sentence as a whole is a question, but the quoted material is not, put the question mark outside the quotation marks.

• Correct: To what degree will social desirability influence participants’ responses to the statement “I always remember to take my medication as prescribed”?
• Incorrect: To what degree will social desirability influence participants’ responses to the statement “I always remember to take my medication as prescribed?”

For more on how quotation marks work, see APA Publication Manual §4.07. Stay tuned for more Punctuation Junction posts coming soon! 

by Chelsea Lee

Punctuation Junction: A series about what happens when punctuation marks collide.

Periods, exclamation points, and question marks are three types of end punctuation—that is, they indicate the end of a sentence. Two properties of end punctuation are (a) that they are almost never used in combination with one another (even though sometimes it seems like they should be) and (b) that there is a hierarchy among the marks that determines which one you should use for a given sentence.

Follow the guidelines below to ensure you use end punctuation correctly in your APA Style papers.

1. If a sentence seems to call for both a period and an exclamation point or both a period and a question mark, use only the exclamation point or question mark, respectively. These marks are stronger than the period and take its place.

• Correct: The therapist began the session by asking, “How do you feel today?” The patient replied, “I feel 100% improved!”
• Incorrect: The therapist began the session by asking, “How do you feel today?”. The patient replied, “I feel 100% improved!”.

2. If a reference title ends in an exclamation point or question mark, this mark takes the place of the period that would have otherwise appeared after the title. These marks are stronger than the period and take its place.

• Correct: Raftopoulos, A. (2009). Cognition and perception: How do psychology and neural science inform philosophy? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Incorrect: Raftopoulos, A. (2009). Cognition and perception: How do psychology and neural science inform philosophy?. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

3. Only the exclamation point and question mark can ever appear in combination, to indicate an exclamatory question (this will rarely be used in an academic paper, however).

• Correct: When the professor told John he would have to repeat the psychology course, John’s eyes grew wide as he exclaimed, “What?!” Then he ran from the room.
• Incorrect: When the professor told John he would have to repeat the psychology course, John’s eyes grew wide as he exclaimed, “What?!.” Then he ran from the room.

For more on periods, see §4.02 of the APA Publication Manual.

Keep an eye out for more Punctuation Junction posts coming soon!