Best of the APA Style Blog: 2015 Edition

Each fall the APA Style Blog Team puts together a “best of” feature, and this year we continue the tradition with an updated set of posts from the APA Style Blog and our parent site, apastyle.org. We hope it will be helpful as new batches of students set upon the task of learning and implementing APA Style. You can get the full story in our sixth edition Publication Manual (also available as an e-book for Kindle) and our APA Style Guide to Electronic References, plus more information via the links below.

Getting Started What is APA Style? Why is APA Style needed? Basics of APA Style Tutorial (free) FAQs about APA Style

Sample Papers Sample Paper 1 Sample Paper 2 Sample meta-analysis paper Sample published APA article

APA Style Basics Principles

How in-text citations work
How reference list entries work
How to handle missing information
How to find the best example you need
   in the Publication Manual
"Cite what you see, cite what you use"

Grammar and spelling

Punctuation Junction (what happens when punctuation marks collide)
Use of first person
Spelling tips
Grammar tips

Student Resources

Citing a class or lecture
School intranet or Canvas/Blackboard class website materials
Classroom course packs and custom textbooks
Research participant interview data
Reference lists versus bibliographies
MLA versus APA Style (in-text citations and the reference list)
Student Research Webinars From APA and Psi Chi

References to Electronic Resources

E-books
Mobile apps
Website material (and multiple pages from the same website)
Social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Google+) pages and posts
Hashtags
Online-only journal articles
YouTube videos
Software

Other “How-To” Citation Help

Translated Sources (vs. your own translation)
Secondary sources (sources you found in another source) and why to avoid them
illustrators and illustrated Books
Interviews
Legal references
Paraphrased work

Paper Formatting

Direct quotes and Block quotations
Paraphrasing
Capitalization
Fonts
Headings
Lists (lettered, numbered, or bulleted)
Margins
Running heads
Spelling
Numbers
Statistics
Keywords (vs. key terms)
Hyperlink formatting

Keep in Touch!

We hope that these resources will be helpful to you as you write using APA Style. If you are interested in receiving tips about APA Style as well as general writing advice, we encourage you to follow us on social media. You can find us (and tell your friends) on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.