APA Formatting Basics

Learn about:

● APA-style Title Page

● Plagiarism (and how to avoid it)

● In-text Citations

● References Page
(including hanging indents)
by Monroe College Library Staff
● Using a Citation Generator
[email protected]
● Formatting your Annotated Bibliography
646-393-8333
 Don’t Stress Over APA 7 Formatting: Use a Template!
If you are new to APA-Style Formatting, we’ve got you covered:

Download the Monroe College APA 7 template

and use it to create your Research Paper.
The template gives detailed instructions for how to format your paper, as well as showing which
sections are most commonly included in a standard APA-style paper.

Full information on APA style can be found at the official APA Style Guide.

You can download the

Monroe College APA-style template
in MS Word format here.

After you download the template, replace the existing text with your own content.

Don’t forget to delete from the template any pages or paragraphs / sections that you don’t need.
APA 7th Edition Title Page ● Font:
- Times New Roman, size 12
- Use the same font throughout your paper.
● All lines are double-spaced (2.0)
● No extra space between lines or
sections
● Page Number upper right hand side
of page in header
● Paper Title in Bold
● Author (your name)
● Affiliation (Monroe College)
● Course Number: Title
(EN-121-07: College Writing and
Critical Analysis)
● Instructor Name (Professor Simon)
● Date Submitted (June 12, 2021)
 What is Plagiarism?
Defining and Understanding Plagiarism is an important concept in the research and writing process.
Basically, you must give credit to the sources used in your research paper.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud.

From the Plagiarism.org Website: It involves both stealing someone else's work and
lying about it afterward.
According to the Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary, to "plagiarize" means All of the following are considered plagiarism:
● turning in someone else's work as your own
● to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of
another) as one's own ● copying words or ideas from someone else without giving
credit
● to use (another's production) without crediting
the source ● failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
● to commit literary theft
● giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
● to present as new and original an idea or
product derived from an existing source. ● changing words but copying the sentence structure of a
source without giving credit

● copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes

Visit for more information. up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not
 How to Cite Your Sources
A narrative in-text citation gives the author name as part of the sentence.
In-Text
● Narrative citation: According to Edwards (2017), although Tommie Smith and John Carlos's protest at the
Citations:
1968 Olympics initially drew widespread criticism, it also led to fundamental reforms in the
(in the body of your organizational structure of American amateur athletics.
paper) A parenthetical in-text citation gives the source information in parentheses, not as part of the narrative flow.

● Parenthetical citation: Although Tommie Smith and John Carlos paid a heavy price in the immediate
aftermath of the protests, they were later vindicated by society at large (Edwards, 2017).

Full Citation: Edwards, H. (2017). The Revolt of the Black Athlete: 50th Anniversary Edition.
(References Page) University of Illinois Press.

Bear in mind:
● Always include the year of publication.
● The in-text citation is used as a signal that you are citing research - using evidence you’ve found that supports or
amplifies a point you wish to make in your paper.
*** IMPORTANT***
● The in-text citation points the reader to the full citation on your References page. For this reason, it is important that
the first word of the in-text citation matches the first word of the full citation on the References page.
 Formatting In-Text Citations
(Detailed help here)
When citing sources in your paper, list the author or authors’ last name only (no initials) and the
year the information was published. If you use a direct quote, add the page number to your citation.
(See example 3 below.) (Patrick & Rollins, 2022).

(Author, YEAR)
Full citation
(for References page) Patrick, B. & Rollins, A. C. (2022). Delivering culturally competent and equitable police services via
social media: Assessing two way dialogue between police agencies and vulnerable citizens.
Three types of Public Administration Quarterly, 46(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.37808/paq.46.1.1
In-Text Citations:
Patrick & Rollins note that it’s not clear whether increased use of social media among police agencies
nationwide has been successful (2022).
1. Summarize
Nationwide, law enforcement agencies have grown their use of social media to interact with citizens,
but whether these posts have been particularly well-made or successful has not been established
2. Paraphrase
(Patrick & Rollins, 2022).
3. Direct Quote - “ ”
According to Patrick & Rollins (2022), “Police agencies across the country expanded interactive
exchanges with citizens through social media. However, the quality and success of the interactions is
somewhat unclear (p.4).”
Your APA-style
References Page
The word References appears:
● centered
● in bold
● at the top of the page.
● More help from
Each citation begins with a
Monroe
hanging indent.
(First line of each citation begins at 1” College here.
margin - all following lines are indented
½”).
● Official APA
handout here.
Sources should be listed in
alphabetical order.

Every source listed on the

References page must be cited
(in-text citation) in the body of
your paper.
 Citation Generators
IMPORTANT: The library highly recommends the use of a citation generator (such as CiteFast or
CiteThisForMe (from Harvard University) to help you with citing your sources and formatting your References
page.
Citation generators still require that you enter all of the correct details, but they will do the formatting
for you.

Citation generator services:

CiteFast RECOMMENDED
CiteFast citation generator provides both complete APA Citations and also
pre-formatted In-text Citations.

● BibMe - APA Citation Generator and Plagiarism Checker from Chegg

● CiteThisForMe - APA Citation Generator from Harvard University

● KnightCite Citation Service - provided by the Hekman Library of Calvin College.

● Scribber - APA Citation Generator

1. ) Create an account to
USING CITEFAST
save your citations.

2.) Choose the correct source

type (webpage, book, journal,
etc.) and format (APA 7).

3. ) Paste the URL of your

web source into the search
field.
OR Paste in the TITLE if your 3.) URL or Article Title goes here
source is a Journal Article.
Click to get pre-formatted In-Text Citation
4.) Click Copy & paste for
a fully formatted
References page.

IMPORTANT:
Citefast often misses author and date info.

Be sure to check, and enter them manually if they

do not appear in your pre-formatted citation.
 APA CITATION SKELETON KEY: Basic Structure of a Citation

LAST NAME ONLY, Title of the website

followed by initials. (nytimes.com) or Journal
Title of the article or blog
post is in sentence case.

More help with formatting citations is available directly from the APA Style
Website:
● Citations for online media (blog posts, social media, websites, etc.
● YouTube Video
● Journal Articles
 Annotated Bibliography
Step-by-step help available here.

What is an annotated bibliography?

A bibliography is a list of sources on a particular topic. The References page at the end of your paper is a bibliography.
An annotation is a short note. Put together, an annotated bibliography is a list of sources that also gives a short note (or an annotation) for each
source.

What is included in the summary part (or annotation) of an annotated bibliography?

Tell the reader, in your own words:

● where you found this article,

● why you believe this is an authoritative (trustworthy) source, and
● how and where you plan to use it in your paper.

How do I write an annotation?

Keep in mind that annotations are supposed to highlight the most important points of a resource. If people reading your bibliography want to know
more, they can find the work and read it directly.
 Sample Citation with Annotation
Desilver, D., Lipka, M. & Famy, D. (2020, June 3). 10 things we know about race and policing in the U.S.

Pew Research Center Fact Tank.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/03/10-things-we-know-about-race-and-policing-in-the
Citation -
First Line of -u-s/
Citation
begins at This is a recent study by a non-partisan research group. It shows increased awareness that “in dealing
Left Margin.
Use a ½” with police, blacks are generally treated less fairly than whites,” (Desilver et al., 2020, para 2). This
Hanging
Indent. study contains well-researched data that describes recent changes in social consciousness relating to

police brutality. This data will be used within the Current Issues section to illustrate a positive impact
Annotation -
The annotation begins of social media: namely, the way people are now able to document police behavior, resulting in greater
on the next line after
the end of the citation. awareness of misconduct where the social media record runs counter to that promulgated by
It is also indented ½”.
authorities.
 Use CITEFAST to Format Your Annotated Bibliography

HELPFUL HINT:
Citefast includes an “Add Annotation” feature.

So after you’ve entered the info for your citation for

a source, you can simply click the Add
Annotation button and write your annotation into
the box provided.

Then hit “Copy & Paste” or “Export to Word,” and

paste the whole, preformatted document into your
paper.
 Extra Resources for APA Guidelines
ALERT!
Monroe College uses APA 7th Edition Style Guidelines for all student papers.
If your instructor's directions conflict with any APA rules, follow the instructor's directions.

More APA Resources:

American Psychological Association (APA) Official APA Style Guide

Purdue OWL APA Formatting and Style Guide

Monroe College’s APA Basics LibGuide

 Need more help?

Click here to be connected with a Librarian via Blackboard during

regular library hours.
Our online librarians can help you:
● conduct research using the databases,
● find sources online, and
● organize your papers in APA format.

Visit the Library Website anytime for:

Phone: ● Essay Help,
646-393-8333 ● APA Basics (including the downloadable student paper
Email: template),
[email protected]
● Research Guides.