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APA 6 Style Document
APA 6 Style Document
Both your ideas (content) and how you write about them (presentation) are important
determinants of your success as a doctoral student. Hence, you receive a grade for the content
and a grade for the presentation of each NCU assignment you submit in a course.
Much of what constitutes your grade for presentation reflects your command of basic
English composition rules (as you would find in a book on English grammar, such as Strunk and
Whites The Elements of Style), and your mastery of APA 6 style (which NCU uses as the
standard for student writing).
While most students are familiar with the rules of English composition, writing in
accordance with APA 6 style is not that easy, at least at first, for most students. Because
presentation constitutes 30% of the grade for each assignment (reflecting the importance that
NCU places on it), I have assembled a variety of information on APA 6 style in this document for
your use in all assignments in this course, including the first one.
Please understand that when you arrive at the dissertation stage after you have completed
your orals, formatting your documents correctly using APA 6 style will be a major determinant of
how many revisions you have to make in your concept paper, proposal, and dissertation. And, as
you can understand, the less time you spend revising, the sooner you graduate. So I encourage
you to begin the process of mastering the basics of APA 6 style as soon as you can.
The reference citations for my copies of the two documents mentioned above are:
Strunk, W., & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style (3rd ed.). USA: Macmillan.
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Correct Formatting
Title Page
Abstract
TOC
Margins
Spacing
Headings
Indentation
Font
Use one, size-12 serif font, like Times New Roman, throughout
your paper.
Alignment
Highlighting
Lists
Use (a), (b), (c), and so forth for lists in a sentence. Use bullets
or numbers (i.e., 1., 2., 3., etc.) for lists in an indented series.
Commas
Use a serial comma for your work. Punctuate the series XYZ as
X, Y, and Z. Do not punctuate it as X, Y and Z (which is the
norm in business writing).
Block quotes
In-text
Citations
Provide in-text citations (in APA style) for the sources of your
assertions and information, and provide corresponding
reference citations (in APA style). Note that you can only cite a
source if you have read it yourself.
Reference
Citations
English
Voice
Person
Passive voice (i.e., object-verb-subject): The canary was eaten by the cat.
Most people speak only in the active voice. Yet many people write in the passive voice
for some reason. Maybe they think it makes them sound more educated or they don't realize that
they are doing it?
The inappropriate use of the verb "to be" is the primary cause of the passive voice.
Here is a less dramatic example where the object of the sentence is placed before the
verb, thus making it passive:
One (better, more powerful) way to say this in the active voice is:
I hope this clarifies the difference between the active and the passive voice.
P. S. Sometimes the passive voice is called for, but not very often (see the APA 6 manual).
For more, see a basic book on English grammar, like The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.
*Note: To enable readability statistics, open any Word document, click on File, click on Options,
click on Proofing, click on Show readability statistics.
In contrast to the sample annotation above (which came from an NCU assignment
specification),
1. You may single or double space the reference citation, but you must double space the
annotation itself.
2. You must provide the doi number for journal article reference citations, or the URL of
the journal home page if there is no assigned doi number.
3. You may indent the first line of the annotation by one-half inch if you wish.
4. You must not color code the sections of the annotation as done in the figure above.
5. In contrast to the first line of this sample annotation, you should strive to write 100%
in the active voice.
How to Find the Correct Doi Information for Journal Article Reference Citations
Per APA 6, you must provide the doi number for electronic citations (in lower case,
followed by a colon and the number with no space in between and with no period after the doi).
If there is no assigned doi number, you must provide the URL of the home page of the journal
that published the article, preceded by the words, Retrieved from. Note: Neither the URL of
the database from which you retrieved the article, or the location of the article itself, is
acceptable if there is no assigned doi number. See pages 187-192 and 198-205 of the APA 6
manual for details.
Tips:
1. You can search for a doi at www.crossref.org/simpletextquery
2. If there is no assigned doi, then Google the journal name to find the URL of the home
page of the journal that published the article.
Here are two reference citations with the correct doi information. In the first case, there is
an assigned doi number. In the second case, there is not. Hence, the correct doi information in
this second case is the URL of the homepage of the journal that published the articlexxxx
preceded by the words, Retrieved from.
Akkerman, R., Farahani, P., & Grunow, M. (2010). Quality, safety and sustainability in food
distribution: A review of quantitative operations management approaches and challenges.
OR Spectrum, 32(4), 863-904. doi:10.1007/s00291-010-0223-2
Golafshani, N. (2003). Understanding reliability and validity in qualitative research. The
Qualitative Report, 8(4), 597-607. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/