APA Style: Five Essential Tips for APA Style Headings
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Updates from August, 2010 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
Tatiana Ochoa, 
drdianehamilton
Citing Long Quotations in APA 6th Edition
Are you frustrated by recent changes to the APA guidelines? Remember that if you have a long direct quote, it is cited differently.
Place direct quotations longer than 40 words in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented five spaces from the left margin. Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation five spaces from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.
To see how this will look, go to the owl.english.purdue site by clicking here.
drdianehamilton
Sample APA Paper 6th Edition
I often have students ask me for examples of how to write in APA format. With the recent changes in the 6th edition of APA, it can be even more confusing. I think the following link has a good example of what an APA paper should look like: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090212013008_560.pdf
drdianehamilton
Paul S, 
Virginia, and 2 others are discussing. 
Falcorian
I had been taught from a young age that the proper format was two spaces after punctuation, but in 2001, entering my first year in college, I was told that the standard had changed to a single space. While it was never explained why, I assumed it was due to emergent messaging technologies and bandwidth requirements (one less space per punctuation in a large document could account for quite a bit of data). I’m curious as to why they felt the need to change back.
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drdianehamilton
I was also taught to have 2 spaces when I first learned to type. The Owl lists the reason for 2 spaces as aiding in readibility.
Virginia
Using two spaces after a period was a holdover from the days of typewriter text, when most standard fonts were monspaced. If all the letters are the same width, then having extra space between sentences enhances readability. With today’s proportionally spaced fonts, however, such spacing can actually detract from the typeset, so it is no longer appropriate to use more than one space at the end of a sentence. While schoolteachers trained on typewriters may continue to teach the old standard, most modern style guides do reflect this change. In regards to data storage and bandwidth, the effect of an extra space after each period in a text document, even a lengthy one, is so negligible as to be completely irrelevant and should not be a concern to writers.
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drdianehamilton
I hate to admit that I remember the typewriter spacing. APA 6th edition now requires that students include that second space. My doctoral students have had to get used to this. If they submit with one space, schools will require that they change it for dissertation approval. I am old school so I like the two spaces. I had a hard time adjusting to the one space. Just when we get comfortable with the two spaces though, they will probably change it back.
Paul S
Your find/replace suggestion is not the best idea — it would replace every instance of something like U. S. with U. S. — and in APA, abbreviations like that are not uncommon… I can only imagine that many of those 2100 changes were not intended.
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drdianehamilton
Hi Paul,
You make an excellent point. I have explained to my students, that it will change all spacing after periods. It may be easier to fix a few things that it should not have changed though, instead having to fix every single sentence.
drdianehamilton
Removing Extra Spaces Between Paragraphs
I often have students ask me how to remove that annoying extra space between paragraphs in their documents. Check out this video to find out some quick tips on setting up your papers in Word.
Wessam, and 
Wessam
I have 2 inquiries about the Originality report generated by Turnitin:
1. If the student submitted his paper and found a high score, then he resubmit it after making small changes, and found the same high score or even more. what is the solution for this case? is it relating to writing skills?
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drdianehamilton
Hi Wessam,
There are a lot of factors that may affect your results. I think this link may be helpful in explaining the report: http://www.essex.ac.uk/plagiarism/turnitin.html
It is possible the instructor did not create a revised submission capability for that paper and that could cause issues. I would show your report to your instructor and ask for their input.
Wessam
Thank you Dr. Diane. This is a general question, I just need your experiences in cases like that what are your solutions?
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drdianehamilton
I think you need to know whether the faculty set up the revision assignment correctly because if they didn’t it may be comparing your paper as if it is plagiarized from your own work. As professors, we can set up revision submissions that account for initial submissions of the paper. You might need to contact your technical support at your school or the professor if it isn’t working correctly.
Toni Rothpletz 4:51 pm on August 24, 2010 Permalink |
Thanks for posting this! Very helpful now that I am taking my MBA classes; they require APA style.
drdianehamilton 5:38 pm on August 24, 2010 Permalink |
You’re welcome Toni. This is for 6th edition. Be sure you check to see if the school requires 5th or 6th.
Tatiana Ochoa 3:11 am on September 8, 2010 Permalink |
Dr. Hamilton,
Thank yo so much for your website on the APA 6th edition tutorial. It is very helpful since I am a visual learner I can understand it very well.