APA Style Quick Reference

APA Style Quick Reference
Style guides are mostly designed to be read and studied. They are reference works, so this is as it should be. But if you are simply trying draft a paper in APA style, learning how to use the style is about as much fun as reading the phone book. The APA Quick Reference takes a different approach.

The APA Publication Manual (2001) is focused on copy manuscripts for publication, not final manuscripts for class papers, theses, and the like. The APA Manual has a sample 30-page paper to show how copy manuscripts are to be formatted for publication, but not a single page showing how to format a class paper! You get to figure that out for yourself (read and study chapter 6). There is an easier way, the APA Quick Reference.

The APA Quick Reference is built around sample pages, each showing the essential features of a class paper formatted APA style. Click on a feature for a pop-up note explaining the details. There is also an extensive style sheet showing how to format references to a variety of different sources. Again, if more information is needed, click on a reference for a pop-up explanation. A picture is worth at least a thousand words, and the APA Quick Reference starts with the pictures, not the words. That's why its so quick.

Windows? The original Microsoft Help system produces hypertext documents, much like Web pages. It has the added virtue of enabling very precise formatting, something other systems do only with great difficulty. The free APA Quick Reference uses this system. It works with a reader that is already installed on Windows PCs (screen shot).

Download, unzip, install: APA Quick Reference (ZIP 560KB).

APA Guide Home Page

Just four pages are needed to represent the basic features of APA style as applied to research papers. These are the title page, the first text page, a text page with a table and figure, and a page from a reference list. Click on any feature on the page to get an explanation in a pop-up note.

Houghton, P. M., Houghton, T. J., & Peters, M. F. (2005). APA: The Easy Way!. Port Huron, MI:

Baker College. Link to Amazon.com: (Paperback $10.95).

APA Easy? This handbook is a quick and simplified guide to the APA writing style. It was developed as a condensed version of the official APA Publication Manual and designed to be utilized as a supplement to the actual guide. One reviewer at Amazon.com writes: "APA The Easy Way is a godsend. It takes the pain of dealing with the APA Manual, cuts through the BS and tells you the 'meat' of what you really need to know to conform to this style of writing. All-in-all a very simple and easy-to-use guide that helps take the sting out of writing APA style" (Fronckowiak, 2005).

Fall 2007