Writing

Tips for APA.html

Tips for APA

Commas and Lists

• Oxford (serial) comma: When enumerating three or more items, always use the final comma before and.

  • Example: My preferred soft drinks are Root Beer, Coke, and Sprite.

• Lists with internal commas: Use semicolons to separate items when any item in the series already contains commas.

  • Example: The sock choices were blue and red; green, purple, and blue; or plain yellow.

• Lists introduced by a number or phrase: Use lowercase letters in parentheses (a), (b), (c), etc.

  • Example: There were four choices: (a) on, (b) off, (c) mid-way, or (d) none.

Citations

• Multiple sources in one citation: List alphabetically by author’s last name within the same parentheses.

  • Example: (Able, 2001; Bender, 2005; Zeo, 1984).

• One or two authors: Include both authors’ names every time the source is cited.

  • Example: Smith & Jones (2020).

• Three or more authors: Cite only the first author’s last name followed by et al. for all in-text citations.

  • Example: Brown et al. (2015).

  • Note: No comma appears before et al.

✅ Reminder: Every in-text citation must have a corresponding entry in the reference list, and every reference must be cited in the text.

here’s a Common APA Citation Mistakes Quick Table that highlights the errors students most often make, including sentence case for titles and the proper use of et al.

Common APA Citation Mistakes: Quick Table

❌ Wrong	✅ Correct	Explanation
(Smith, J., & Jones, P., 2020)	(Smith & Jones, 2020)	Never include initials in in-text citations. Only last names and year are used.
(Brown, et al., 2015)	(Brown et al., 2015)	No comma before et al.; it attaches directly to the author’s name.
The Effects of Stress On Police Officers: A Case Study.	The effects of stress on police officers: A case study.	Use sentence case for article and book titles: only the first word of the title, first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalized.
Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/1234567	https://doi.org/10.1037/arc0001234	APA 7 requires DOIs when available. Use publisher homepage URLs if no DOI; never database URLs.
(Johnson et al., 2019, p. 45) when paraphrasing	(Johnson et al., 2019)	Page/paragraph numbers are only required for direct quotes, not paraphrases.
Reference list in random order	Reference list alphabetized by first author’s last name	References must be in alphabetical order, not order of citation in text.

✅ Key Reminders for Students

• Use sentence case for all article and book titles in the reference list.

• Use et al. starting with three or more authors in every in-text citation.

• Always check formatting of capitalization, italics, and punctuation — minor errors lower paper quality.

COPYRIGHT 2025 APUS, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This lesson was created with the assistance of OpenAI. (2025).