OnCUE Journal, 2(2), pages 145-156

Professional Development“How to APA”: A brief introduction to APA style
Matthew T. Apple
Nara National College of Technology
Abstract
Although research in the SLA field is generally said to follow
guidelines published by the American Psychological Association(APA), many SLA researchers and even journals often fail to use APA
style outside the references section. This article will first discuss briefly
types of research covered by the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association, then highlight key elements of research
articles prepared for publication according to APA guidelines. While
not a comprehensive guide to APA style, it is hoped that this article
may serve as a useful beginning point for future researchers in the fieldof SLA who are looking to improve their writing style in preparation
for publication.
第二言語習得研究（SLA）関連の出版においては、アメリカ心理学学会（APA）が発行したガイドラインに従うことになっている。しかし、SLA研究者、あるいは雑誌や紀要までもが参考文献
以外の欄においてAPAスタイルを活用していないというケースは少なくない。ここでは、『Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association』が扱っている研究の種類を簡単に紹Matthew T. Apple teaches English language and presentation skills at Nara National
College of Technology and International Communication at the Graduate School of
Policy Management, Doshisha University. He has a Master’s of Fine Arts from the
University of Notre Dame du Lac, and a Master’s of Education (TESOL) from Temple
University Japan, and is currently a doctoral candidate at Temple University Japan,
Osaka, researching personality traits and foreign language speaking anxiety. He canbe contacted at matthewtapple@mac.com.
Apple, M. T. (2008). How to APA: A brief introduction to APA style. OnCUE Journal,
2(2), 145-156. Copyright © 2008 Matthew T. Apple. OnCUE Journal, ISSN 18820220, is available at http://jaltcue-sig.org one year after publication date.

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Apple, “‘How to APA’: A brief introduction to APA style”

介し、APAガイドラインに従って出版用に作成された研究論文での重要な要素を確認する。この論文はAPAスタイルの総括的なガイドではないが、SLA分野において今後活躍する研究者が、出版にむけて執筆スタイルを改善する上で、参考になるものと期待している。

Introduction
Many journals in the field of second language acquisition (SLA)
require prospective authors to follow “APA style” or “APA guidelines”
when submitting research papers for publication. However, a quick
look through SLA journals such as JALT Journal, Language Learning,
and The Modern Language Journal reveals striking discrepancies in themanner of reporting statistics, the appearance of tables and charts, thecitation method of source references within the text, and even the useof punctuation marks at the sentence level. The existence of numerous
reporting styles in SLA journals can thus be perplexing for the first-time
SLA teacher-researcher, despite the insistence from journal editors thatall submissions be in “APA Style.” What is this mystical APA style andhow does one go about using it in SLA research articles?
This article will introduce some basic points of APA style guidelines
for College and University Educators’ Special Interest Group (CUE
SIG) members who may be new to the field of SLA and wish to reportresearch results in future issues of OnCUE Journal. While it is notpossible to cover all details concerning research methodology and
APA guidelines in a brief article such as this, I hope that current CUE
members will find this article a useful starting point. As the manner ofreporting often depends on the type of research, some basic methodsof research design and analysis will also be covered. Again, only mainor key points will be covered; interested readers may refer to a list of
helpful resources at the end of the article.

Main Types of Research Using APA Style
There are five main types of research articles recognized by the
APA: reports of empirical studies, review articles, theoretical articles,
methodological articles, and case studies (APA 5th Ed., p. 7-9)1.
Empirical Research: The “Quan-Qual” Paradigm
As the section headings of the research paper depend on the type of
research being reported, it is essential for prospective research authors
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wish to engage. Moreover, researchers need to ensure that the designof their research upholds APA standards. Empiricial research is usuallycategorized into either quantitive (i.e., statistical) or qualitative (i.e.,
ethnographic) strands of research, although recently mixed methods
approaches have been proposed by researchers dissatisfied withthe “false dichotomy” of the quan-qual paradigm (Creswell, 2003).
Quantitative research is typified by one-time cross-sectional surveys
and quasi-experimental conditions in order to control for specificvariables and to generalize from a small sample size to a larger
population. Qualitative research is typified by individual case studies
and ethnographical studies that intend to provide an in-depth, “thick”
descriptive analysis over a longer period of time in a more or lessnatural environment. Mixed methods approaches use both quantitativeand qualitative methods of research inquiry either in sequential order(i.e., interviews then survey) or concurrently (i.e., triangulation of data
through multiple sources).
“Action research,” though not officially recognized by APA as a kindof research method, is popular among language instructors and canalso be categorized as a kind of empirical research. Action researchstudies typically involve a specific problem encountered by anindividual teacher in her classes. Because most action research usually
has no control group and involves an individual teacher’s students,
such studies suffer from a lack of external validity due to (a) poor
generalizability to larger populations because the sample N-size isusually small, and (b) an inability for outside researchers to reproduce
or verify the research results because action research participants andtheir behavior are extremely situation-specific. Thus action researchis generally poorly perceived by the academic community at large;
however, action research can often serve as a pilot study that leads
to larger, more comprehensive research study. Therefore it is to thebenefit of the teacher-researcher to plan and design action research as
best as possible according to APA guidelines.
Research Reporting: “Do’s and “Don’ts”
A major oversight committed by beginning SLA researchers (present
author included) is the over-reliance on anecdotal evidence to support
theories or hypotheses about language learning. Anecdotal evidence
is a definite “don’t” for empirical research, because it is evidence
that cannot be verified by outside researchers and thus lacks external
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validity. Anecdotal evidence includes, but may not be limited to,
unsubstantiated quotations from colleagues and students obtainedorally outside an official interview context, written results that wereobtained without systematic evaluation or analysis, and heresay orconversational evidence obtained through casual contact in a nonsystematic or happenstance fashion (see Nunan, 1992, for more on
reliability and validity issues in SLA research).
A “do” for empirical research, regardless of whether using quantitativeor qualitative methods, is to draw up a plan of data collection before
the onset of the study. Research planning thus is scientific in nature:
first, researchers must define the problem either based on past literaturein the field (traditional empirical research) or on past individual
experience (action research), before deciding the methods that are best
suited to gathering data about the problem. In designing their studies,
researchers may rely on previous research results, hypotheses, ortheories of language learning. Thus review articles, theoretical articles,
methodological articles, and case studies are important for prospective
researchers to read in order to establish a basis for their own empiricalresearch design and data collection.
For the purposes of explaining the main elements of APA style, thisarticle will focus on the reporting of empirical studies. As mentioned
briefly above, empirical studies typically feature original research withdata obtained from quantitative methods (e.g., statistical surveys andtest scores), qualitative methods (e.g., interviews and conversationtranscriptions), or mixed methods (e.g., surveys and individual interviews).
Results of original, empirical studies are often called “feature articles”
or “research articles” and typically are considered the most important
kinds of publication by university hiring committees, as such articles
represent work conducted by the researcher herself. Although there
are often minor differences in terminology used for sections of articles,
empirical research articles usually follow the pattern known colloquiallyas “IMRD” (introduction, method, results, discussion).

Main Elements of APA Style-informed Research Papers
APA style specifies the general layout of research papers, including
line justification, font faces and sizes, header location and font face,section names, and tables and figures. In addition, APA prescribes
certain numbering, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and abbreviation
conventions, as well as the non-use of biased words and terms. This148

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article will focus on the layout of APA and tables in particular.
Sections
Empirical papers using APA style typically have the following sections:abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, references, andappendices. Many researchers choose to add a separate section called“Conclusions,” while some place their conclusions into a sub-section
under “Discussion.” Some researchers prefer to combine “Results”
and “Discussion” into one section, while adding a separate “Future
Directions” section just before the references.
Although some researchers—particularly those who consider
themselves qualitative researchers—may complain that the “IMRD”
style constrains their writing, it is important to note that the APA
Manual does not prohibit researchers from expanding upon wording
such as “Introduction” and “Method.” In addition, within the “IMRD”
sections there may also be many sub-sections, which researchers often
use to elaborate on the main section heading. However, APA expressly
prohibits the lettering or numbering of sections (APA 5th Ed., p. 113).
Heading Levels
All headings in APA style have a “level” associated with them (seeFigure 1). Journal editors sometimes prefer a slightly different fontface—APA does not use bold face, for example—but if the researcher
uses the appropriate heading level, it becomes easier for the journal
editors and reviewers to understand the organization of the research
being reported. For esthetic reasons OnCUE Journal does use bold
face for main headings; however, papers that include properly APAformatted headings are easier for the reviewers to read and easier forthe layout staff to work with after the review process is concluded. APA
lists five levels that are used for dissertations; however, most journals

Capitalize All Content Words in a Level 1 Header
Capitalization of Content Words and Italicized Level 2 Header
Only the first word is capitalized for level 3 headers.
Figure 1. The three levels of headers commonly used in
APA-style journals.

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use only two or three levels for typical research articles.
Note that no spaces are required between heading and the text that
immediately follows it. However, space between separate levels ofheadings is acceptable.
Tables
APA is very specific about how to construct tables. There are twobasic kinds of tables, statistical tables and text tables, but both kinds
follow the same structure (see Figure 2). Tables should be numberedconsecutively throughout the paper, including those appearing in
the appendix. Table names should be italicized, and all content
words should be capitalized. Titles should be as specific as possible:“Descriptive statistics” is not a sufficiently descriptive table title,
because it tells the reader very little about the content of the table.
Both the “Table” label and title of the table should be flush left, notcentered. There should be horizontal lines spanning the entire table atthe top and at the bottom. Other main divisions of the table can also
be separated by lines; however, there are no vertical lines between
columns of data or text. Tables do not consist of boxes, and italicizedor bold face characters are not normally used within the table itself,
although there are a few exceptions.
Some table “do”s and “don’t”s
The number one “do” for tables is, “Do use tables when otherwise
Table X
Give Your Table a Detailed Title to Present Your Data in a Succinct, Clear
Fashion to Help the Reader
Column Spanner

Often a Group name

Variables

M

SD

Stats

Item names here

3.20

1.00

Centered

Capitalize the first word
2.40
0.86
At the decimal point
Notes: All notes should appear beneath the table. Notes may also include
N-size, effect sizes, and p values. For reporting p values, single or double
asterisks are also used.

Figure 2. Sample table created according to APA
guidelines.
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writing data results in the text will be confusing or overwhelming forthe reader.” Tables are meant to display the researcher’s data in a clear,organized fashion so that readers can easily grasp the results. Another“do” rule is, “Do explain all abbreviations in the table.” Common
abbreviations such as means (M) and standard deviation (SD) do
not need to be explained, but abbreviations specially-created by the
researcher should be explained in the note underneath the table.
The number one “don’t” for tables is, “Don’t use tables merely as‘filler’ or for superficial purposes.” Many beginning researchers tend touse a large number of unnecessary tables that detract from the results
and confuse the reviewers. Thus, the first question regarding tables a
researcher should ask herself is, “Is this table necessary?” (APA 5th
Edition, p. 175). The second biggest “don’t” is, “Don’t mix different
analyses in one table.” Many researchers mix dichotomous data (i.e.,“Yes” and “No” answers) with Likert scale data (i.e., “Strongly agree,”“strongly disagree,” etc.) within the same table, leading to confusion at
the review stage and disaster at the layout stage. If the researcher has
used a survey with multiple answer key styles, the results should besegregated into separate tables accordingly. Other “don’t”s include: (a)do not write “see table x below” or “see table x above,” as there is noway for the researcher or even the editor to know the location of tables
relative to text prior to layout; (b) do not leave empty cells (use a dash
to represent missing values); and (c) do not use more than two “decked
heads,” i.e., do not stack three or more table column heads (instead,
make new categories within the same table or make a new table).
There are of course many different kinds of tables, particularly forquantitative research results. Word tables, most commonly used inqualitative research, should be used only if the description in the text
seems cumbersome or confusing. In many cases, poorly constructed
word tables can actually impede rather than facilitate understanding.
Nicol and Pexman (1999) provided example APA-style tables for arange of quantitative statistics. Please refer to the “Recommended
Further Reading” or “References” section at the end of this article forother useful APA-style reference materials.

Citing References: Sample Do’s and Don’ts
The last APA-style element to be discussed in this article is thecomplicated issue of references. APA referencing can be quite
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use APA style for referencing source materials actually fail to follow
APA at all. Additionally, many SLA author-researchers in Japan comefrom other academic backgrounds such as hard sciences or literatureand may be accustomed to other referencing styles such as Modern
Language Association (MLA). There are two locations for references in
APA-style articles: in the “References” section at the end of the paper
and within the text itself.
Citing References within the Text
The first “do” rule for citing references in the text is “only list referencesthat you needed for the research.” That is, APA referencing style only
lists sources cited in the text and does not contain books used by the
researcher as general background reading. The first “don’t” rule is “don’tliberally quote sources for the purposes of creative writing.” APA does
not encourage starting a paper or a section of a paper with a block quote,and indeed, unless there is a very good reason block quotes should be
avoided if possible to give precedence to the methods and data of thestudy (see APA 5th Ed., p. 117-122, for more on using quotations).
Other “dos” and “don’ts” for citing references in the text include: (a)using double quotation marks (not single marks), (b) listing authors inalphabetical order by last name (not by date), and (c) prefacing page
numbers with a single lower case “p” plus a period (not by semi-colons
or two “pp”s).
The “References” Section
References cited in the text must match the references listed in the“references” section of the paper. A first “do” rule for the references
section is that all reference entries must have a “hanging indent.” Thatis, the first line of each entry should be flush left, and all other lines
in the same entry should be indented between three and five spaces.
A first “don’t” rule is, “Do not use the return key and space bar toaccomplish hanging indents!” Authors should use the tab function at
the top ruler bar of the word processor window. Most word processing
programs have a quick and easy way of changing margins and tabs;
inserting carriage returns and using the space bar not only ensuresthat each reference entry will not line up with another, but also causes
problems when the paper reaches the layout stage of publication.
Other “do”s and “don’t”s for APA style references include: (a) using initials
for author first and second names (not the entire first or second name),152

OnCUE Journal, 2(2), pages 145-156(b) using the ampersand (&) symbol in the reference section and between
parentheses for multiple authors (not the word “and,” which is only used
in a sentence in the text), (c) writing of non-English titles in Roman letters
followed by the translation of the titles in brackets (not using the original
Chinese characters or other non-Roman alphabet characters), and using
the phrase “Retrieved from…,” with an access date for referencing websites or other online materials that do not have page numbers.
A word about Internet-only journals
Online resource references in particular have greatly expanded
since the APA 4th Edition was printed in 1994. Indeed, although the
APA 4th Edition had only four pages detailing reference formats forelectronic media, the APA 5th Edition first published in 2001 included
over twelve pages and noted “by far the most popular and familiar[way of sharing information] is the graphical interface of the World
Wide Web” (APA 5th Ed., p. 269). One of the clearest indicators thata researcher has an out-of-date edition of APA is in fact the format ofInternet resource references; researchers who use the term “accessed”
and fail to use “http://” are easily spotted as using APA 4th Edition rather
than the updated APA 5th Edition. Moreover, some online journals tellresearchers to use what they term “modified APA” when referring toelectronic articles; however, APA 5th Edition does not recognize any
form of “modified APA.” The current accepted format for Internet-onlyjournals is as follows:
Sussex, R. (1994). TESL-EJ: Conception and potential of an electronic
journal. TESL-EJ, 1(1). Retrieved March 29, 2008, from http://teslej.org/ej01/a.1.html
It is critical that the URL link provided be a functioning, active link;even if the journal in question claims that articles have “static” (i.e.,permanent) URLs, there is really no such thing as a “permanent” anything
on the Internet. APA 5th Edition suggests (p. 271) that authors check all
URL links three times: before the initial submission to journal editors,
before sending in the final revision, and before sending the final proof
for publication. If readers find that the article in the references section
has moved or no longer exists, the omission may cast serious doubt
on the validity of arguments proposed by the researcher. Although
web-based references doubtless will increase due to the increasing
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popularity of online journals and digitizing of old paper journals, at thistime it seems wise for researchers to rely minimally, at best, on online
resources. This is particularly true in the Japanese context, as many
university committees do not look favorably on Internet publications,believing such research to be poorly reviewed and thus untrustworthy.
Prospective researchers are advised when possible to refer to paper
versions of Internet-based journal articles; safer still is to avoid such
resources unless no other resources can be found to support a line ofreasoning or argument within the paper.

Conclusion
This short article was intended to assist beginning teacher-researchersin Japan with a description of some of the intricacies of APA style. By nomeans is the frustration with APA style limited to researchers in Japan;
in fact, the assertion “We use APA-style” in many SLA journals can bemisleading for authors and researchers who are new to the SLA fieldor to SLA research in general. In addition to many journals applying“APA-style” only to references, as McCrostie (2007) pointed out, certain
journals require authors to “adhere to their own byzantine citation
standards” (McCrostie, 2007, p. 75). Citation and reference programs
such as Bookends or Endnote can greatly facilitate the referencing
process2; however, APA style is more than just correct citation andreferencing. Many researchers may find APA writing style guidelines
to be somewhat cumbersome or frustrating, but those who use APA
will greatly improve the overall look and feel of their research resultsin the end. Proper manuscript preparation according to APA guidelines
makes a researcher’s work look more professional, well-organized, andappropriate as an addition to and advancement of the field of SLA.

Recommended Further Reading
Although most researchers rely on journal articles, books, articles orchapters in edited books, and web pages, there are nearly a hundred
types of reference materials available for researchers, far too many ofwhich to give samples in this article. Please refer to the Publication
Manual of the APA, 5th Edition, for a complete listing of approved
reference formats. The web sites and books listed below are meant toprovide a useful starting point for beginning researchers; please seeother resources as well for more information and samples of materials
created according to APA guidelines.
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Web Sites
APA Style Home Page
This web site offers writing tips and FAQs about the “why’s” of APA
style. However, it only gives brief samples of reference styles and does
not provide complete guidelines, instead directing readers to orderpersonal copies of the APA 5th Edition.
URL: http://www.apastyle.org/
APA Formatting and Style Guide
This is a comprehensive web site provided by the Writing Center at
Purdue University, Indiana, U.S. The web site also lists helpful links tobooks and other web sites about APA style.
URL: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
ArticlesA brief guide to APA style
Ford (2003) gave detailed sample APA style references in this compact
article from OnCUE Journal’s predecessor, OnCUE. The entire issue
containing this article can be downloaded from the URL listed below.
URL: http://jaltcue-sig.org/node/36/
Books
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
Commonly referred to as “the APA Manual” or “APA Guidelines,”
this book is now in its 5th edition and is the regarded as the “Bible” ofsocial science researchers. It is a must for any SLA researcher’s library.
Displaying Your Findings
This book is subtitled “A practical guide for creating figures, posters,
and presentations,” but focuses primarily on APA-style graphs. Graphs
listed include bar graphs, line graphs, scatter plots, flow charts, structural
equation models (SEM), as well as suggestions for using photographs,
drawings, and presentation slides.
Presenting Your Findings
A companion book to Displaying Your Findings, this book is subtitled“A practical guide for creating tables.” Nineteen different statisticalanalyses tables are presented, including a “Play It Safe” table version
and several alternative forms of tables. All tables conform to APA style,making this a “must have” book for quantitative researchers.
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Notes
1. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th
Edition, will be represented in text citations as APA 5th Ed. for the
purposes of saving space.
2. Researchers who use reference software such as Endnote are asked
to “Unformat citations” before submitting manuscripts to OnCUE
Journal, as embedded citation codes in the text may interfere withthe layout process.

References
APA formatting and style guide: The OWL at Purdue. (2008). Retrieved
March 29, 2008, from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
resource/560/01/
APA style. (2008). Retrieved March 29, 2008, from http://www.
apastyle.org/
Ashwell, J. D. (2005). Bookends (Version 8.1.3) [Computer software].
Betheseda, MD: Sonny Software.
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, andmixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Endnote (Version 9.0) [Computer software]. San Francisco: Thomson
ResearchSoft.
Ford, K. (2003). A brief guide to APA style. OnCUE, 11(2), 28-29.
McCrostie, J. (2007). Perishing to publish: An analysis of the academic
publishing process. OnCUE Journal, 1(1), 74-79.
Nicol, A. A. A., & Pexman, P. M. (1999). Presenting your findings: A
practical guide for creating tables. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
Nunan, D. (1992). Research methods in language learning. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th Ed.)
(1994). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th Ed.)
(2001). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Sussex, R. (1994). TESL-EJ: Conception and potential of an electronic
journal. TESL-EJ, 1(1). Retrieved March 29, 2008, from http://teslej.org/ej01/a.1.html

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