APA Style: Why & What
by Larry Lesser, a Founding Editor of TEEM (Teaching
for Excellence and Equity in Mathematics), a journal of TODOS: Mathematics for ALL.
This note is intended especially for first-time
contributors who may not have prior experience publishing their excellent
ideas. It is important and proper
scholarly practice for articles to make connections with and give credit to
prior and related work that grounds and informs one's writing. Bibliographic information on these sources
needs to be sufficiently complete so that a reader could track down those items
if she/he so desired. The most common
way journals (including TEEM) ensure
that this happens is to require a particular "style" or
"format" for references to be in, and APA style happens to be the style
most common in education journals. APA stands for the American Psychological Association, and its
most recent version is the 7th edition of
the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2019).
The great majority of references in a typical
paper will be covered by the following examples. Further details, types of examples, formats
for tabulated statistics, etc., can be readily tracked down using the
references and websites on APA style listed at the bottom of this webpage. In the examples below, I give the format in
"generic template format" and then illustrate with a specific example
of one of my works. Take note of the use
of commas, periods, italics, parentheses, abbreviations, and capitalization. (But remember, the most important thing is to
make sure all the information is included – it’s a lot easier for editors to
adjust capitalization than it is to track down a missing publisher, volume
number, etc.) Another important thing to
note about APA style is that when you quote an article in your paper, you need
to give an in-text citation that includes author(s), year, and page(s)
[example: Lesser (2008, p. 5)], rather
than use a footnote.
JO
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C.
(Year). Title of article. Title of Journal or Periodical, volume number(issue
number), pages.
Lesser, L. M. (2008). Equity, social justice, and
the mission of TODOS. Noticias de TODOS: News from TODOS Mathematics
for All, 4(2), 7-9.
BOOK example:
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of
work: Capital letter also for subtitle (note the edition if there are
multiple editions). Publisher.
Mayes, R. L., & Lesser, L. M. (1998). ACT
in algebra: Applications, concepts and technology in learning algebra
(prelim. ed.). McGraw-Hill.
BOOK CHAPTER example:
Author, A. A., & Author, B.
B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A. Editor & B. Editor
(Eds.), Title of book (pages of
chapter). Publisher.
Lesser, L. M., & Blake, S. (2006).
Mathematical power: Exploring critical pedagogy in mathematics and
statistics. In C. Rossatto, R. L. Allen,
& M. Pruyn (Eds.), Re-inventing critical
pedagogy: Widening the circle of anti-oppression education (pp.
159-173). Rowman
& Littlefield.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATION example:
(note: if the paper also was published in that
conference's print or online proceedings, then that's usually a more accessible
way to cite the paper; even if there is no published proceedings paper, the
oral presentation itself is still typically referred to as a "paper"
that is presented)
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of
presentation). Title of presentation. Paper presented at the Name of
Conference, Location of Conference.
Lesser, L. M., & Winsor, M. (2009). English
language learners in statistics education.
Paper presented at the sixth International Sun Conference on Teaching
and Learning,
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS PAPER example:
(note: when a conference does
publish a proceedings volume, the publication year could actually be the year
AFTER the year of the conference, as in the case below)
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of
paper. Title of Proceedings
(pages of paper). Publisher.
Lesser, L. M. (2009). Social justice, gender
equity, and service learning in statistics education: Lessons learned from the
DOE-funded Project ACE (ACtion for Equity). Proceedings
of the 2008 Joint Statistical Meetings, Section on Statistical Education
(pp. 424-431). American Statistical Association.
MORE INFORMATION ON APA:
https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/tutorials-webinars
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html’
https://www.citationmachine.net/apa