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Searching and Writing

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APA Style and Writing

The two official resources for APA style are:

  • Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition, copies of which you will find on reserve in the Library and in the Reference Collection -- ref BF76.7 P83 2010.
  • APA Style Guide to Electronic References, Sixth Edition, copies of which are available online for HSU student and faculty use and in the Reference Collection in print format -- ref BF76.7 .P832 2012.

In addition a number of people and institutions have developed print and online tools to aid you in writing using APA Style.

Publication Manual of the APA

General APA Style Guides

  • APA Style and Writing (AmoebaWeb) -- this site links to other recommended sites for using APA style and for writing in pyschology in general.
  • APA Lite for College Papers (Abell Scribe)
  • Basics of APA Style (American Psychological Association) Twenty minute online tutorial that shows users how to structure and format their work, recommends ways to reduce bias in language, identifies how to avoid charges of plagiarism, shows how to cite references in text, and provides selected reference examples.
  • Frequently Asked Questions About APA Style (American Psychological Association)
  • APA Style Blog (American Psychological Association) Operated by a group of experts who work with APA Style every day.
  • StyleEase Commercial software program designed to automatically format your paper in APA Style from within Microsoft Word as a macro. The software is installed in the Psychology Computer Lab at HSU and is available for individual purchase. The APA Style Online Tutorial will teach you the basics of writing a paper in APA Style using StyleEaseStyleEase does not allow importing of references from other databases; one has to copy and paste references into the StyleEase reference database. See Reference Management Tools for Research and Writing for other suggestions on software to capture, store and output references into a paper.

Citing References in APA Style


Handbooks for Writing in Psychology

  • Designing and Reporting Experiments (BF 200 H37 1986)
  • Doing the Dissertation: The Nuts and Bolts of Psychological Research (BF 77 Y28)
  • How to Write a Thesis (LB 2369 T36 2003)
  • The Psychologist's Companion: A Guide to Scientific Writing for Students and Researchers (BF 76.8 S73 2003)
  • Psychology Student Writer's Manual (BF 76.8 P76 2002)
  • Writing and Defending a Thesis or Dissertation in Psychology and Education (BF 76.5 M36)
  • Writing Empirical Research Reports: A Basic Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (LB 2369 P97 2000)