You will write many papers and class projects during your tenure here at Hunter.  Our department of special education has adopted the form of writing advocated by the American Psychological Association.  This “APA style” of writing is used in most educational publications, and provides a consistent form for paper submission.  Papers submitted in other formats (or written in a preferred personal style) will be penalized or returned to you for re-writing.
 

Here are some of the more commonly used aspects of APA style:

1. Double space the entire paper.  NEVER use single or triple spacing.

2. Indent paragraphs four to seven spaces.

3. Use 12 point font size.

4. Select an easily read font such as “Arial”, “Courier”, or “Times New Roman”.

5. Leave one inch margins at the top, bottom and sides of your paper.

6. Include a “References” section at the end of your paper that lists identifying information for materials mentioned in your paper.  (It is not a “Bibliography” which is a list of suggested readings.)  There is a very specific format for citing your references.  Follow that format exactly.  Although you might find the citation information written in a different form elsewhere, you are to translate it into APA style.

Journal article written by one author
       Roswell, K.S. (2002).  The fourth “R”:  Resolving conflict in the classroom. Journal of Behavior Management, 12(2), 14-22.
*Notice the indentation of the first line.  Note too that the author’s family name and given name(s) initial(s) are separated by a comma (DO NOT write the given names of the author).  Only the first word of the article title (and the first word following a colon, period, or exclamation mark...and proper nouns) are capitalized.  The Journal’s name is italicized as is the volume number that reflects how many years the publication has been in print.  The number in parentheses identifies the issue (most journals publish 3-4 issues per volume/year).  The page numbers follow a comma, are separated by a hyphen, and punctuated with a period.

Journal article written by multiple authors
     Chan, W.C., Santiago, P.Q., McFarlane, J.J., & Highsmith, L.Y. (2002). Say what?  Understanding the deaf culture. Communication, 13(4), 97-104.
*Notice that the authors are separated by a comma with the last author being preceded by an abersand (&).  Use the order of authors found in the publication.  DO NOT alphabetize them.

Books
     Whitehorse, D.W. (2001). Beyond Tonto: Bilingual students of American Indian ancestry. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.
*Notice that the title is italicized and that the location of the publishing house is separated from the name of the publisher by a colon.

Chapter in a Book
     Hussein, M. (1996). Is different better?. In J. Rothstein & C.K. Noame (Eds.), Effective teaching practices for special students (pp. 51-59). Pacific Palisades, CA: Consolidated Publishers.
*Notice that the author of the chapter has the family name previous to the given name initial.  However, the editors of this book have their initials previous to their family name and are identified as the editors with the abbreviation of “Editors” in parentheses.  The pages of the chapter are placed in parentheses with “pp.” meaning “pages”.

Internet Source
 Stein, J. (2000). Slow down!  Fifty tips for working with hyperactive youngsters. ProTeacher. Available Protocol: http://www.Proteacher.com [January 23, 2003].
*Notice that the name of the site is provided, followed by the address of the site and the last date of revision of that site.
 
 

Other tips

Avoid one sentence paragraphs.  Attach the sentence to the paragraph above or below.

Follow "This" with a noun ("This" is an adjective).  "Tell him to do this (behavior)."

Avoid ending a sentence or phrase with: "with", "of", "if", "from", "for", "to", etc.
 
 
 
 

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