The main and simple purpose of the APA reference page is to ensure that the reader tin can locate and retrieve the sources cited in the paper. And considering sources come in many different shapes and sizes, APA has guidelines on folio structure for unlike kinds of publications that need to exist attributed.

Basic Rules of an APA Reference Page

Before delving into specific types, here are some basic rules to take notation of when writing an APA reference page.

  1. The reference folio should appear at the end of the paper. It should exist separated from the concluding page of text.
  1. Each source cited in the paper should announced twice—information technology should be cited in the bodily text and then listed on the reference page.
  1. The page should exist labeled "References," centered at the peak of the page and without any formatting (practice not bold, italicize, underline or use quotation marks). Every bit in the residue of the body text, an APA reference folio should be double-spaced.
  1. All lines later on the first line of each entry should be indented half an inch from the left margin. This is called the hanging indentation.
  1. Alphabetize, according to last name, the entries on the reference list. If an author has multiple articles, listing down in chronological order from oldest to newest.
  1. Author'south name should follow the format: last proper name and then initials of the first and middle name (if provided). If in that location are 2 authors, utilise the ampersand instead of using "and." If there are upwardly to seven authors, list down the last proper noun followed by initials. If in that location are more than 7 authors, write down the beginning six and then use ellipses afterwards the sixth author's name. After the ellipses, write down the last author's name.
  1. Maintain the punctuation used in journals. Capitalize all major words.
  1. Italicize titles of longer works. These include books and journals.
  1. For shorter works such as essays and journal manufactures, practise not bold, italicize, underline or put quotation marks.
  1. When attributing books, chapters, articles or Web pages, capitalize only the starting time letter of the start word of a championship or subtitle. You may also capitalize the first word after a colon or a nuance in the title, and, of course, proper nouns. In a hyphenated compound word, do non capitalize the first letter of the second discussion.
  1. When citing location, utilize the postal abbreviation format without period. For example: NY for New York or MD for Maryland.
  1. When referencing a Web page with no author, cite the title of the commodity followed past the year it was written in parentheses. As well indicate the engagement it was retrieved and the URL. For example: Retrieved October 21, 2013, from http://www.website.com/

Example Reference Page

For more than visual guidelines especially on the elements of the page structure, hither are some sample APA reference pages.

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Notice that the entry has four essential elements: the writer's name, the year of the publication, the title and additional information on the publication.

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Prototype Source

When creating your APA reference page, practise not forget to listing down even the non-impress sources such as interviews or documentaries. In that location are specific rules for each source so it is important to identify the blazon of material y'all used to determine which formatting rules apply.

Admittedly, this is a bit more tedious than doing a non-APA reference folio but this is something that tin be done with a lot of help forth the style. This procedure ensures that your paper gives proper credit to the people and their torso of work which have been instrumental in the creation of your own.