FYS 101: Bulldog Skills Online Workshop--APA-Style Citations, 7th Edition

You will discover that different academic subject areas (or majors) have developed different citation styles to suit the needs of their specific discipline or subject area of research.  

APA Style (whose manual, pictured above, is officially called the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association) was developed--you guessed it!--by the American Psychological Association (APA for short) to guide researchers in the field of psychology and other social sciences in creating consistent, easily-understood "style rules" to promote communication among scholars in the field when reporting their research.  (APA style is now also often widely used for formatting student papers and other academic assignments.)  These style rules include everything from how to format the paper itself (margins, spacing, headings, etc.) to how to format the citations (documentation) of sources used. 

This workshop focuses solely on creating basic citations in APA style (7th ed.) (see the APA section of our Citation Help LibGuide for more info on other aspects of APA formatting).

Over time, APA style began to be adopted for use by other fields of study in addition to psychology; on our campus, many departments and schools use it, including Business, Nursing, Allied Health, Education, Social Work, and many more. 

Now go to Step 2 (below right or in the left sidebar)  to learn more about what citations consist of.