APA style and citations for dummies - Joe Giampalmi 2021

Naming writes: title page and titles
Acing a first impression: formatting title page and page layout
Perfecting presentation: beginnings, endings, and other writings

In this chapter

Impressing with titles

Packaging for presentation

Heading up and down

Preparing for grading

College students love options, such as which college to accept, which gym to go to, which account to take money from, which car to drive, and which island to go to for spring break — don’t you wish. But you don’t want options for organizing research assignments.

APA reduced options for formatting and organizing research with its seventh edition by recognizing the difference between professional paper requirements and student paper requirements — like recognizing the difference between student debt and student financial stability. APA introduced student paper guidelines such as title page requirements, font selections, line spaces, margins, paragraph alignment, and heading levels.

In this chapter, I guide you through formatting the title page, creating research titles, organizing content pages, and reviewing seventh edition upgrades before submitting your final draft.

This chapter also addresses APA’s seventh edition changes for title page formatting and page layout, such as the following:

· A student title page model replaces the one-size-fits-all professional scholar title page of previous editions.

· An affiliation is required with your name.

· Font specifications are expanded for accommodation needs.

· Running heads are deleted for student papers.

· Heading levels are upgraded.

Prior to the seventh edition, APA’s title page guidelines addressed requirements almost exclusively for professional scholars seeking publication. Consequently, college writing departments and professors designed APA requirements to meet their students’ needs. For example, many professors designed in-house bare-bones title pages that required the title, student name, professor name, course name, and date. Formatting and layout were left to the student’s judgment, which sometimes conflicted with the professor’s judgment. With APA’s introduction of a student model title page, many colleges are slow to transition to the new model — and many students experienced trepidation between two title pages. Most of those professor and department guidelines remain the standard today for your APA requirements. With APA’s seventh edition, professor requirements will begin to transition to APA’s new standard — like transitioning from dialup to wireless.

Naming writes: title page and titles

The title page of a research paper is like your job interview clothes that say, “This is important, and I want the outside to look good because the inside will impress you.” The title page is the beginning of an introduction that builds a relationship with your reader and the professor who grades your research.

Because APA wants you to make a good first impression, they designed a new title page for you, the undergraduate student who’s not yet a professional scholar and not yet writing for publication in a scholarly journal.

Title page elements in this section represent APA’s recommended design for research papers, the most formal papers you create as an undergraduate. Chapter 15 presents more details about title page designs for essays and similar shorter papers.

Recognizing title page elements

A professional-looking title page greets your professor with a smile. APA identifies the following elements of title page design (refer to Figure 14-1 for a sample template of title page elements):

· Title: A summary of the paper’s focus and approach, approximately 12 to 16 words.

· Author: Your name (first name, middle initial, and last name) — the name that appears on your formal course registration.

· Affiliation: The name of the department that teaches your course and your school’s name.

· Course identification: Your course name and number and section number.

© John Wiley & Sons

FIGURE 14-1: A title page template.

· Professor’s name: Your professor’s name and title: Dr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, or Mr. — the name that appears on your course registration.

· Assignment due date: The assignment due date, written in standard business format: July 17, 2020.

· Page numbering: The number “1” located in the upper-right corner (it isn’t a standard practice in publishing to number the title page and position the number in the upper-right corner).

Ask your professor the following questions about title page design:

· Do your title page preferences include APA’s seventh edition design or another design?

· Is a model title page available?

An author note is a frequent requirement for professional authors who are obligated to disclose conflicts of interest and affiliations that may compromise content. If you have an association with your content, such as that you work for a company affiliated with your research, disclose that information in an author note. Position “Author note” centered and bold (without quotation marks) in the bottom half of the title page.

Most professors aren’t obsessed with their academic titles. But you should be obsessed with accurate spelling of their titles and names. If you inaccurately identify your professor’s name on the title page, you raise a red flag about the accuracy of the information in your research project. And if your research inaccuracies result in a “C,” that grade won’t be a misspelling.

Activate your word processor’s automatic page numbering by clicking Insert, then selecting Page Numbers from the drop-down menu. In the dialog box that appears, select Top of Page, then select Right. Be sure to click the check box next to Show numbers on first page. Click OK.

A major title-page change in APA’s seventh edition is that they’ve omitted the running head, an abbreviated version of your paper’s title that appears on every page. A running head remains a requirement for professional scholars and writing for publication — if you’re thinking about it. But the running head ran aground on student papers.

Formatting the title page includes the following requirements:

· Insert an extra double space after the title line, and double-space all lines after that.

· Use title case, which includes capitalizing all nouns, verbs, and all words that are four letters or longer.

· Capitalize both parts of prefix-hyphenated words — for example, Pre-Administered.

· Write names in standard sequence.

· List all author names for team projects.

· Avoid abbreviations and a period at the end of the title.

Figure 14-2 shows an example of a real-life title page.

© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

FIGURE 14-2: A title page.

Strategizing for writing titles

Early in my teaching career — sometime between Nether Providence Middle School (Wallingford, PA) and Neumann University (Aston, PA) — a student submitted a paper to me and said, “I know you want a title, but I couldn’t think of one.” The words “couldn’t think of one” reinforced the importance of requiring titles; they require thinking.

A research paper may not be judged by its cover, but it is judged by its title. After surveying the layout of the title page, professors focus on the first line they read, the title. They make the first judgment of your paper, such as “sounds interesting” or “another boring student research paper.”

That means you want to write something that gets your professor’s attention (and ideally keeps it). Guidelines for writing successful titles (and subtitles) include the following:

· Focus on the purpose of the paper.

· Predict the paper’s approach to the topic (usually in the subtitle).

· Identify the question the paper answers.

· Create reader interest.

A successful title is one you would click if you were scrolling a page of titles on your topic. If you wouldn’t click on it, then your title isn’t good enough.

The process for creating a title includes asking yourself a few questions:

· What is the question your paper answers?

· What are key search terms that appear in your research?

· What would you say to someone who asked you what your paper’s about?

From your answers, delete unnecessary and overused words and revise your list of keywords. From your keywords, create a title that focuses on the purpose of your paper and a subtitle that predicts your paper’s approach. Avoid titles with too many too’s: too long, too vague, too descriptive, and too emotional. Also, avoid wordy expressions such as “A Complete Study of …,” “An Investigation of …,” and “A Complete Understanding of….”

Here are some examples of effective titles in various content areas:

· Finance: Achieving Financial Stability: From Early Career Entrepreneurs

· Literature: Shakespeare’s Female Characters: Common Emotional Strengths

· College athletics: College Athletes and COVID-19: Long-Term Effects on Athletic Performance

· Technology: Educational Technologies of the Future: Delivering Them at Reasonable Costs

These example titles establish focus and create interest (Achieving Financial Stability). Subtitles, following the colon, identify the approach (From Early Career Entrepreneurs). Each title answers a research question such as, “What are the common emotional strengths of Shakespeare’s female characters?”

Begin your research with a working title, a general title that helps you maintain focus until the paper’s completion. Create your final title when you know the content better.