Which of the following are the basic rules of APA style of referencing format…
2015
Which of the following are the basic rules of APA style of referencing format ?
(a) Italicize titles of shorter works such as journal articles or essays
(b) Invert authors’ names (last name first)
(c) Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals
(d) Alphabetically index reference list
Select the correct answer from the codes given below :
Answer: B. (b), (c) and (d) — ConceptAPA (American Psychological Association) style builds every reference-list entry from a fixed set of elements — author, date, title, source — and adds…
- A.
(a) and (b)
- B.
(b), (c) and (d)
- C.
(c) and (d)
- D.
(a), (b), (c) and (d)
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept
APA (American Psychological Association) style builds every reference-list entry from a fixed set of elements — author, date, title, source — and adds one further rule for the list as a whole. Three conventions do most of the work:
Author element: the name is inverted — the surname is written first and the initials follow it.
Title typography: italics mark the container, that is the stand-alone or larger work such as a book or a journal, and for a journal its volume number as well; the title of a part held inside that container — a journal article, an essay, a book chapter — stays in plain roman type.
List arrangement: the reference list as a whole is arranged in alphabetical order by the first author’s surname, which is why the surname is placed first in the entry.
Application
Test each of the four statements against those three conventions.
Statement (a) claims that titles of shorter works such as journal articles or essays are italicised. Under the container rule the part title is exactly what stays in roman type, so this runs against APA practice. In the entry Smith, J. A. (2015). Reading habits of undergraduates. Journal of Applied Reading, 12(3), 45–60. the article title is in roman type while the journal title and its volume number are italicised. Statement (a) is therefore not an APA rule.
Statement (b) claims that authors’ names are inverted, last name first. APA writes the author element as Smith, J. A. — surname, comma, initials — which is precisely that inversion. Statement (b) is an APA rule.
Statement (c) claims that titles of longer works such as books and journals are italicised. Books and journals are the containers, and the container is the element APA sets in italics. Statement (c) is an APA rule.
Statement (d) claims that the reference list is indexed alphabetically. APA orders entries alphabetically by the first author’s surname, and that ordering is the reason the inverted surname opens each entry. Statement (d) is an APA rule.
Cross-check
Statement | APA treatment |
|---|---|
(a) Italics for titles of journal articles or essays | Plain roman type — not italicised |
(b) Authors’ names inverted, last name first | Followed — Smith, J. A. |
(c) Italics for titles of books and journals | Followed — the container is italicised |
(d) Reference list indexed alphabetically | Followed — by the first author’s surname |
Statements (a) and (c) are two mutually exclusive readings of the same italics rule: italics cannot belong both to the shorter work and to the container that holds it. Any code that selects both of them at once therefore collapses, which rules out the code containing all four statements. Of the codes offered, the one that collects exactly the three rules confirmed above is the code naming (b), (c) and (d).
Result
The basic APA referencing rules among the four statements are (b), (c) and (d): invert authors’ names, italicise the titles of longer works such as books and journals, and index the reference list alphabetically. This holds under the 6th edition of the APA Publication Manual, current when this December 2015 paper was set, and equally under the 7th edition, which left the container-italics, name-inversion and alphabetisation rules unchanged.