About This Edition

From the Publisher

New Features

• Current throughout. This edition is updated to incorporate all essential changes reflected in the corrected sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2009).


• Extensive coverage of electronic sources. The fourth edition of the Pocket Guide features extensive, updated information to help readers use and evaluate Internet references in their research. Chapter 1 includes expanded discussions of periodical databases and online catalogs.


• New and expanded material. Highly technical aspects of APA style--including word spacing, seriation, dashes, and hyphenation--are carefully presented to enhance users' understanding.


• Updated examples. More than 140 reference entries with corresponding in-text citations offer a wealth of models.

Additional Features

• Easy access: Concise and straightforward, the Pocket Guide to APA Style covers topics in short chapters that keep all discussions of an issue within a single section, making it easy to look for and find information quickly when needed. Chapters are efficiently organized according to different kinds of sources--periodicals (Chapter 5), books and other separately published materials (Chapter 6), audiovisual materials (Chapter 7), and electronic sources (Chapter 8).


• Two sample APA-style papers--one argumentative and one experimental--are carefully annotated to give users extra support as they master the elements of manuscript preparation and documentation principles.


• A useful introductory chapter, "Writing Scholarly Papers," reviews common procedures and practices of basic research methods, reminding users of what they already know before they begin assimilating new material.


• To help users avoid and understand plagiarism, the author includes examples of incorrect documentation, as well as corrections that illustrate the correct documentation of the source material.


• Visual aids, including tables and charts throughout, help users review chapter content.