Overview
It is very important that whatever the formatting style used, it is followed consistently and with attention to detail and there is no where this is more important than when formatting references.
Music Education generally uses APA, though musicologists may prefer Turabian, MLA, or Chicago. Many journals use more obscure formatting styles such as Harvard or will have their own formatting. Whatever the case, you must format carefully and as instructed.
APA also varies from some of the other styles in that first names are never used - only initials. This avoids possible gender-bias. Because of this practice, however it is particularly important to avoid pronouns such as "he" or "she" when referencing a researcher.
Chapter 7 of the APA Style Manual provides examples of formatting in dozens of situations, but you will likely need the following most often: book, journal article, dissertation, website. We will focus on referencing these sources, but look through Chapter 7 to get a feel for the different types of sources.
There are a couple of formatting issues that need attention:
order of information
italicization
capitalization
punctuation and spacing.
As a general rule, a period separates each part of the citation.
Book
See pp. 202-205 in the APA Style Manual for the formatting of a book reference.
Journal Article
See pp. 198-202 in the APA Style Manual for the formatting of a journal article.
Dissertation (Thesis)
See pp. 207-208 in the APA Style Manual for the formatting of a dissertation.
To access dissertations and theses, search the Proquest electronic database. All dissertations and theses are considered "unpublished" even though you have access to these documents through Proquest.
In the past (long, long ago before the internet), dissertation abstracts were published in big, thick, dusty volumes called Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI). At that time, it was the only way to search through vast numbers of dissertations. With the advent of the internet and easy access to full-text dissertations, this practice is now archaic.
Dissertation (Thesis) Reference Formatting
Webpage
Formatting webpages is not clear in APA.
Please add the following guide to referencing web pages to your APA manual (I've formatted this information to fit on the white space on p. 224). Download from MyGateway (File: Add to APA Reference p. 224), Print, and tape into your book.
This reference is roughly based on p. 212 #61 (Informally published or self-archived work) and information on the APA website.
Reference Lists & In-Text Citations
To reference a source (include in reference list), the source MUST be referenced in the text. See pages 174-178 in the APA Style Manual.
The in-text citation can either consist of the author or authors names, a comma, and the year of publication or may consist only of the year of publication if the authors' names are included as part of the sentence. Example 6.11 on page 174 gives examples of both of these in-text citations.
Bibliographies are not used in APA only a list of referenced works. A bibliography includes works that may be relevant and of interest to the reader but have not been directly cited in the text. APA only lists References.
Footnotes
Footnotes are rarely used in APA. Only important information is included and this will be included in the body of the text (if the information isn't important enough for the text, it isn't important enough to be included). References are included at the end and sources noted in the text, so there is no need for footnotes.
Reference Formatting "Test" Questions
For these questions, you will be given either the details of a source and asked to format a reference or you will be given incorrectly formatted references that you must correct.
Continue with Next Page: Conclusion
It is very important that whatever the formatting style used, it is followed consistently and with attention to detail and there is no where this is more important than when formatting references.
Music Education generally uses APA, though musicologists may prefer Turabian, MLA, or Chicago. Many journals use more obscure formatting styles such as Harvard or will have their own formatting. Whatever the case, you must format carefully and as instructed.
APA also varies from some of the other styles in that first names are never used - only initials. This avoids possible gender-bias. Because of this practice, however it is particularly important to avoid pronouns such as "he" or "she" when referencing a researcher.
Chapter 7 of the APA Style Manual provides examples of formatting in dozens of situations, but you will likely need the following most often: book, journal article, dissertation, website. We will focus on referencing these sources, but look through Chapter 7 to get a feel for the different types of sources.
There are a couple of formatting issues that need attention:
order of information
italicization
capitalization
punctuation and spacing.
As a general rule, a period separates each part of the citation.
Book
See pp. 202-205 in the APA Style Manual for the formatting of a book reference.
- Order of Information: Author, Date, Title, Location, Publisher
- Italicization: Title of book is italicized.
- Capitalization: Note specifically that in the title of the book, only the first word is capitalized. Also, proper nouns (names) will be capitalized and the first word after a colon.
- Punctuation: Note the periods after the date, after the title, and at the end of the citation. Also note the location and publisher sections are separated by a colon. Date is in parentheses.
- Additional Information: If the book is edited, the editor's name is placed before the title - separated by a comma, and the editor's initials come before his or her last name.
Journal Article
See pp. 198-202 in the APA Style Manual for the formatting of a journal article.
- Order of Information: Author, Date, Title of article, Title of Journal, volume number, issue number, page numbers.
- Italicization: Title of journal and the volume are both italicized (but not the title of the article or the issue number)
- Capitalization: Note specifically that in the title of the article, only the first word is capitalized. Also, proper nouns (names) will be capitalized and the first word after a colon. In the title of the journal, each major word is capitalized.
- Punctuation: Note the periods after the date, after the article title, and at the end of the citation. Also note that the journal title and volume are separated by a comma, the issue is placed in parenthesis (without space) next to the volume number and a comma comes before the page numbers. Also note that there is no "p." or "pp." used to designate page numbers. Date is in parentheses.
- Additional Information: If the journal was found online, than an additional section starting with the words "Retrieved from..." will be placed at the end of the citation.
Dissertation (Thesis)
See pp. 207-208 in the APA Style Manual for the formatting of a dissertation.
To access dissertations and theses, search the Proquest electronic database. All dissertations and theses are considered "unpublished" even though you have access to these documents through Proquest.
In the past (long, long ago before the internet), dissertation abstracts were published in big, thick, dusty volumes called Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI). At that time, it was the only way to search through vast numbers of dissertations. With the advent of the internet and easy access to full-text dissertations, this practice is now archaic.
Dissertation (Thesis) Reference Formatting
- Order of Information - Author, Date, Title of dissertation, Type of document (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), Name of Institution, Location (or retrieval information for electronically accessed documents).
- Italicization: Title of dissertation is italicized.
- Capitalization: Note specifically that in the title of the dissertation, only the first word is capitalized. Also, proper nouns (names) will be capitalized and the first word after a colon. The name of the institution is capitalized and the location information. Though not clear in this edition of APA, the location is the city and state where the institution is located separated by a comma. If the state is clear from the name of the institution, than state may be omitted (e.g., University of Colorado, Boulder.)
- Punctuation: Note the periods after the date, after the type of document, and at the end of the citation. Also note the name of the institution and location sections are separated by a comma. Date is in parentheses.
- Additional Information: Full text dissertations can now be accessed electronically through Proquest. Retrieval information must be included if electronic copy referenced.
Webpage
Formatting webpages is not clear in APA.
Please add the following guide to referencing web pages to your APA manual (I've formatted this information to fit on the white space on p. 224). Download from MyGateway (File: Add to APA Reference p. 224), Print, and tape into your book.
This reference is roughly based on p. 212 #61 (Informally published or self-archived work) and information on the APA website.
- Order of Information: Author, Date, Title, [Type document if applicable] Retrieved from information. If referencing a specific type of web document (e.g., blog, discussion board), not this in brackets following title. If normal webpage, omit this information.
- Italicization: Title of wepage is not italicized.
- Capitalization: Note specifically that in the title of the webpage, only the first word is capitalized. Also, proper nouns (names) will be capitalized and the first word after a colon.
- Punctuation: Note the periods after the date, after the title. THERE IS NO PERIOD AFTER THE WEB ADDRESS. Date is in parentheses. date". If a specific date is listed on the webpage, also list it specifically in the reference (2010, October 29).
- No date Option: If there is no obvious date on the webpage, than the correct date is "n.d." which stands for "no date".
- No author option: If there is no obvious author for the webpage, use the name of the website as the author (see p. 209 #47 as an approximate example)
- No title option: Use a heading or sub-heading as the title or use the first handful of words with a ... following as a title (as we sometimes do with song titles).
Reference Lists & In-Text Citations
To reference a source (include in reference list), the source MUST be referenced in the text. See pages 174-178 in the APA Style Manual.
The in-text citation can either consist of the author or authors names, a comma, and the year of publication or may consist only of the year of publication if the authors' names are included as part of the sentence. Example 6.11 on page 174 gives examples of both of these in-text citations.
Bibliographies are not used in APA only a list of referenced works. A bibliography includes works that may be relevant and of interest to the reader but have not been directly cited in the text. APA only lists References.
Footnotes
Footnotes are rarely used in APA. Only important information is included and this will be included in the body of the text (if the information isn't important enough for the text, it isn't important enough to be included). References are included at the end and sources noted in the text, so there is no need for footnotes.
Reference Formatting "Test" Questions
For these questions, you will be given either the details of a source and asked to format a reference or you will be given incorrectly formatted references that you must correct.
Continue with Next Page: Conclusion
