When you write a research paper, if you borrow ideas from authors, including you for different things, you need to reference the other parties in your work. While DMU uses the current vision of APA for Psychology and Counseling, other areas use different things. For example, Turabian/Chicago is useful for Theology or Philosophy. The MLA is appropriate for English.

For the purposes of DMU, most of the time you will be asked to follow the current version of APA style unless told otherwise.

In most circumstances, you will be following official APA rules for guidance on how to construct citations. However, classical and religious sources require a specialized application of APA guidelines.  Take a moment to review the following guide, developed by Divine Mercy University faculty, on specific constructions for classical and religious resources.  The guide is linked below.

DMU Supplemental Guide for APA style for classical and religious sources

As a corollary to the APA style guides, DMU has a tool through APA serving as both a reference tool and a writing tool that allows you to write your papers in a way that streamlines the process.

The links are below:

APA Style Website - http://www.apastyle.org/index.aspx (Links to an external site.)
APA Style Blog - http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/

Crossref and DOI Addresses

The APA 7th edition of style requires including source links or DOI links/URLs whenever possible. The Crossref site's metadata search is a great tool to help you find DOI links/URLs for references. When including them, include them as a URL or a web link (https://doi.org/XX.XXXX/XXXX-XXXXXXXXXX).

Tips

Remember - APA Academic Writer offers several online tutorials on various APA-style constructions with plenty of visual aids and examples to reinforce your learning. With its friendly interface, APA Academic Writer serves students who are new to academic writing and APA style, as well as those who are more advanced in their academic careers but need to deepen their understanding of APA style rules. A few important notes:

If you are not sure how to format an assignment according to APA standards, it is always a good idea to ask your professors for assistance.

Located within APA Academic Writer and the Manual, you can find sample papers and reference lists to guide you.

Another good idea is to keep a running Word or Google doc that has different kinds of references listed (e.g. a book with multiple authors, an online journal article published by a group, etc). When you are using a similar type of reference, you can simply copy and paste these types of references into your document, and substitute the names of the authors, titles, and publication details. It saves some time and research.

Learning APA takes practice and is not learned overnight.  By knowing what expectations apply to different kinds of assignments, as well as where you can find answers and samples for all of your APA questions, you will become more comfortable with using APA in all of your academic work.

Check For Any Additional Needed Information

When you are finished adding and citing your resources, it is best to consider checking to see if you need any additional information. Further details are found here.

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