APA Style Knowledge Quiz

What does the abbreviation “APA” stand for?

Answer explanation

American Psychological Association

What is the current edition number of the APA Style manual?

Answer explanation

7th edition

What elements are required on an APA Style student title page?

Answer explanation

Paper title, author name, author affiliation, course number and name, instructor name, and assignment due date

What element is required in the page header of both student and professional APA Style papers?

Answer explanation

Page number (aligned to the right margin)

What line spacing should you use for all text in an APA Style paper?

Answer explanation

Double-spacing

How many heading levels is it possible to use in the text of an APA Style paper?

Answer explanation

Five heading levels

What should you write on the first line on the first page of text in all APA Style papers?

Answer explanation

Paper title

Titles for what kinds of works are italicized in APA Style reference lists?

Answer explanation

• Stand-alone works (books, reports, films, songs, webpages, etc.), and

• Periodical titles (journals, magazines, newspapers, blogs, etc.)

APA Style is a “down” style, meaning that words are lowercase unless there is specific guidance to capitalize them. What types of words are always capitalized in APA Style? Provide at least three examples.

Answer explanation

•The first word in a complete sentence

•The first word after a colon in a sentence, if what follows the colon is a complete sentence

•Proper nouns and proper adjectives

•Names of racial and ethnic groups

•Names of specific university departments, academic institutions, and academic courses

•Trade names and brand names

•Job titles or positions that precede a name

•Personal names that appear in the names of diseases, disorders, therapies, treatments, theories, concepts, hypotheses, principles, models, and statistical procedures

•Titles of works and headings within works and their subtitles

•Titles of tests and measures and their subscales

•Nouns followed by numerals or letters that denote a specific place in a series

•Names of derived variables within a factor analysis or principal components analysis

Which type of capitalization is used for the titles of works in reference list entries?

Answer explanation

Sentence case (meaning most words are lowercase)