American Psychological Association (APA) provides guidelines to reference sources. As a rule, every source cited on the APA style reference page should appear in the reference list. In this case, all sources should be in a separate page at the end of the document. Also, the page should have the title “References.” Hence, the reference page in the APA style should have sources listed in alphabetical or chronological order, starting with the surname, titles in the sentence case, and standard margins and indentations.
Sources in the Alphabetical Order
The APA style reference page should have sources listed in the alphabetical order. For instance, one should arrange all sources cited in the alphabetical order of the author’s last name in the APA format. Basically, the surname of the first author in a source determines its position in the reference list. For multiple sources by one author, a person must arrange them in the chronological order. In turn, a student should use the titles of the sources to determine the reference that comes first. Besides, there are similar sources written in different years. For example, one should list from the earliest to the latest edition. In this case, a student should register the oldest version of a source first, followed by the subsequent ones. Therefore, sources in the APA reference page should appear in chronological or alphabetical order.
Surnames in the APA Style Reference Page
The names of the authors in the reference list should be inverted. For instance, one should give the last name of the authors followed by initials. Basically, entries in the reference list should only have the surnames. In this case, the APA formatting allows scholars to give the last name for authors of sources for up to the seventh one. Along these lines, one should include all names for references with seventh authors. Besides, one should list the first six surnames followed by an ellipse and the last author. The case applies to sources with more than seven authors. Thus, the APA 6th edition format allows scholars to invert authors’ names in the reference list.
Sentence Case for the APA Style References
Titles of the sources in the reference list should be in sentence case. For instance, all major and minor words should be lowercased in the APA style reference page. In this case, articles, prepositions, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, verbs, subsidiary conjunctions and coordinating conjunctions must appear in lowercase. Only nouns should have their first letters in uppercase. Therefore, only names should appear in uppercase for all sources in the APA format reference page.
Margins and Indentations
The APA style reference page should have standard margins and indentations. For example, the title reference and first sentence of every entry should start at one inch from the margin of the page. In particular, the title “References” should appear at one inch below the top margin. Besides, the author’s name of every source should start at one inch from the left margin of the page. Then, the second and subsequent sentences in an entry should appear in hanging indentation. In turn, the second and following lines should start at one and a half inch from the left margin. Besides, the positioning should be uniform for all sources. Thus, the APA style reference page should have consistent margins and indentations.
Conclusion on the APA Style Reference Page
In conclusion, the APA style reference page must have sources listed in alphabetical or chronological order. Then, the APA reference format should have the inverted names of the authors. Finally, the titles in the APA paper should appear in the sentence case, and the page must have standard margins and indentations.