Module Transcripts:

Emphasis & Specification in APA Style

Slide 2

Title: Emphasis and specification in APA style help you:

Speaker: Welcome to Emphasis and Specification: Ensuring Readability and Clarity in APA Format. This module will walk you through several specific APA guidelines regarding how to specify and emphasize information in your text. Using tools such as capitalization, italics, abbreviations, and punctuation, you will learn how to set apart significant ideas within your work and draw the reader’s attention to important concepts.

Using emphasis and specification guidelines in APA format allow a writer to most clearly and effectively communicate with one’s readers. At times, it is important to draw a reader’s attention to specific information or ideas; at other times, it is necessary to set apart ideas so that readers see them stand out. Additionally, sometimes it is important to avoid misdirecting the reader by using emphasis that suggests bias or lacks objectivity.

In this module, you will walk through guidelines for creating emphasis and specification in APA format using capitalization, italics, abbreviations, and certain forms of punctuation. After learning these guidelines, you will be able to apply them in your own writing of scholarly work to make your ideas clearer and help set apart ideas or highlight specific information for your readers. When you are ready to begin, click “Continue” to go to the next slide.

Slide 2

Title: Capitalization

Speaker: One area of specification and emphasis in APA formatting is capitalization. Capitalization helps to specify particulars in your writing and emphasize important information in your source references. Capitalization occurs in order to specify a particular person, place, section, and so on, or to help identify significant information in your reference list, such as a name or title.

The next section will begin to discuss capitalization guidelines in more detail. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 5

Title: Capitalization: Specifying People, Places, and Things

Speaker: Capitalization can be used to specify people, places, or things and to create acronyms or abbreviations. Specific places are capitalized, like New York City or the Atlantic Ocean, but if I refer to the city or the ocean in general, those words are not capitalized. Specific people are also capitalized, like Queen Elizabeth or the names of researchers in models and theories. However, if I refer to a queen in general or a model or theory without a person’s name in it, those words are not capitalized.

Specific things are also capitalized, like distinction in titles or trade names. For example, I might discuss a department in a school in a general sense, which stays lower case, but if I named that specific department, like the Department of English, I would capitalize “Department”. Additionally, trade names are specific organizations, so they are also capitalized. Acronyms or abbreviations are also capitalized to help with concision and specification (and to ensure that they do not get confused with other words in the text).        

In each of these instances, capitalization helps to move from general to specific and at times even emphasizes the importance of an idea (such as an important and specific person or place). Click each category of capitalization to see examples. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 7

Title: Capitalization: Paper Headings

Speaker: In this example, you can see that the title of the essay as well as the heading include capitalized letters of words more than 4 letters long. There is an exception made for the word my because (a) it is considered a significant word in the title and (b) it is the very first word in the title. Note that this type of capitalization of headings and titles happens in your text, whether you are using your own heading or discussing the title of someone else’s work. Capitalizing titles helps to emphasize to your reader that this information is something significant. 

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 8

Title: Capitalization: Source Titles

Speaker: Capitalization also helps to emphasize important concepts, such as headings, and set them apart from general ideas within the text. In your text, you’ll want to be sure to capitalize all words that are more than four letters long in a title or heading. Shorter words, such as and, of, and so on would not be capitalized.  

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 9

Title: Capitalization: Reference Entries

Speaker: In your reference entries, capitalization follows four general rules that are slightly different than in your text: You capitalize only the first word of a title, the first word after a colon, all journal titles, and proper nouns. These guidelines allow specific parts of your reference entries to be emphasized for the readers, and they adhere to APA’s formatting rules. 

Click each reference entry component you should capitalize to view an example. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 10

Title: Remember: Do NOT Capitalize

Speaker: As a refresher, while capitalization can be helpful in emphasizing and specifying, it should not be used for the names of theories, titles within your reference list, or models, with the exception of journal titles. Because models and theories are not proper names in and of themselves, they do not require capital letters. For example, writing about the theory of transformational leadership does not require any capitalization within APA format.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 20

Title: Recap: Capitalization

Speaker: Remember that to help specify and emphasize important concepts within APA format, you will capitalize proper nouns, major words in titles, major words in headings, journal titles in reference lists, and abbreviations or acronyms. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 2

Title: Italics

Speaker: Italics also assist in emphasis and specification. Specifically in APA format, italics help to set words apart from the rest of the text, to highlight them. While they do not provide overt emphasis, or an emphasis of the writer’s voice, they do help to bring the reader’s attention to the term or phrase. In this section, we will discuss the use of italics in APA format. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 3

Title: Using Italics for Titles of Larger Works

Speaker: One of the first uses of italics in APA format is to set apart larger, more significant types of titles. For example, book titles, journal titles, magazine titles, DVD titles, and report titles are common documents that require italics. 

Click each type of title to see an example. When you have finished reviewing the examples and are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 4

Title: Using Italics for Genra, Species, and Foreign Language

Speaker: A writer should also use italics in APA format to call out non-English words or phrases. For example, writers should italicize Latin phrases or species names, as well as other foreign words. Words that originated as foreign expressions but have become accepted into general English, however, do not require italics.

See the examples given here. When you have finished reviewing the examples and are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 5

Title: Using Italics for New, Technical, or Key Terms

Speaker: To call attention to new terminology or key terms, writers would again use italics. In APA, new terms, technical terms, or key terms are often italicized. Remember to use italics for any lists of search terms regarding your own research as well.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 6

Title: Using Italics for Linguistic Examples

Speaker: It is important to use italics to highlight words that are used in unusual ways. One specific example of this is the need to italicize any word that is a linguistic example. Typically, linguistic examples are preceded by the phrases “the word” or “the term”.  When you are talking about a word and not using it for its meaning, then you will italicize it.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 7

Title: Using Italics for Parts of a Scale or Measurement

Speaker: Italics are also used to indicate parts of a scale or measurements. This does not refer to physical measurements like inches or feet. Instead, it refers to measurements of ratings, such as agree, neutral, and disagree.  These parts of a scale should also be italicized when you write about them in APA format.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 8

Title: Using Italics for Volume Numbers in Reference Entries

Speaker: In APA reference entries, there are specific items that require italics. All titles of journals should be italicized, as well as any volume number for a journal entry. These are APA-specific requirements in your reference entries.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 9

Title: Do NOT Use Italics for Emphasis

Speaker: While APA format uses italics to set apart and highlight different ideas and terms throughout your writing,

academic writing and APA do not allow for italics to be used simply to emphasize the writer’s tone. Instead, to add specific emphasis, writers must work within the bounds of syntax and sentence formation. They must avoid using italics to emphasize their tone or feelings; this sort of emphasis could lead to bias and informal tone in one’s academic writing.

Click the unaccepted uses of italics to view corrected revisions. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 19

Title: Recap: Italics

Speaker: Remember that italics can be helpful in highlighting significant terms or setting apart new information for your readers. You should use italics in APA format when you are listing larger titles, species, foreign words, linguistic examples, key terms, parts of a scale, and journal volume numbers in your reference entry. Do not italicize any phrases or words that are merely meant to emphasize your tone or feelings; instead, use unbiased and objective sentence structure to bring the important ideas to the forefront of the reader’s attention.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 2

Title: Abbreviations

Speaker: Often APA format uses abbreviations to help shorten specific details. Abbreviations allow both reader and writer to see the specific information in a very concise and consolidated manner. They are often used to ease your reader’s burden and simplify your text, specifying information without taking up more space on the page. In this section, we will discuss some specific APA guidelines for using abbreviations.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 3

Title: Using Abbreviations for Introducing

Speaker: The purpose of an abbreviation is to provide a shortened version of a specific term, typically a person, place, or thing. Writers typically use abbreviations for long words or items that may be repeated frequently throughout the work and seem wordy if repeated often. For example, the name of an organization might be abbreviated if it is used frequently throughout a paper. 

It is up to the writer to determine if adding an abbreviation will help ease the reader’s experience. It is important to consider the reader, as abbreviating a word that is not frequently used in the text might instead confuse the reader or cause him or her to have to continually refer back to remember what the abbreviation is referring to.

Before a writer can use an abbreviation, however, the full term must first be written out once in the text. Then, the abbreviation comes in parentheses directly after that word or phrase. It is important to remember that every abbreviation must be introduced.

Click to see the example of an abbreviation in context. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 4

Title: Using Abbreviations for Latin Abbreviations

Speaker: Some abbreviations only occur in specific contexts. For example, common Latin abbreviations should only be used within parentheses. View this webpage for examples of when to use and not use Latin abbreviations. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 5

Title: Using Abbreviations for Units of Measurement

Speaker: One common use for abbreviations is referring to units of measurement. APA uses the common abbreviations for measurements like centimeters, hours, Hertz, and so on.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 6

Title: Making Abbreviations Plural

Speaker: To make an abbreviation plural, the writer simply needs to add an s to the abbreviation. The exception would be measurements—the standard measurement abbreviations do not receive plural “s”s.

Click each abbreviation to see how it would be used as a plural noun in a sentence. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 7

Title: Using Abbreviations to Start a Sentence

Speaker: Once the writer introduces an abbreviation, he or she can use that abbreviation all throughout the rest of that text. In fact, abbreviations can even begin a sentence, so long as they are replacing a word that typically begins a sentence.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 18

Title: Using Abbreviations to Start a Sentence

Speaker: In APA format, abbreviations are used to ease your reader’s burden and simplify your text, shortening the specifics. Remember to introduce abbreviations and then you can use them throughout the entirety of your text to allow your readers specific information without sifting through wordy or long paragraphs.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 2

Title: Punctuation

Speaker: APA format sometimes uses punctuation to help emphasize and specify information within a text. Punctuation such as brackets, parentheses, and quotation marks help important information stand out to the reader.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 3

Title: Punctuation: Parentheses

Speaker: : One type of punctuation that helps specify and emphasize information is parentheses. Parentheses have multiple purposes. One purpose of parentheses that helps set apart information is that they are used to introduce abbreviations. Every time an abbreviation is introduced for the first time, it should be written in parentheses directly after the full word.

Parentheses also help to specify and emphasize source information in APA format by setting apart in-text citations. Whenever a writer cites a source in APA format, he or she must use parentheses to specify that the information provided came from that particular source.

Parentheses are also used to emphasize a comment or allow for additional information in a sentence in an aside or side note. The writer can specify or clarify ideas, as well as give emphasis to certain information by providing these side notes in the text.

Click each use of parentheses to see examples. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 4

Title: Punctuation: Brackets

Speaker: When one encounters an instance where parentheses are needed within parentheses, the writer would instead use brackets. Brackets function as parentheses within parentheses, and they also allow the writer to further specify or emphasize information in a citation or in a sentence.

Review the examples given on this page. When you are ready to move forward, click “continue.”

Slide 5

Title: Punctuation: Quotation Marks

Speaker: Another type of punctuation that APA format uses to specify and emphasize information is the quotation mark. Quotation marks are used to indicate smaller works that appear within larger works. You may remember from the italics section that larger works like book titles and TV series were italicized. The shorter sections within those larger works, like a chapter in a book, or an episode in a TV series, would appear in quotation marks. The quotation marks emphasize the source and specify the title, but show that it is a smaller work within something larger.

Click each type of work to see an example of how quotation marks are used in each title. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 6

Title: Punctuation: Quotation Marks

Speaker: Quotation marks also help to specify when someone else is speaking. They give emphasis to the fact that the information given is not in the author’s own words. Thus, quotation marks are used in APA format to indicate dialogue or direct quotations.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 17

Title: Recap: Punctuation

Speaker: APA uses punctuation such as parentheses, brackets, and quotation marks to help specify and emphasis important information such as citations, quotations, titles of shorter works, or abbreviations, making them stand out in a text.  They assist the reader in both specifying and emphasizing information.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 2

Title: Emphasis & Specification Recap and Review

Speaker: Using APA’s guidelines for emphasis and specification helps to ensure that communication between you and your readers is clear and accurate. Be sure to follow APA’s guidelines by using appropriate capitalization, italics, abbreviations and acronyms, and punctuation.

When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

Slide 3

Visual: Emphasis & Specification Recap and Review

Speaker: As you consider each category of emphasis and specification in APA style, remember that each helps to emphasize and specify information within an academic paper. Each of these categories, if used per APA’s formatting guidelines, provides the writer with tools to ensure clear and consistent communication. 

Click on each category for a review of what it entails. When you are ready to move forward, click “Continue.”

• Capitalization helps specify and emphasize information.
• Italics set apart important ideas.
• Abbreviations shorten specifics for the ease of the reader.
• Punctuation can help specific information stand out in your text.