APA 6 Style Guide

"APA Style" refers to the guidelines published by the American Psychological Association (APA) in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.  

The manual publishes the Association's rules on how to format a paper, how to document research sources you use, and other matters of writing style. 

The APA published an updated 7th edition of the manual in 2019, but many classes are still using the 6th edition, so we made this guide.

If you need information about APA 7th edition, you can see that guide at cflibguides.lonestar.edu/apa

If you're not sure which edition of APA to use, ask your professor. 

Why is APA so important?

If you don't use a citation style to document the sources you used to help write a research paper, you're in danger of plagiarism.

Even if you don't mean to plagiarize, not citing your sources correctly might make it look as though you're passing someone else's words or ideas off as your own. There are serious consequences for plagiarism at Lone Star College. 

The best way to protect yourself from plagiarism is to get familiar with APA style and use it consistently. 

Librarians are also standing by to help you with APA and other citation styles: contact us with any questions you have about citation or APA style.

What do you need help with?