Apa Paper Format With Instructions Page 4
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introduction should tell a story. Avoid starting paragraphs with “Now I will tell you about what
Author and Writer (2015) did” or “Author and Writer (2015) did xyz” without explaining how
the literature is related to your overall topic. A good rule of thumb is to start each paragraph with
a topic sentence that describes what the paragraph will be about. Then, the last sentence of the
paragraph should link the information presented in the paragraph back to the main topic of your
paper. If you are having trouble, try having a friend read the first and last sentences of each
paragraph in your introduction, and then ask them to describe the introduction to you. If they can
clearly understand and explain the story you are trying to tell in your introduction, then you are
probably in good shape. If they are confused, missing key elements of the introduction, or feel
the introduction is disorganized, then you need to work on your topic sentences and the clarity of
your story.
It is important to understand how to appropriately cite sources in your introduction, and
throughout the rest of your paper. When you cite a source within the body of your paper, it is
sometimes referred to as an internal or in-text citation. If there is only one author (e.g., Tulving,
1983), or two authors (e.g., Nunes & Weinstein, 2012), it is easy - you always refer to the paper
in the same way: using one or both authors. If there are 3-5 authors on a paper, however, the first
time you cite a source you list all of the authors’ last names and the year (e.g., Dunlosky,
Rawson, Marsh, Nathan, & Willingham, 2013; Karpicke, Blunt, Smith, & Karpicke, 2014;
Marsh, Meade, & Roediger, 2003); but after the first time, you mention only the first author by
name and then say “and colleagues” or “et al.”, and the year (e.g., Karpicke et al., 2014). Finally,
if a paper has six or more authors, then you mention only the first author and refer to the
remaining authors as colleagues (using either “and colleagues” or “et al.”) right from the
beginning. For example, this is the first time I am citing Angeli and colleagues (2010); however,
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