Formatting Styles in Social Work

Overview

Disciplines use different formatting styles (e.g., MLA, APA, ASA, IEEE, etc.). For instance, graduate students in History might use the Chicago Manual of Style for formatting their written works while graduate students in Electrical Engineering might use IEEE. Psychology graduate students will most likely use APA formatting style while graduate students in the field of Chemistry might use ACS style.

The bottom line is that part of becoming an advanced-level student in your area of study involves becoming comfortable with using the expected formatting styles within your field.

Formatting Styles in Social Work

Social workers typically use the current APA 7 guidelines in their reports and papers. It is important for students to understand the rules for in-text citations and reference pages. There are separate rules for how references are presented within the paper and on the reference pages.

In addition, APA guidelines present specific formats that should be used for paper headings. APA lays out five levels of paper headings. Most student papers will use only the first two or three levels of headings. APA headings can be very helpful in helping students learn to create structure and outlines for their writing.

APA Resource Links

The following websites provide detailed information about APA formatting.

APA Guides and Handouts: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/handouts-guides
Title Page: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/title-page
Abstracts: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/abstract-keywords-guide.pdf
In-text Citations: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/in-text-citation-checklist.pdf
Grammar Guide: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines
APA Headings: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/headings
Quotations: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/quotations
Direct Quotes Without Page Numbers: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/quotations/no-page-numbers

Reference Pages

Guide for Journal Articles and Books: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf
Sentence Case or Title Case: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/capitalization/sentence-case#:~:text=APA%20Style%20uses%20two%20types,most%20minor%20words%20are%20lowercase
How to Cite Legislation in APA: https://www.scribbr.com/apa-examples/law/#:~:text=To%20cite%20federal%20laws%20(also,year%2C%20and%20optionally%20the%20URL
Common Reference Examples: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-examples.pdf
Reference List Checklist: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/creating-reference-list.pdf

Helpful Formatting Videos

Refer to the three helpful videos below for more information about (1) hanging indents, (2) inserting a hard page break, and (3) using headings and subheadings.

Page updated

Report abuse