How to Create an APA in PowerPoint

APA referencing is commonly used in papers about psychological research.

American Psychological Association (APA) referencing is commonly used in the social sciences in academic and research papers. Using APA formatting ensures that you acknowledge all contributions to your work. It also helps you avoid unintentional plagiarism. Although APA is generally used for papers, it can also be used in PowerPoint presentations. Correctly using APA in a PowerPoint presentation involves using the same rules for regular APA referencing, except that you treat your slides like pages of a paper.

Things You'll Need

• APA manual

Instructions

1. Type a quotation or paraphrase into a slide in PowerPoint. For example, type "To be, or not to be."

2. Type the last name of the author and the year of publication in parentheses. For example, if you took the quote from a 2003 edition of "Hamlet," type "(Shakespeare, 2003)."

3. Insert a slide at the end of your PowerPoint presentation. Click "New Slide" from the "Home" tab and then click the icon for the slide with a title and content.

4. Click the slide title and then type "References."

5. Click the content area and then type the last name, initial, year of publication, book title, place of publication and publisher name. In the above example, type "Shakespeare, W. (2003). Hamlet. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster."

Tips & Warnings

• APA formatting rules literally take up a whole book. If you are referencing anything other than a single-author English version of a book, consult an APA manual for the correct format of the reference.

References

• Purdue University; Reference List : Books; Elizabeth Angeli, et al.; Dec. 9, 2010
• PowerFinish: Inserting a New Slide Into PowerPoint

Resources

• Purdue University; General APA Guidelines; Elizabeth Angeli, et al.; April 19, 2011