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CO 211: Introduction to Journalism

AP Style vs. APA Style

Associated Press logo

What is AP Style?

AP (Associated Press) style is a specific set of writing guidelines established by the Associated Press that are related to terminology, spelling, grammar and language usage. It is not a citation format, but rather a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. It includes sections on sports, business, punctuation, media law, photo captions, editing marks and digital security.

What is the Associated Press?

The Associated Press is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are distributed to its members, major U.S. daily newspapers and radio and television broadcasters. 

What is APA Style?

APA (American Psychological Association) style is a writing style and format for academic documents such as scholarly journal articles and books that has been established by the American Psychological Association. It is commonly used for citing sources within the field of behavioral and social sciences. Like other citation styles, APA Style applies not only citing sources, but to overall writing, formatting and design of documents.

What is the American Psychological Association?

The American Psychological Association is the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States, with more than 157,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students as its members. 

APA 7th Edition - detailed

APA 7th Edition Paper Template (Template by Kathryn L. Lubniewski, Ed.D. Monmouth University)

Citation Help


Citation Help

Here are some great resources to help with proper citation styles:

For detailed information on how to use NoodleTools, please see the library's NoodleTools Research & Citation Manager research guide.

Zotero also offers a citation generator called ZoteroBib - see box on this page for details!


APA: Citing an Electronic Journal Article


Citing a Journal Article in APA Style

APA citation with various parts identified: in order-Authors listed last name first, with first initial; Publication date in parentheses; article title with only proper names capitalized; Journal title in italics, publication volume number in italics immediately followed by issue number in parentheses; DOI number

  • Only the first word in an article title and any proper nouns in that title should be capitalized.
  • Journal title and volume number should be in italics.
  • DOI number must be complete URL (starts with https://)
  • APA 7th Edition Paper Template (Template by Kathryn L. Lubniewski, Ed.D. Monmouth University)