Writingpedia American Sociological Association (ASA) Style

All text (including footnotes & references) must be doubled spaced and in a 12 point type.

Margins must be at least 1 ¼ inches on all four sides.

A separate title page including title of paper, name(s) & institution(s) of authors, word count for the manuscript (including footnotes and references), title footnote (includes names, addresses of authors, acknowledgements, credits, and grants).

If required, on a separate page provide a short (150-200 word) abstract headed with the title.

Begin the text of the paper on a separate page headed with the title of the paper.

Citations in Text:

Basic form for citations in the text include the last name of the author(s) and year of publication. Include page number when you quote directly from the work or refer to specific passages

If author’s name is in the text, follow it with the publication year in parentheses When Chu (1977) studied

If the author’s name is not in the text, enclose the last name and year in parentheses: When the study was completed…(Jones 1994)

If the page number is to be included it follows the year of publication after a colon: …Chavez (1966:16)

For three authors, give all last names in the first citation in the text; afterwards use the first name and et al.; for more than three names, use the first author’s last name plus et al.: (Smith, Garcia and Lee 1954) (Snow et al. 1989)

Quotations in the text must begin and end with quotation marks; the citation follows the end quote mark and precedes the period.

"In 1999, however, the data were reported by more specific job types which showed that technologically oriented jobs paid better" (Hildenbrand 1999:47).

Footnotes & Endnotes:

Try to avoid footnotes, but if necessary, use footnotes to cite material of limited availability or to add information presented in a table.

Footnotes should be numbered consecutively throughout the essay with superscript Arabic numerals and included at the bottom of the paper or in a separate section headed "Endnotes."

Reference List (Bibliography):

References follow the text and footnotes in a separate section headed "References."

All references cited in the text must be listed and vice-versa.

Remember references should be double-spaced.

List references in alphabetical order by author’s last names.

Use hanging indention

Invert the authors’ name; if there are two or more authors, invert only the first author’s name.

Arrange multiple items by the same author in order by year of publication, earliest year first.

Use six hyphens and a period(------.) in place of the name(s) for repeated authorship. Distinguish works by the same author in the same year by adding letters (e.g. 1993a, 1993b, 1993c).

Use italics for book and periodical titles (underline if italics are not available).

If no date is available use "N.d." in place of the date.

Include both city and state for place of publication except for New York using U.S.

Postal Code abbreviations. For foreign cities provide the name of the country.

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