Writing Textbooks Boundless Writing Writing a Paper in APA Style (Social Sciences) APA: Structure and Formatting of Specific Elements
Writing Textbooks Boundless Writing Writing a Paper in APA Style (Social Sciences)
Writing Textbooks Boundless Writing
Writing Textbooks
Writing
Concept Version 8
Created by Boundless

APA: Series and Lists

In APA style, there are specific formats for series and lists.

Learning Objective

  • Distinguish between correctly formatted lists and series in APA style

Key Points

    • If you are including a simple, relatively short list of three to five elements, format it as a "series." 
    • If you have more than five elements, or your elements are complex or important, format it as a "list."
    • Use a bulleted list if the order of the atoms doesn't matter.
    • Use a numbered list if the order of the atoms does matter.

Terms

  • series

    A simple, relatively short list of three to five items within a paragraph.

  • element

    An item within a series or list.

Full Text

Series

If you are including a simple, relatively short list of three to five items within a paragraph—also known as a series—the proper formatting is to: (a) precede the list with a comma, (b) label each item with a lowercase letter enclosed in parentheses, and (c) separate each item with commas or semicolons. The items within a series or a list are known as “elements."

As is standard in most style guides, use semicolons rather than commas to separate the elements of the series if at least one of the elements includes a comma somewhere within it (known as an “internal comma”). For example: “Josie was so hungry she ate: (a) the brownie; (b) the cupcake, wrapper and all; and (c) the bowl of ice cream.” Do not capitalize the first letter of each element (e.g., do not write: (a) The brownie; (b) The cupcake, wrapper and all; and (c) The bowl of ice cream.)

Lists

You will want to use a list rather than a series if any of the following is true:

  • you have more than five elements,
  • your elements are complex phrases or full sentences, or
  • the information is important enough to deserve being visually distinguished from the rest of the text of your paper.

Lists differ from series in that they appear separate from a paragraph rather than embedded within it. However, the same rules of capitalization and of using commas or semicolons to separate the elements apply.

Unlike a series, a list can include elements that are all full sentences, or even paragraphs. If this is the case, each element should end with a period, rather than a comma or semicolon, and should begin with a capital letter.

To better visually distinguish a list from the surrounding text, be sure to leave an extra (blank) line between the last line of the list and the first line of the following paragraph.

Bulleted Lists

You should use a bulleted list if the order of the items doesn’t matter. Each element of the list should start on a new line. The bullet points should be indented one inch from the left page margin, and the text of each element should be indented a further 0.5 inches from the bullet point itself.

Numbered Lists

If the order of your elements does matter—e.g., if you’re outlining a step-by-step process, a summary of how an event unfolded over time, or a series of items in order of importance—you will need to use a numbered list.

As with a bulleted list, each element should start on a new line. The first element should begin with the number 1, the second with the number 2, and so on. These numbers should be followed by periods, and the text of each element should be indented a further 0.5 inches from the beginning number.

[ edit ]
Edit this content
Prev Concept
APA: Headings
APA: Block Quotations
Next Concept