ASA Format
1. What is the ASA format?
The ASA Style Guide is an academic style manual created for scholars to make publications in American Sociological Association journals. As a rule, this style of formatting is used for sociology papers.
2. General ASA style guidelines
As ASA is a style for papers that are to be published in journals, there are no specific formatting instructions. However, the recommendations are as follows: double spacing, 12-point font size, Times New Roman font, 1.25” margins on all four sides, and the page number in the lower right corner. The works cited section should be on a separate page. There should be a running head with the title of the paper in the upper left corner of each page. Such a title should consist of no more than 60 characters with spaces.
3. Title page for the ASA format
Depending on the professor’s instructions, the information about the paper can be given both on a separate page and at the top of the first page of the main body of the paper. In both cases, the title should contain the student’s first and last name, number of the class or course, the semester, and the professor’s last name.
4. ASA citation style
4.1 In-text citations
For an in-text ASA citation, the ASA bibliography format proposes to use the author-year system. After a piece of text, the parenthesis with a year of publication preceded by the last name of the author should follow (e.g., Lastname 2018). If a direct quote is provided in the text, the citation must include the page number, which should be added right after the year of publication and separated from it with a colon (no spaces needed).
4.2 ASA format citation for different media:
ASA citation book: Hawking, Stephen W. 2018. Title of a Book. Edition. City of Publication, State of Publication: Publication Company.
Journal article: Hawking, Stephen W. 2018. “Title of an Article.” Title of a Journal volume/issue: page(s).
Blog: Hawking, Stephen W. 2018. “Title of Post.” Title of Blog. Retrieval date (source/ URL (or DOI)).
Video on DVD: Hawking, Stephen W. 2018. Title of a Video. Medium. Location of Publication or Production: Publication or Production Company.
Video on the web: Hawking, Stephen W. 2018. “Title of a Video.” Website. Retrieval date and source/ URL (or DOI).
Lecture or presentation: Hawking, Stephen W. 2018. “Title of a Lecture or a Presentation.” Place, date, city, and state of a lecture or a presentation.
Newspaper article: Hawking, Stephen W. 2018. “Title of an Article.” Title of Periodical. Retrieval date (source/ URL (or DOI)).
ASA citation website: Hawking, Stephen W. 2018. “Title of Content.” Website Name. Retrieval date (source/ URL (or DOI)).
If some piece of information about the source is not available, the ASA citation guide allows to omit it.