apa paper writing format

apa paper writing format

The Importance of Proper APA Paper Writing Format

1. Introduction to APA Style

Established to improve scientific, behavioral, and technological practices in psychology, the American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. With over 100,000 members, it also includes the largest association of mental health professionals internationally. The APA published its inaugural edition of the APA Publication Manual in 1952. Written for anyone working on a manuscript for submission to a publication, it is now in its sixth edition. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is an excellent and extensive guide to writing style and formatting for students and professionals who need to use APA style. If you are writing a paper for a sociology, psychology, criminal justice, education, or business class, it is likely you will be asked to use APA. For business, it is commonly used to write executive summaries, papers, and proposal essays.

Academics are required to follow the rules and standards of research writing in order to communicate clearly and concisely with one another. Without these rules and standards, academic writing would devolve into incomprehensible gobbledygook. The American Psychological Association, a scientific and professional organization specializing in psychology, produced a style manual to reduce instances of bias in language and standardize the structure and format of research papers. This manual has been updated many times since it was first published in 1929 and is widely used in the social and behavioral sciences, including education, sociology, psychology, and business. Properly using APA style can help maintain consistency and make it easy for your readers to move from one point of your paper to the next, running smooth transitions between your concluding and introductory ideas.

2. Key Components of APA Paper Format

The following information is presented in articles about the APA paper format in The Concise Rules of APA (2010). If you are interested in the specifics, please feel free to find and read these articles for more information about APA paper writing format. When writing up an academic piece of writing, it is always best to follow a given required format. As a successful writer, an individual should learn the proper way to include and space a title page, abstract, paper body, and a reference list. In addition, a writer should incorporate a proper APA format for any in-text citations as well as being able to weave and cite several scholarly sources into the research problem. An APA paper should be roughly 10-12 pages in length (and the main body, not the title page or reference page). Therefore, when writing an APA paper, an individual must keep communicative language in a formal and professional manner appropriate for graduate work. In a formal APA paper, the individual should use third person and avoid utilizing “I” or “we”.

When it comes to writing in an academic setting, there are a variety of writing styles one may need to adopt. Being familiar and comfortable with a writing style can be beneficial in a number of ways. The American Psychological Association (APA) is a style that authors and researchers in the social sciences, business, and some of the life sciences often utilize. More specifically, there is a proper APA paper format that can help guide and shape one’s writing, should this style be needed. Part of academic success is knowing your audience. The audience in the social sciences, for example, is typically a knowledgeable one. Having an informative and properly written APA paper can help ensure an author communicates well with this kind of audience.

3. Citing Sources in APA Style

A lot of college students mess up their APA paper writing format because they don’t cite sources correctly. If you don’t acknowledge and cite your sources correctly, you may be accused of plagiarism—a very risky position. Whenever in doubt, cite sources; and when in doubt about citation, see your instructor. If you do not have to adhere to the APA manual. But ask yourself some questions: Do you respect yourself as a serious, intellectual scholar? Do you respect your classmates and your professors? If you answer yes to both questions, then you have a duty to produce professional work, and that includes following the citation format your professor assigns. It will certainly be worth your while in the long run, so consider it a lesson in academic survival. Below are some examples of common types of sources and how they are properly cited in the APA style. Note that attempts have been made to include examples of works consulted in this manual when citing sources.

APA-styled papers always require you to acknowledge and cite sources that are not your own. This could include information that is quoted directly, information presented in your own words, or original ideas originated by someone else. There is a right way and a wrong way to acknowledge sources used in college-level writing, so it’s of crucial importance that you learn the rules and guidelines for citing sources in the APA style. To cite a source correctly means that you have integrated it effectively within your own text, specified (either in parentheses or in the interview text) who created it, and given the reader enough information to easily locate the referenced material in the APA References page if he or she so chooses.

4. Common Mistakes to Avoid in APA Formatting

When referencing, a common mistake to avoid is not including all the resources used. If you went to the trouble of finding the information, you should be sure to add it to the reference list. Even if you have a very large list of references, failing to complete the list can be detrimental to your paper. Unfortunately, no credit is awarded to authors whose work you used, so you need to be extremely careful to ensure everyone is accounted for. Additionally, section alignment is something you should ensure is done properly. Procrastination is not a valid excuse for error when the APA writing format is used. Sneaky mistakes like this seem innocent, but they can be a significant red mark on your score.

In-text citations are incredibly important, as writing is all about borrowing from other works to further your own ideas. If you fail to cite your sources, you could be facing a serious academic offense case. Thus, correctly citing your sources after each occurrence is paramount. Oftentimes, citing even once per paragraph may be necessary, depending on your paper’s content. This is because each new thought has to be properly attributed to its place of origin. Furthermore, citing old information can be dangerous, as advancements may have been made that could challenge or refute those conclusions. In APA format, the author and date follow the content in a set citation style, which knowledge of is crucial to correct and ethical research writing.

5. Conclusion and Final Tips

In order to provide the reader with an effective working model for submitting manuscripts, organizations like the American Psychological Association have created guidelines. Specific publication manuals, which have been adopted worldwide, particularly in the scholarly community of human and social sciences, encompass APA. By addressing general stylistic issues, this allows for more uniformity, particularly in coursework essays and other written reports. If English is not your first language or primary mode of communication, the use of precise terminology and guidelines can be particularly useful. The final tip to becoming a master of APA format is to use journal articles and other academic items as practice. Online databases and libraries like Google Scholar are good places to start. You will see precise ways to do APA citations and resource entries by searching for more written work. Reading columns written in ASA, Chicago, or MLA may be less helpful.

In conclusion, an APA format paper can make all of the key differences for a better scholarly document. Being clear and concise from the title to the last word will give the reader a positive impression from the start. Distinguishing which words must be capitalized or which descriptors are allowed as well adds professionalism to written work. This writing style is the standard all over North America and is leading the way in literature. Writing in this manner will be beneficial to academic work as a whole. Following these guidelines will significantly assist in crafting an excellent APA paper.