APA Format

Introduction

APA stands for the American Psychological Association. Most papers that use APA formatting and citation style are those written in the Social Sciences: Psychology, History, Political Science, Economics, Geography, and Sociology.

In addition to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, the APA maintains its own website with multiple examples of how to format your paper and cite your sources.

Papers constructed according to APA guidelines generally include the following elements:

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Body
• Subsections within the body, with headings
• Tables and Figures
• References

In most cases, each of these elements will begin on a separate page. For specific types of reports, your subsections may need to be named with headings that reflect the type of report you are writing. For example, in reports on experiments or studies you’ll usually need to follow the IMRAD structure with Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. Be sure to check with your instructor to determine what the expectations are for your paper.

The APA style examples in this section will provide you with more information regarding APA basic formatting, in-text citations, and the references list. This information follows the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. It’s important to remember that APA guidelines change over time, so it’s essential to stay current with the latest information.

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APA Format-Video

Summary

APA style is one of the most common citation and formatting styles you will encounter in your academic career. Any piece of academic writing can use APA style, from a one-page paper to a full-length book. It is widely used by hundreds of scientific journals and many textbooks. APA style is based on the style guide of the American Psychological Association (APA), officially titled the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. But APA style is not used only in the field of psychology; in fact, it is extremely common throughout the social and behavioral sciences, and somewhat common in other scientific fields, such as medicine.

The APA style guide aims to accomplish several goals:

1. to ensure consistent formatting and presentation of information, for the sake of clarity and ease of navigation;
2. to ensure proper attribution of ideas to their original sources, for the sake of intellectual integrity; and
3. to provide a clear structural scaffold for an experimental paper, for the sake of scientific rigor.

The guidelines provided in this section are valuable resources for implementing APA format. Keep in mind that there are a variety of online resources and library references to assist you in mastering these concepts and skills. Some key formatting guidelines to keep in mind include using 12 point Times New Roman font, 1’’ margins all the way around the paper, and double spacing. Additionally, your paper should include a title page, a Running Head (which should not be longer than 50 spaces) and page numbers. Other tips include using black font and indent the first word in every paragraph one half inch.

Also, be sure you are including a reference section at the end to include all of the sources used throughout your paper. Your reference page should include the title References and be centred at the top of the paper. It is also very important to cite your work properly, even when you are paraphrasing. This will help you avoid plagiarism, which is a very serious offense. Your citation should include the last name of the author and the year (Doe, 2018), along with the page number when you are using direct quotes. Quotes that are longer than 40 words should be put into block quotation format which does not include quotation marks.

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