Demystifying APA Format for Students

Introduction APA format is the official style of the American Psychological Association[N1]. APA is commonly used to cite sources in psychology, education, and the social sciences. The APA style originated in a 1929 article published in Psychological Bulletin that laid out the basic guidelines. These guidelines were eventually expanded into the APA Publication Manual. So why is APA format so important in psychology and other social sciences? By using APA style, researchers and students writing about psychology are able to communicate information about their ideas and experiments in a consistent format. Sticking to a consistent style allows readers to know what to look for as they read journal articles and other forms of psychological writing. If you have never taken a psychology or social science class before, then you are probably accustomed to using a different style guide such as MLA or Chicago style.

New college students are often surprised to find that after spending years having another formatting style drilled into their heads, many university-level classes instead require APA style. It can be a difficult transition, especially if you have to bounce back and forth between different styles for different classes Content. There are 4 Major Sections of Your Paper: 1. Title Page Your title page should contain a running head, title, author name, and school affiliation.

The purpose of your title page is to let the reader quickly know what your paper is about and who it was written by. Learn more about writing an APA format title page 2. Abstract An abstract is a brief summary of your paper that immediately follows your title page. According to APA format, your abstract should be no more than 150 to 250 words although this can vary depending upon the specific publication or instructor requirements. Learn more about writing an APA format abstract. 3. The Main Body . For something like an essay, the main body of your paper will include the actual essay itself. If you are writing a lab report, then your main body will be broken down into further sections. The four main components of a lab report include an introduction, method, results, and discussion sections 4 Reference The reference section of your paper will include a list of all of the sources that you used in your paper.

If you cited any piece of information anywhere in you paper, it needs to be properly referenced in this section. One handy rule of thumb to remember is that any source cited in your paper needs to be included in your reference section, and any source listed in your reference section must also be mentioned somewhere in your paper. How to Handle In-Text Citations in APA Format As you are writing your paper, it is important to include citations in your text identifying where you found the information you use. Such notations are called in-text citations, and APA format dictates that when citing in APA format in the text of your paper, use the author's name followed by the date of publication.

For example, if you were to cite Sigmund Freud's book The Interpretation of Dreams, you would use the following format: (Freud, 1900). The extended information on the source should then appear in your reference section. Important Tips for APA Style Reference Pages Your references should begin on a new page. Title the new page "References" and center the title text at the top of the page. All entries should be in alphabetical order. The first line of a reference should be flush with the left margin. Each additional line should be indented (usually accomplished by using the TAB key.) While earlier versions of APA format required only one space after each sentence, the new sixth edition of the style manual now recommends two spaces. The reference section should be double-spaced.

All sources cited should appear both in-text and on the reference page. Any reference that appears in the text of your report or article must be cited on the reference page, and any item appearing on your reference page must be also included somewhere in the body of your text. Titles of books, journals, magazines, and newspapers should appear in italics. The exact format of each individual reference may vary somewhat depending on whether you are referencing an author or authors, a book or journal article, or an electronic source. It pays to spend some time looking at the specific requirements for each type of reference before formatting your source list A Few More Helpful Resources If you are struggling with APA format or are looking for a good way to collect and organize your references as you work on your research, consider using a free APA citation machine. These online tools can help generate an APA style referenced, but always remember to double-check each one for accuracy.

Purchasing your own copy of the official Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is a great way to learn more about APA format and have a handy resource to check your own work against. Looking at examples of APA format can also be very helpful. While APA format may seem complex, it will become easier once you familiarize yourself with the rules and format. The overall format may be similar for many papers, but your instructor might have specific requirements that vary depending on whether you are writing an essay or a research paper. In addition to your reference page, your instructor may also require you to maintain and turn in an APA format bibliography. Basics Your list of works cited of the paper on a new page with the centered title. References Alphabetize the entries in your list by the author's last name, using the letter-by-letter system (ignore spaces and other punctuation.) Only the initials of the first and middle names are given.

If the author's name is unknown, alphabetize by the title, ignoring any A, An, or The. For dates, spell out the names of months in the text of your paper, but abbreviate them in the list of works cited, except for May, June, and July. Use either the day-month-year style (22 July 1999) or the month-day-year style (July 22, 1999) and be consistent. With the month-day-year style, be sure to add a comma after the year unless another punctuation mark goes there. should begin at the end. Underlining or Italics When reports were written on typewriters, the names of publications were underlined because most typewriters had no way to print italics. If you write a bibliography by hand, you should still underline the names of publications. But, if you use a computer, then publication names should be in italics as they are below.

Always check with your instructor regarding their preference of using italics or underlining. Our examples use italics. Hanging Indentation All APA citations should use hanging indents, that is, the first line of an entry should be flush left, and the second and subsequent lines should be indented Capitalization, Abbreviation, and Punctuation The APA guidelines specify using sentence-style capitalization for the titles of books or articles, so you should capitalize only the first word of a title and subtitle. The exceptions to this rule would be periodical titles and proper names in a title which should still be capitalized. The periodical title is run in title case, and is followed by the volume number which, with the title, is also italicized.

If there is more than one author, use an ampersand (&) before the name of the last author. If there are more than six authors, list only the first one and use et al. for the rest. Place the date of publication in parentheses immediately after the name of the author. Place a period after the closing parenthesis. Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works within longer works.

Conclusion It was an informative assignment it help to know more about formats for presenting the report in APA format APA style and format for academic documents such as journal articles and books it is described in the style guide of the American psychological Association(APA)which is tittle the publication manual of the American psychological Association .This assignment helps to know more about APA.