APA Style
An APA paper is any document that is written to suit an APA formatting style, the official style of American Psychological association. For those who may have never dealt with APA writing style before, the formatting rules and guideline may pose a significant challenge initially before they master the concept of these papers. There are general guidelines that every writer doing an APA paper ought to follow. However, every APA style paper format will come along with specific formatting requirements from the instructor. Always ensure your APA style paper fulfills the set requirements by the instructor even if you are trying to abide to the standards of APA style.
The general codes of an APA style papers demand observance of standard rule of APA formatting. A standard size of paper should be utilized. This paper measures 8.5 inches by 11 inches and have a margin of 1 inch running on all sides. Your paper should always be typed with the best readable font of Times New Roman. For legibility, a 12-point font should be used and the sentences double spaced. Another unique feature that ought to be captured APA paper in inclusion of a page header on the top left of every page and a page number on top-right side of all pages.
There has been no definite way of APA style formatting in APA papers. This is due to varying needs to be fulfilled by each paper that is being written. Different instructors give different instructions to their students depending on their field of focus or use of the paper. For instance, a laboratory technician will give different instructions for writing a laboratory report from the instructions given to student conducting a case study or writing a critique paper. Nevertheless, the type APA paper being written does not change the fact that it need to have four sections. These sections include,
- A title page that must be inclusive of a running head, the title of the work being done, the student’s name and affiliation of the school where the paper will be later forwarded for marking.
- A short abstract summarizing the content of the paper should then follow. It should be located immediately after the title page. According to rules of APA, the abstract should have its number of words ranging from 150 to 250 words. However, due to specific requirements about the content and length of the abstract, it’s always advisable to consult your instructor.
- The next major section of APA paper is the body. It includes details and explanation of the topic. The content of this part may vary from one paper to the other depending on the instructions and subjects being handled.
- The last section of the APA paper is the reference section. It is reserved to acknowledge any source of knowledge you may have consulted to write your paper. Citations made in the body are also captured here. The reference section should be done in a separate new page. The page should begin with the word ‘References’ centered at the top most part of the page.
Citation in APA style varies from sources used. When making citation in-texts, the reference is placed within sentences and paragraphs. This is to make clear what information is being quoted or paraphrased and whose information is being cited.
Examples
- Single author {from theory on bounded rationality. Simon, 1945)}.
- When the work being cited has been done by two or more authors, always cite both names in the text as has been shown (Hahnemann, Kvetch, and Thayer (1991) found)