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APA Format

5 min read•november 17, 2021

How to Format Using APA

What is APA Format ⁉

APA is the official writing style for the American Psychological Association. Typically used for psychology, the format is also used for all social sciences. These social sciences include Linguistics, Sociology, Economics, Criminology, and many more. The style came to be in 1929, and has since been expanded on and turned into an entire manual. APA is not the only citation style, however, and a basic summary of the other styles can be found here. 🤓

Image Fair Use via WIkimedia Commons

The General Format

Paper Guidelines

Papers written in the APA format should be double-spaced and typed on standard paper, with one-inch margins. Every single page should have a running head at the top of the page in the margin section. For student papers, the running head should just be page numbers. But for professional style papers (the recommended style) the running head should have the title of the paper capitalized as well as the page number. This title should be shortened if needed, and should not exceed 50 characters. 🔤 The running head should also be flush to the right side of the paper.

Font

Just like most professional papers, the font must be clearly legible to the readers and should be consistent throughout the duration of the paper. There is no specific font required by the APA Manual, but some recommended fonts are Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, and Computer Modern. There is also no specified font size, but 11-point or 12-point are the most widely used sizes. ✏️

Mechanics

There are many specific mechanics of style for the APA format which can be found here, but here is a brief summary!

Punctuation should follow the cadence of what the author is writing. To avoid overusing specific forms of punctuation, rewording sentences and even splitting sentences may be necessary. Spelling should be consistent with Merriam-Webster and also the APA Dictionary. 📖 All words are lowercase in APA style unless specified otherwise. Specifics on these capitalization can be found in the APA manual. Italics should be used to highlight certain terms and phases and quotation marks should be used for citing quotations from books or titles of books. The use of abbreviations should be limited for clarity and all abbreviations should be familiar or clarified. Additionally, no periods are used with abbreviations in the APA style. Lists should be consistent through every single item on the list. The lists can be bulleted, numbered, lettered, or simply separated by commas. 🧾

Each Section

Title Page

The title page should contain the title, author’s name, and affiliation (with an institution or publication). A student written paper should have course name, instructor name, and the due date of the assignment. A professional paper should have an author’s note. The title should be centered to the middle of the page both horizontally and vertically. Beneath the title should be the author’s name, then the affiliation, and then an author’s note if a professional paper or the other listed student required title page elements.

Abstract

The abstract should have a page header and a short summary of the research conducted in the paper. There should be the research topic, research question, methods, results, and any other important parts of the paper. Abstracts should be 250 words maximum.

A list of keywords should also be added after the abstract.

Main Body

The main body of the essay should have different sections based on the particular topic of your paper. A lab report will contain an introduction, method, result, and a discussion section.

References

There should be a reference section in every single paper. This will appear last, and should include every source cited in the paper.

Specifics on all of these different parts of the article can be found here.

How to Format: The Specifics

References

Each reference should have a hanging indention. This means that every line after the first line of each citation must be indented ½ inch away from the left side. Author’s names should be written as: last name, first name. First and Middle names should be abbreviated to the first letter with a period after. Journal titles should be fully written and italicized. A general format for each reference citation looks like this:

Author(s) name(s). (date). Title. Site Name/Publication. http://Web address or DOI

Referenced From Purdue Owl

In-Text Citations

In-text citations should generally be the author’s last name, and the last date that appeared on the research paper in parentheses before the punctuation of a quoted/paraphrased sentence.

Ex. In this “this is a quotation” (Last name, 2021).

With two authors, the names should appear in the order they did on the paper with an ampersand (&) in between the two names.

Ex. In this “this is a quotation” (Last name 1 & Last name 2, 2021).

With more than three authors, only the first author should be written with “et al.” replacing the other authors' names.

Ex. In this “this is a quotation” (Last name et al., 2021).

If the author is unknown, the source should be cited with the article name or the first couple of words in an article. The italicization and quotation marks used to denote the medium of the work should follow standard citation procedures. Quotations should be used for web pages and everything else should be italicized.

Ex. In this “this is a quotation” (Title name, 2021).

There are several more examples of specific in-text citations which can be found here.

Bias Free Language

There is a very lengthy summary about bias free language on the APA website but here is another short summary!

Scholarly writing should be precise, so biased working when describing people and even things should be avoided. Purely relevant descriptions of people should be used. Unless it is important to the research paper, including personal descriptors like race, ethnicity, sexuality, age, etc. are not always needed. However, differences should of course still be recognized when crucial to the study. Acknowledging the differences between certain groups of people is an important part of precise writing. 💞

Additionally, labels should be treated with sensitivity. Consider the effects of each label you are giving someone and make sure you are labeling the participants and people involved in your research correctly. Certain groups of people do not like certain wordings as they have experienced negative connotations with those words, and their comfortability level should be taken seriously.

Additional Resources For APA Format

Additional Resources For AP Research

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APA Format

5 min read•november 17, 2021

How to Format Using APA

What is APA Format ⁉

APA is the official writing style for the American Psychological Association. Typically used for psychology, the format is also used for all social sciences. These social sciences include Linguistics, Sociology, Economics, Criminology, and many more. The style came to be in 1929, and has since been expanded on and turned into an entire manual. APA is not the only citation style, however, and a basic summary of the other styles can be found here. 🤓

Image Fair Use via WIkimedia Commons

The General Format

Paper Guidelines

Papers written in the APA format should be double-spaced and typed on standard paper, with one-inch margins. Every single page should have a running head at the top of the page in the margin section. For student papers, the running head should just be page numbers. But for professional style papers (the recommended style) the running head should have the title of the paper capitalized as well as the page number. This title should be shortened if needed, and should not exceed 50 characters. 🔤 The running head should also be flush to the right side of the paper.

Font

Just like most professional papers, the font must be clearly legible to the readers and should be consistent throughout the duration of the paper. There is no specific font required by the APA Manual, but some recommended fonts are Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, and Computer Modern. There is also no specified font size, but 11-point or 12-point are the most widely used sizes. ✏️

Mechanics

There are many specific mechanics of style for the APA format which can be found here, but here is a brief summary!

Punctuation should follow the cadence of what the author is writing. To avoid overusing specific forms of punctuation, rewording sentences and even splitting sentences may be necessary. Spelling should be consistent with Merriam-Webster and also the APA Dictionary. 📖 All words are lowercase in APA style unless specified otherwise. Specifics on these capitalization can be found in the APA manual. Italics should be used to highlight certain terms and phases and quotation marks should be used for citing quotations from books or titles of books. The use of abbreviations should be limited for clarity and all abbreviations should be familiar or clarified. Additionally, no periods are used with abbreviations in the APA style. Lists should be consistent through every single item on the list. The lists can be bulleted, numbered, lettered, or simply separated by commas. 🧾

Each Section

Title Page

The title page should contain the title, author’s name, and affiliation (with an institution or publication). A student written paper should have course name, instructor name, and the due date of the assignment. A professional paper should have an author’s note. The title should be centered to the middle of the page both horizontally and vertically. Beneath the title should be the author’s name, then the affiliation, and then an author’s note if a professional paper or the other listed student required title page elements.

Abstract

The abstract should have a page header and a short summary of the research conducted in the paper. There should be the research topic, research question, methods, results, and any other important parts of the paper. Abstracts should be 250 words maximum.

A list of keywords should also be added after the abstract.

Main Body

The main body of the essay should have different sections based on the particular topic of your paper. A lab report will contain an introduction, method, result, and a discussion section.

References

There should be a reference section in every single paper. This will appear last, and should include every source cited in the paper.

Specifics on all of these different parts of the article can be found here.

How to Format: The Specifics

References

Each reference should have a hanging indention. This means that every line after the first line of each citation must be indented ½ inch away from the left side. Author’s names should be written as: last name, first name. First and Middle names should be abbreviated to the first letter with a period after. Journal titles should be fully written and italicized. A general format for each reference citation looks like this:

Author(s) name(s). (date). Title. Site Name/Publication. http://Web address or DOI

Referenced From Purdue Owl

In-Text Citations

In-text citations should generally be the author’s last name, and the last date that appeared on the research paper in parentheses before the punctuation of a quoted/paraphrased sentence.

Ex. In this “this is a quotation” (Last name, 2021).

With two authors, the names should appear in the order they did on the paper with an ampersand (&) in between the two names.

Ex. In this “this is a quotation” (Last name 1 & Last name 2, 2021).

With more than three authors, only the first author should be written with “et al.” replacing the other authors' names.

Ex. In this “this is a quotation” (Last name et al., 2021).

If the author is unknown, the source should be cited with the article name or the first couple of words in an article. The italicization and quotation marks used to denote the medium of the work should follow standard citation procedures. Quotations should be used for web pages and everything else should be italicized.

Ex. In this “this is a quotation” (Title name, 2021).

There are several more examples of specific in-text citations which can be found here.

Bias Free Language

There is a very lengthy summary about bias free language on the APA website but here is another short summary!

Scholarly writing should be precise, so biased working when describing people and even things should be avoided. Purely relevant descriptions of people should be used. Unless it is important to the research paper, including personal descriptors like race, ethnicity, sexuality, age, etc. are not always needed. However, differences should of course still be recognized when crucial to the study. Acknowledging the differences between certain groups of people is an important part of precise writing. 💞

Additionally, labels should be treated with sensitivity. Consider the effects of each label you are giving someone and make sure you are labeling the participants and people involved in your research correctly. Certain groups of people do not like certain wordings as they have experienced negative connotations with those words, and their comfortability level should be taken seriously.