The Definition Of An APA Research Paper: A Manual For Students

APA: Definition

APA stands for American Psychological Association. A style or format of writing research papers of behavioural and social sciences was introduced by this organization in 1962 in order to set a number of rules, which has come to be known as APA format. The chief endeavour behind the making of such a format was to enable readers or publishers scrutinize important facts within a document. This form of style or format of writing is in vogue presently. APA format is used in diverse fields like in publishing, papers, essays, articles, research works, reviews and case studies.

Rationality of using APA in Research Paper

In the present day world the use of APA format is in trend in writing papers among the students. This is because of the fact that the format is universally accepted and followed. And moreover, it is a strategy to make a research paper totally free from plagiarism, as a general APA format includes a citation and reference page.

Preparing an APA Research Paper

An APA paper has a certain format that has to be followed. While preparing an APA style paper one have to first create a title page. The title page of your paper has to have page number and a running head, and of course the name of the writer and the name of the institution he is affiliated to.

The second part of your APA format paper will contain an abstract. The abstract will be a summary of the main idea and the major points that you are looking forward to discuss in your paper. It should include the intention, view and conclusion of your paper.

The third part of your paper will include an introduction. The introduction contains an account of the background of your work. Then comes the main part of the paper, which is the body. In this part of your paper you need to put all the research material that you have enquired and collected.

After this comes the most significant part of APA format, that is the citation and reference page. Through this page you have to acknowledge the words and ideas of other writers that you have cited examples or references from.

Mind your citations

As you cite references the readers will be able to get the full scope to get detailed information from the cited book or website. The whole paper should bear coherence in style, line spacing, font, page headers and margins.