APA Format: What is it really?

The APA format sounds very strange, but it’s actually quite simple to talk about. It is just one of several writing styles (others are MLA and Chicago Style) that are used to write an article in an educational setting or even for your job or profession. The APA format is the name given to a scientific style of writing that is typically used for technical articles and articles in the social sciences, such as psychology or sociology, just to name a few.

There are a number of very specific sections to an APA paper, here are the main ones: title page, an abstract page, the method or body section of the paper, and the resource page. In addition, there may be other pages, such as appendices, where tables and graphs are also found.

In addition, the APA format also has very specific rules or guidelines for the appearance of a document. Things like the margins of a paper, what font to use, preferred font size, and more. For the body of the document, the recommended font is Times New Roman 12 point, and the suggestion is Arial 12 point for any image captions. In general, APA documents should be double-spaced, aligned to the left, and have page numbers at the top right of each page. Each paragraph in the body of the document should be indented 5 spaces, and the use of headings is recommended to help guide the reader through your work.

The most important and complex APA formatting rules are those for citing sources both in the text of the article and at the end of the article on the reference page. Let’s talk about in-text citations first, as this is what separates APA formatting from the rest of the bunch. It can be hard at first to understand the in-text citations, but it’s really just leaving a little note in the document that says I’m using this great article from my research here. This is the name of the author and this is the year it was published. There is a special format that you must follow depending on the type of information you are using (book or magazine, for example).

On the references page at the back of the document is the full list of all the sources he used. The reference page has so much information about each of your sources that your readers can find the information and read the entire article themselves after they’ve finished your article, of course! There is also a certain order that each reference must be in and the entire list must also be in alphabetical order.

So actually, the short in-text citations refer your readers to the reference page to see the full citation, on that page. So if one of your readers wants to read more of that article that he used for his article, for example, he just has to go to the reference section to find the full title, author, etc. to help them read the book or article he is using for his homework.