Apa Style Guidelines

APA Style Guidelines

APA style guidelines are applicable in academic papers which are written by students in various levels of learning. These guidelines are unique to the essay as they are written in accordance to various specifications which were formulated by the American Psychological Association to guide writers and students in compiling their academic work in systematic ways. This essay looks at the various APA style guidelines that are commonly used in the writing circles.

The APA style incorporates a title page as the very first page of the essay or academic paper. The title page contains various personal details belonging to the student such as their name, that of the instructor, the institution, course and date during which the paper will be delivered.

Such personal details are essential as they depict the unique nature of the academic paper and its contents. The other characteristic of APA as a writing style is that it contains a title of the paper on the front page such that prior to perusing through the paper the instructor or reader will get hints on what to expect as they proceed inside.

The APA style guidelines allow the student or writer to add a header which contains the title of the paper and the page numbers on the second page of the paper after the title page. The page numbers are placed on the right hand corner of the page which is distinct to the style. The APA style guideline illustrates use of one inch margins on each side of the page. The margin ensures that the content on each page to allow balance of the information that is included in the paper.

The APA style format paper recommends use of a word processor that has properties such as use of a font style like Times New Roman or Arial which is legible without much strain. The recommended font size is 1 2 or 11 which is considered standard for APA style guidelines. These are used to portray a professional degree of seriousness in the student as the content is legible from a comfortable level without strain and conflicting problems during evaluation.

APA Style Guidelines, Writing Style, Citations Styles

APA style guidelines require the individual writer or student to incorporate a certain formatting in compiling the paper. Such include various subsections such as the introduction, discussion and conclusion. These sections are not standard as the APA style guidelines also include an abstract before the introduction as a way of introducing the topic to the reader. Consequently, the abstract includes various definitions or key terms which may require further clarification in the course of the essay.

The referencing style in APA guidelines is unique as it requires sources that are included in the paper to be illustrated in a more detailed works cited page. This page is essential in academic work as it allows the student to acknowledge the source of information that is used in the paper. This results in an original plagiarism free paper as proper citations are given for various sources of information thus penalties associated with the crime are reduced. Similarly, the APA style guidelines calls for provision of a more detailed explanation of the sources that are used in the body of the text. Hence only the cited sources are included in the reference page.