Writing Research – APA

The American Psychological Association’s research style is often used in science-based disciplines because of its emphasis on date of publication.  APA was developed for publishing data and findings from original research.  You may not be conducting original research and experiments; however, you will write your APA papers in the same format as those scientists who do. 
 
Paper Format
Parts of a typical APA paper:
            title page
            abstract
            body of paper
            list of references
 
Every page will have in the header the running head flush left, which is an abbreviated form of the title of the paper.  This running head should be in all caps. The title page has a special running head, so pay attention to that detail.  Every page also has a page number flush right in the header.
 
Every page is double-spaced, 12-point font (Times New Roman is always a good choice).
 
The abstract is one paragraph, on a page by itself (page 2).  The word Abstract is centered at the top of the page.  The abstract is a summary of the main points of the paper.
 
The body of the paper begins on page 3 with the title repeated, centered, at the top of the page.  Begin with an introduction to your topic.  Proceed through your major points in an organized fashion.  If you use headings to divide the sections of your paper, they should be centered, bold, and use capital letters like a title does.
 
Link to sample paper
 
In-text Citations
In the body of your paper, you must indicate to your reader any time that you use words or ideas from an outside source.  You do this with citations.  In APA style, the citation will most often include the author’s name and the year of publication of the source you’re using.  If you use a word-for-word quotation, the citation should also include a page number.  This information appears in parentheses at the end of the sentence where the source material is used. 
 
Example
 
You can also choose to mention the author’s name in the text of the sentence.  This is a great way to introduce the source material to your reader, and it makes reading your paper much easier.  Keep the year in parentheses immediately next to the author’s name.
 
Example
 
 
References
At the end of any research paper, you must provide your reader with a list of the sources you used to create that paper.  It is on its own page, with the word References centered at the top. The sources are listed alphabetically by the first word in the entry (which is typically the author’s last name). 
 
The basic format for your sources on your references page is the format for a book with one author:
 
Last name, First initial. (year). Title. City, State: Publisher.
 
Brown, J. (2012). The best book ever written. New York, NY: Harper.
 
Every other type of resource – a magazine article, a website, a movie – follows that basic structure with a few modifications. 
 
Link to dianahacker.com