APA is the acronym of American Psychological Association. The publication manual of the American Psychological Association consists of APA style academic format. This academic style guides the academic researchers and authors on how to prepare a paper on different subjects for APA publication. APA developed several guidelines in such a way that they assist to read the comprehend papers in the behavioral and social science field. The guidelines also help the students to communicate clearly, and the choice of words reduces the language bias. Editing Services for Dissertation can assist the author in APA formatting. In social sciences field, APA is used commonly to cite the sources.
General guideline of APA formatting is as below –
- Essay should be original as plagiarism is not acceptable
- Sentences should be double spaced on standard sized paper of 8.5 inch width and 11 inch length
- One inch margin on all sides
- Use highly readable and clear font
- Recommendation of Times Roman Font with a size 12 pt.
- The top of every page should consist page header also known as running head
- To create a running head or page header insert the page number on right and type the title of paper in capital letters.
Page header is a shorter version of paper title and shall not exceed 50 characters including punctuation and spacing.
Following are the main section that should be included in paper as per APA guideline:
Paper shall include four main sections that are the title of page, abstract, main body and references. Title should contain the title of the paper, name of the author and the institutional affiliation. The title of page shall include – running head flush left with the page number on top right of the page. Title can be typed in upper and lower case letters with center alignment. Title shall be centered in upper half of the page. Title should not be of more than 12 words in length. Title should also not contain words that serve no purpose and abbreviations. Title can be of one or two lines. All text throughout the paper including the title shall be of double space. Below the title, include the author’s name giving first name, middle name and last name. Do not use titles such as Dr or any degrees like PhD. Below the name of the author, type the institutional affiliation including location of research conducted. As per APA formatting guidelines, the abstract shall contain research topic, questions on research, methods, participants, results, data analysis and conclusion. Abstract can contain between 150 and 200 words.
In order to get assistance in writing the paper in APA format, one can also take the help of Thesis editing services that are provided by various writing companies.