APA style

(noun)

A common citation and formatting style, used especially often in the social and behavioral sciences.

Examples of APA style in the following topics:

  • When to Use APA Style

  • When to Use APA Style

    • APA style, which is based on the American Psychological Association style manual, is widely used in many forms of academic writing.
    • APA style is one of the most common citation and formatting styles you will encounter in your academic career.
    • APA style is based on the style guide of the American Psychological Association (APA), officially titled the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
    • APA style includes many basic grammatical rules.
    • For example, APA style does use the Oxford comma, which some other citation styles (e.g., AP style) do not.

  • APA: Reporting Statistics

    • Because papers using APA style often report experimental data, you must be able to discuss statistics in your paper.
    • Since experimental papers in the social sciences are usually written in APA style, you will need to know how to properly talk about statistics in the text of your paper.
    • This figure shows the proper way to report statistics in an APA-style paper.

  • APA: Headings

    • In APA style, headings are used to organize your writing and give it a hierarchical organization.
    • In APA style, headings are used to organize your writing and give it a hierarchical organization.
    • APA style puts forth specific rules for formatting headings (up to five levels) within your paper:
    • These are the formatting rules for different levels of headings in APA style.

  • APA: Tables and Figures

    • However, it's important to make sure you incorporate this extra information in a way that is easy to understand and in line with the conventions of APA style.
    • In APA style, you must include each table on its own separate page at the very end of your paper, after the References section.
    • APA style has strict rules about how to format the borders, or the lines, of your table.
    • APA style has strict rules about how to create and format your figures.
    • This table is properly formatted in APA style, using only three horizontal borders.

  • APA: Abstract

    • An APA abstract should summarize your entire paper and should be formatted according to the APA style guide.
    • APA style also includes guidelines for providing keywords under your abstract, but this is only required in some situations.
    • This is an example of an abstract properly formatted in APA style.

  • APA: Block Quotations

    • In APA style, format quotations of more than 40 words as block quotations.

  • APA: Title Page and Running Head

    • APA papers have a title page and a "running head," or a line at the top of every page to identify the paper.
    • The running head is an element unique to APA style.
    • The purpose of the running head is to make the paper identifiable without using the name of the author; this style is commonly used in journal articles, since journals need to be able to evaluate a paper without bias toward the author.
    • This is an example of a title page properly formatted in APA style.
    • Arrange the title page and running head correctly in an APA paper

  • APA: Abstract

  • APA: Headings