Jul 23, · Formally APA Style Central, Academic Writer is a digital library of quick APA guides and tutorials: Learn - view videos and tutorials, test your APA knowledge with quizzes, and view sample papers, references, tables, and figures. - Reference - view tutorials, search APA dictionaries, develop research ideas, plan and track your research, and manage your Author: Suzanne Schriefer Summary: APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6 th edition, second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual Tips for Writing a Research Paper in APA format: Basics: A research paper (especially one that requires APA style) is different than a term paper, a creative writing paper, a composition-style paper, or a thought paper. A research paper requires you to leave out any personal information (both as content or in your writing style – see below) and to focus on research findings that File Size: 1MB
Research Paper Basics: APA Style
An APA-style paper includes the following sections: title page, abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and references. Different types of information about your study are addressed in each of the sections, as described below. The title page, abstract, references, table sand figure s should be on their own pages. The entire paper should be written in the past tense, in a point font, double-spaced, and with one-inch margins all around.
The introduction of an APA-style paper is the most difficult to write. A good introduction will summarize, integrate, and critically evaluate the empirical knowledge in the relevant area s in a way that sets the stage for your study and why you conducted it. The introduction starts apa research paper basics broad but not too broad! and gets more focused toward the end. Here are some guidelines for constructing a good introduction:. The Method section of an APA-style paper is the most straightforward to write, but requires precision.
Your goal is to describe the details of your study in such a way that another researcher could duplicate your methods exactly. Note that in some studies e. Remember to write numbers out when they begin a sentence.
Carefully describe any stimuli, questionnaires, and so forth. It is unnecessary to mention things such as the paper and pencil used to record the responses, the data recording sheet, apa research paper basics, the computer that ran the data analysis, the color of the computer, and so forth.
Include an apparatus section if you used specialized equipment for your study e. Apa research paper basics did participants do, and in what order? When you list a control variable e. In other words, what nuisance variable were you controlling for?
Your procedure should be as brief and concise as possible. Read through it. Did you repeat yourself anywhere? If so, how can you rearrange things to avoid redundancy? You may either write the instructions to the participants verbatim or paraphrase, whichever you deem more appropriate.
In this section, describe how you analyzed the data and what you found. If your data analyses were complex, feel free to break this section down into labeled subsections, apa research paper basics, perhaps one section for each hypothesis. The goal of the discussion section is to interpret your findings and place them in the broader context of the literature in the area.
A discussion section is like the reverse of the introduction, in that you begin with the specifics and work toward the more general funnel out. Some points to consider:. Final paragraph: Be sure to sum up your paper with a final concluding statement.
End on a positive note by reminding your reader why your study was important and what it added to the literature. Provide an alphabetical listing of the references alphabetize by last name of first author. Double-space all, with no extra spaces between references. The second line of each reference should be indented this is called a hanging indent and is easily accomplished using the ruler in Microsoft Word.
See the APA manual for how to format references correctly. Examples of references to apa research paper basics articles start on p. Digital object identifiers DOIs are now included for electronic sources see pp. Journal article example: [Note that only the first letter of the first word of the article title is capitalized; the journal name and volume are italicized.
If the journal name had multiple words, each of the major words would be capitalized. Ebner-Priemer, U. Ecological momentary assessment of mood disorders and mood dysregulation. Psychological Assessment, 21, Book chapter example: [Note that only the first letter of the first word of both the chapter title and book title are capitalized.
Stephan, W. Intergroup relations. Aronson Eds. New York: Random House. Book example: Gray, P. Psychology 6 th ed. New York: Worth. Table There are various formats for tables, depending upon the information you wish to include.
See the APA manual. Be sure to provide a table number and table title the latter is italicized. Tables can be single or double-spaced. Figure If you have more than one figure, each one gets its own page. Use a sans serif font, such as Helvetica, for any text within your figure. Underneath the apa research paper basics provide a label and brief caption e. Include error bars in your bar graphs, and note what the bars apa research paper basics in the figure caption: Error bars represent one standard error above and below the mean.
In-Text Citations: see pp. Try to avoid using secondary sources in your papers; in other words, try to find the primary source and read it before citing it in your own work. If you must use a secondary source, however, you should cite it in the following way:. Snow as cited in Milgram, argued that, apa research paper basics, historically, the cause of most criminal acts The reference for the Milgram article but not the Snow reference should then appear in the reference list at the end of your paper, apa research paper basics.
Writing Center. Writing Resources. How to Write an APA Research Paper. Additional Navigation About Us. Tutoring Services Tutors, apa research paper basics. Seven Sins of Writing Passive Voice. Incorrect Punctuation of Two Independent Clauses. Misuse of the Apostrophe. Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers. Pronoun Problems. The Dreaded Pet Peeves. Faculty Resources. General formatting rules are as follows: Do not put page breaks in between the introduction, method, results, apa research paper basics, and discussion sections.
Title page see sample on p. Apa research paper basics the title page, apa research paper basics, the header should include the following: Flush left: Running head: THE RUNNING HEAD SHOULD BE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. The running head is a short title that appears at the top of pages of published articles. It should not exceed 50 characters, including punctuation and spacing. If you make a section break between the title page and the rest of the paper you can make apa research paper basics header different for those two parts of the manuscript.
Flush right, on same line: page number. Use the toolbox to insert a page number, so it will automatically number each page. Abstract labeled, centered, not bold No more than words, one paragraph, block format i. State topic, preferably in one sentence. Provide overview of method, results, and discussion.
Try to draw your reader in by saying something interesting or thought-provoking right off the bat. Which ones captured your attention right away?
How did the authors accomplish this task? Why not? See if you can use articles you liked as a model. One way to begin but not the only way is to provide an example or anecdote illustrative of your topic area.
Your intro should be a logical flow of ideas that leads up to your hypothesis. Try to organize it in terms of the ideas rather than who did what when.
Then Gurglehoff did something-or-other in Next, decide which ideas make sense to present first, second, third, and so forth, and think about how you want to transition between apa research paper basics. The introduction will end with a brief overview of your study and, finally, your specific hypotheses.
This hypothesis makes complete sense, given all the other research that was presented. Certainly you want to summarize briefly key articles, though, and point out differences in methods or findings of relevant studies when necessary.
Research Paper Format APA Style
, time: 12:20APA Basics — Center for Writing and Communication
First, it will be helpful to become familiar with the parts of an APA paper and decide what you will need. Be sure to Next, you should begin to create your reference page. You can find some example models here. Now that you have your reference page created, inserting in Sep 03, · Some basic elements of a paper written in APA style would include: Typed on a computer and printed out on standard, white x inch paper. Should be double-spaced with 1" margins on all sides. Written in a clear font that is highly readable (APA recommends using 12 pt. Times New Roman font) Summary: APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6 th edition, second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual
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