Our editors break up how to write an APA paper
In the article that is first of American Psychological Association (APA) series, we talked about APA style and formatting basics. This short article will discuss just how to write an paper that is APA-styled tackling essay components such as the title page, abstract, and the body.
Title page
The title page of an APA paper will include a concise title, the author’s name and affiliation that is institutional an author’s note, and a running head for publication. A running head is an abbreviated title of no more than 50 characters, starting with the words “Running head,” accompanied by a colon, one space, and an abbreviated title—all in capital letters. Part Four of our APA series provides an APA title page example for your reference.
All pages in an APA paper will include a header. Into the header, include the head that is running, followed by the page number, which will be right-justified. When page numbering is properly set up utilising the Headers and Footers function in Microsoft Word, the computer will automatically handle the numbering that is consecutive.
The Abstract, typically a component that is crucial of APA paper, should summarize the subject and must accurately state the explanation and fundamental nature regarding the paper by like the main ideas and major points.
We advise students to mention only the most findings that are important implications. The phrase count limit of an abstract varies from journal to journal, and will range from 150 to 250 words. The Abstract should proceed with the title page, on a page that is separate with the centered word “Abstract.”
This section is not labeled. The text is contained by it regarding the APA paper split into Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion. Each of these sections should naturally proceed with the other, which means they just do not necessarily begin on a new page. Each section requires a title based on the page. And don’t forget, you need to follow APA reference guidelines to make sure your entire citations are accurate and properly formatted.
Introduction
The development of an APA paper should begin on a new page, following the Abstract. Because its position in it is made by the paper easily identifiable, the Introduction does not require a heading. Instead, are the title of the paper towards the top of the page, in upper and lower case, followed closely by the text. Our editors typically seek out the items that are following an APA Introduction:
- Background information about the subject
- A reason of why the subject is significant
- An overview of relevant literature
- A discussion associated with hypothesis
- The way the author intends to address the difficulty
- Informative data on the paper’s organization
The Introduction should be well organized and may even contain headings to really make the APA paper more understandable. Try to avoid jargon since it will only confuse your reader.
This section describes the research and how it was conducted. The strategy is vital because it concerns the reproducibility for the research. Reproducibility, one of the most significant principles of the Scientific Method, refers to the ability of a test or experiment to be replicated by independent researchers.
We seek out the following subsections in the Method area of an APA paper: participants (or subjects), measures, and procedures (the latter two tend to be combined in a single subsection). These subheadings ought to be left-justified. The “participants” subsection should describe the subjects (including number that is total their basic demographic information) and exactly how these people were selected and categorized. It should also explain why some subjects are not included.
The subsection for measures and procedures should specify the equipment and materials used in the experiment, including any questionnaires or surveys. This section must describe in detail also how the research was conducted.
The outcome part of an APA paper presents the findings. This section should summarize the data collected in addition to statistical or treatments that are analytical. Tables, figures, graphs, charts, drawings, and photographs may be included, however it is important to keep them as simple as possible. Clearly label each visual with an Arabic numeral (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, etc.) and a title. The label therefore the title should appear flush left on separate lines above the table. Make every effort to include any source details below the table.
Discussion
The Discussion write my paper section is an evaluation and interpretation regarding the findings. The author should address the issues raised in the Introduction in this section, based on the findings discussed in the results section. This isn’t simply a reiteration of the results or points previously made.