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Basic Structure of an APA Style Paper

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Basic Structure of an APA Style Paper

Abstract
APA (American Psychological Association) Style writing is widely used across all fields of study and is regularly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This paper details the basic structure of an APA paper, provides resources and tips to assist authors during the writing process. As stated by the Publication Manual of the APA, an abstract is “a brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of the article; it allows readers to survey the contents of an article quickly and, like a title, it enables persons interested in the document to retrieve it from abstracting and indexing databases” (2010, p. 25). Applying and understanding the method of APA …show more content…

Direct quotations must equal the original source exactly, word for word. The source of the quotation must be cited. The organization of direct quotations may vary with the placement of the quoted material in the sentence. The author’s last name, the year of publication, the website title or section title, and the paragraph number, when no page number is available, are included in the citation. Quotations that contain fewer than forty words are enclosed in double quotation marks within the text. Use single quotation marks for quotations contained within a direct quotation. Use double quotation marks to indicate a quotation within the block quotation. Paraphrasing allows the writer to present someone else’s ideas and acknowledges the original author.

The Reference page will begin on a new page. References are designed to document the sources a writer uses so the reader knows where the original information derived from and it acknowledges the original author’s work. Hanging indentation is used for the reference page. In a hanging indent, the first line of the reference rests against the left margin, and the lines that follow are indented five to seven spaces. “The reference page is alphabetized by author or by title of the work when no author is listed, and each entry contains the date of publication in parentheses right after

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