HOW TO WRITE AN APA PAPER
APA style is currently one of the most widely used writing styles. Therefore, it is elemental that all students know it because they will encounter assignments that require its use. There are mandatory requirements that papers in APA style must meet. An APA paper must have a Title Page. This page contains the topic of the paper, name of the student, the institution in which the student is learning, and the date of submitting the assignment. Additionally, there must be a running head and a page number on the Title Page. The running head is placed on the page’s header at the top left of the Title Page. The phrase ‘Running head’ must be followed by the topic of the paper. The Title Page must also have a page number at the top far right. This will be page 1 since it is the first page. Remember to check the box named ‘Different First Page.’ For instance, if the topic is ‘How to Write an APA Paper,’ then the Title Page’s header should have the following running head
Running head: HOW TO WRITE AN APA PAPER 1
After properly formatting the Title Page according to APA, you press CTRL + Enter to start a new page. You then repeat the topic of the paper on the second page’s header at the far left, omitting the phrase ‘Running head.’ You will notice that the header in the second page will be repeated in the subsequent pages. You can now start writing your introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs on the second page. You must cite the paragraphs if you borrow their information from other sources. This is achieved using in-text citations. To do this, you need to know the surname of the author, the year of publication, and the page numbers from which you read the information. You will then insert these details immediately at the end of the sentence or paragraph whose information was borrowed. These details must be in brackets and separated by commas. For instance, if the author of the book is John Freeman, the year of publication is 2011, and the page from which the information was read is 90, then the in-text citation will be in the following format
(Freeman, 2011, p. 90).
Finally, there must be a list of the sources used in writing the essay paper. The list is named ‘References,’ and is on the last page of the paper. The easiest way to create the list is by using MS word. Follow the following steps to create the list.
- Go to REFERENCES that is found on the menu of the word document.
- Go to ‘Manage Sources’ and select ‘APA.’ Click on ‘Manage Sources’ and immediately the ‘Source Manager’ window will pop up. Click on ‘New’ then go to ‘Type of Source.’ Select the type of source that you want to add and then fill the requested information about the source. Fill all the details and save.
- Add a new source by following the same procedure by click ‘New’ and continuing with the next steps. Once all sources have been added, click ‘close’ on the Source Manager. Still on the REFERENCES tab of the MS Word menu, click on ‘Bibliography’ and then on ‘Insert Bibliography.’ Remember to do this while on the References Page of your paper. All the sources that you inserted will be listed on the reference page in APA format. Your paper will now be according to APA standards.
- Never forget to proofread your essay and edit any errors.
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