The APA (American Psychological Association) Style is used to document ideas in writing as it provides a well respected, professional and highly recognized means of profiling and outlining information. It is an accredited style that standardizes information in all environments (Gorman & Media, 2015). Every organization that uses the APA style can identify its style, meaning and intent. The layout of the APA style is such that a writer can provide a well organized paper that correctly cites and references information pertinent to the paper. The APA style also establishes significant credibility amongst readers as it is used widely amongst academics and is known to correctly acknowledge references and primary and secondary sources. It additionally provides the reader with cues with reference to the material and information being provided in the paper (Gorman & Media, 2015). Its style is also concise and to the point and avoids the inclusion of unnecessary information or formatting. The in-text citation technique employed by the APA style is used to correctly reference and support specific lines and paragraphs. Each paragraph or a specific line can be derived from a source that then needs to be identified and accordingly recognized. The in-text citation honors this requirement and provides the reader with an academically ethical paper (Gorman & Media, 2015).An example of properly cited material includes the following sentence:
“I will refer to the expertise of several sources that will establish my credibility regarding standardized tests. The ideas of Hillocks (2002), McNeil and Valenzuela (2001), and Ravitch (2011), who are all experts on this topic, will help to establish my credibility”. This provides the correct means of citing material as the ideas of academics or literature are supported by references ,which are shortened and included in the sentence at different stages. They do not necessarily need to be included at the end of the paragraph but when warranted and someone’s work has been directly used. This allows the reader to also track where the information originates from.
- Gorman, F, Media, D. (2015). Importance of Using APA Format in Research Papers.
Synonym, Retrieved from http://classroom.synonym.com/importance-using-apa-format-research-papers-1010.html Accessed on 21 July 2015.
