in terms of format your paper should be

The American Psychological Association or APA Writing Format is one of the most widely used formats in writing academic papers, particularly in the field of science. The APA writing style has evolved through time and several changes have been adapted in response to the electronic information age. What follows are some useful pointers for those of you who're tasked to write a paper using the APA format.In general, your paper should follow these formatting guidelines: Margin. Although formerly, the required measurement for margins is 1 ½ inch, now, it is required that margins on all sides (top, bottom, left, right) should each just measure one (1) inch. Font Size and Type. Font for text all through out the paper should be 12-pt., Times New Roman. Spacing. Double-space for the whole document, including appendices, footnotes, tables and figures. For spacing after punctuation, space once after commas, colons and semicolons within sentences and space twice after punctuation marks that end sentences. Text Alignment and Indentation. Alignment should be flush left, or aligned to the left creating uneven right margin. Running Head and Short Title. Running heads are short titles located at the top of each of the pages of your article. Short Titles on the other hand are two to three-word derivation of the title of your paper. Running heads should not be confused with Short Titles. Running heads are typed flush left at the top of all pages while Short Titles are typed flush right. Running Heads are not necessary for high school and collegiate papers unless required by instructor. These are instead mostly required for documents that are being prepared for actual release or publication. Running Heads should not exceed 50 characters including punctuation and spacing. Active Voice. Traditionally, the APA writing format requires writing in an impersonal form. That is, refraining from.
This table describes how to format your research paper using either the MLA or APA guidelines. Be sure to follow any additional instructions that your teacher provides. MLA Guidelines APA Guidelines Paper Standard size (8.5 x 11 in the U.S.) Page Margins 1 on all sides (top, bottom, left, right) 1 on all sides (top, bottom, left, right) Font 12-pt. easily readable (e.g., Times Roman) 12-pt. Times Roman or Courier. For figures, however, use a sans serif font such as Arial. Spacing Double-spaced throughout, including captions and bibliography Double-spaced Alignment of Text Flush left (with an uneven right margin) Flush left (with an uneven right margin) Paragraph Indentation 1/2 (or five spaces) 5–7 spaces End of Sentence Leave one space after a period unless your teacher prefers two. Leave one space after a period unless your teacher prefers two. Page Numbers On every page, in the upper right margin, 1/2 from the top and flush with the right margin put your last name followed by the page number. On every page (except Figures), in the upper right margin, 1/2 from the top and flush with the right margin, two or three words of the paper title (this is called the running head) appear five spaces to the left of the page number, beginning with the title page. Title Page Only if your teacher requests one. Instead, on the first page, upper left corner place on separate lines, double-spaced: Your name Teacher's name Course name or number Date Underneath, center the title using regular title capitalization rules and no underline. Start the report immediately below the title. The title page is always the first page. On the line below the page number, the running head is typed flush left (all uppercase) following the words Running head: Below the running head, the following are centered on their own lines, using upper and lower case: Paper title Your name Your school Section.
1. Introduction As you write your term papers, it will be important for you to document where you obtained the information cited in your report. Many of the references you use will come from published sources. Some may come from electronic sources such as the World Wide Web, Melvyl and Harvest databases available through the UC Davis library, CD references and the like, and some may come from interviews. An important component of your writing will be the effective use of reference material. This skill will serve you well in writing papers of all types, not just those required for classes. For this class, we will be using the documentation style of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2001) modified with italics substituted for underlining. This format is very similar to that of the Modern Language Association, and these are the most commonly used styles for publishing in the social and natural sciences. The general form of citations in the body of the text is to include the author and date in parentheses (as above) and optionally include the page number(s) after the date. If the author's name was just mentioned in the text, it is not necessary to repeat it in the citation. The rules are described in more detail, with examples, in section 3. 2. Basic Guidelines The purpose of the term paper in ECS 15 is for you to learn how to do effective research on a subject and then write it up clearly, showing where you got your information. A research paper requires searching for information pertinent to a given subject, organizing it, and presenting it effectively in written form. Oral research reports are also useful, but this course does not cover them. In the following sections, we will present the way that we want you to cite your references in the term paper for this course. The required format meets the accepted practices cited in Li and Crane (1993), a reference.
There are nearly as many different possible formats for writing a paper as there are instructors. The only way to know that your papers are going to conform exactly with what your instructors are looking for is to ask what they want! Ask to look at a sample paper. If all instructors could agree on one simple format, that would be nice, and that style would probably be something easy to remember, like the style recommended by the Modern Language Association. The college's Guide to Writing Research Papers contains a section on formatting papers, MLA-style, that should be helpful. Here are some generic suggestions for formatting your paper, attempted answers to the inevitable question: What's this paper supposed to look like? But remember, if you have any doubts or questions, ask your instructor! Word-processing is not just a good thing, a clever technological device to make your writing look good; it makes the composing and editing processes much easier and (some people claim) even fun; it is technology that you ignore to your peril! Double-space all typing in all documents. A serif typing font should be used, something like Times, Times Roman, or Times New Roman in a 12-point font size. Don't use anything fancy and avoid the non-serif fonts (except for headlines, if you have any), as they can become difficult to read after a while; cursive scripts are forbidden. Never mix font styles. Use one-inch margins (or a bit more, never less), all the way around the edge of your text. Do not use justified margins (even right margins), even though your word-processor makes that look really nifty. Justified margins tend to create some word-divisions and spacing that are not appropriate. Use plain black printing off a good laser or bubble-jet printer. Dot-matrix printing is acceptable if the copy is strong and dark; otherwise, bring your floppy disc into a computer lab where you.
1. Paper Use clean, good quality 8 1/2 x 11 white paper, one side only. 2. Margins Leave margins of your essay 1 (2.5 cm) at the top, bottom, left and right sides of each and every page. 1 is about 10 typed spaces.Exception is made for page numbers which are placed 1/2 (1.25 cm) from the top upper-right hand corner, flushed to the right margin. 3. Title Page A title page is not essential for a research paper unless specifically requested by your teacher. The MLA Handbook provides a general guideline on writing a research paper and documenting sources. In case of conflict, you should always follow guidelines set down by your teacher. If you don't have a title page, you may begin 1 from the top of the first page of your essay and start typing your name flush against the left margin. Then under your name, on separate lines, double-spaced, and flush against the left margin, type your teacher's name, your course code, and the date. If your teacher prefers that the first page of your essay not be numbered, you will begin numbering with page 2. Double-space after the date. On a new line, center the title of your essay. If you have a long title, double-space between lines of the title. Example: Jones 1 Tracy Jones Ms. K. Smith NRW-3A1-01 16 January 2006 Gun Control: Pros and Cons Do not type your title all in capital letters. Do not put quotations marks before and after the title. Do not underline the title, or put a period at the end of the title. Proper names of people and places as well as important words are capitalized in the title, but prepositions and conjunctions are normally shown in lower case letters, e.g. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The same rule applies to headings and subheadings as well. Follow the same capitalization rules for acronyms as you normally would in writing the text of the essay, e.g. FBI would be all in capitals as it is the acronym.
Summary: APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th 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 of the American Psychological Association, (6th ed., 2nd printing). Contributors:Joshua M. Paiz, Elizabeth Angeli, Jodi Wagner, Elena Lawrick, Kristen Moore, Michael Anderson, Lars Soderlund, Allen Brizee, Russell KeckLast Edited: 2013-03-01 08:28:59 Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in APA. To see a side-by-side comparison of the three most widely used citation styles, including a chart of all APA citation guidelines, see the Citation Style Chart. You can also watch our APA vidcast series on the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel. General APA Guidelines Your essay should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5 x 11 ) with 1 margins on all sides. You should use a clear font that is highly readable. APA recommends using 12 pt. Times New Roman font. Include a page header (also known as the running head ) at the top of every page. To create a page header/running head, insert page numbers flush right. Then type TITLE OF YOUR PAPER in the header flush left using all capital letters. The running head is a shortened version of your paper's title and cannot exceed 50 characters including spacing and punctuation. Major Paper Sections Your essay should include four major sections: the Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References. Title Page The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author's name, and the institutional affiliation. Include the page header (described above) flush left with the page number flush right at the top.