‘American Psychological Association’ is a formatting and citation style, it is well known as APA format and citation, this formation style is used to cite the sources that relate to the studies of social sciences. Your professors may necessitate you to follow APA format and citation rules to write your research paper. However, most of the students are not familiar with the formatting styles, and if they are asked to write their paper in APA style, they do not know even the basics of it, so here are some easy and quick tips and guidelines to follow the APA format and citation.

Guiding Principles

• In APA format and citation, your paper should be about 8 ½ x 11 and white to write your research paper.
• There must be a one-inch margin on all sides (left, right, top, and bottom) of all pages.
• APA writing format uses New Time Roman Font with the size of 12, and in APA style the first word of every paragraph is indented by a half-inch.
• In APA format and citation, the double space is used in the entire paper, and at the top of every page, there must be the page header that is also known as Running Head.
• To add the header on each page, you can also use the automatic module.

Components of an APA format

When you are writing your research paper or essay using APA format and citation, then you must add all four major elements of APA in your paper. These main components are:

1. The Title Page
2. Abstract/Executive Summary
3. Main Body of the Report/Essay
4. Conclusion and Recommendations
5. References
6. Appendix

Title Page

This very first page of your research paper holds four elements, in the title of your research paper there is mentioned the name of the author, running head, association with institute and the writer’s note. If you want to insert the header automatically on every page, so you select the option of running head from you the settings of the program. You just have to include the term of Running Head only on the first page, and it will be added to all pages.

The title written in APA format and citation must contain the main idea and theme of your research paper. The title should be precise and do not use abbreviations and meaningless. In APA, the title is always written in the middle of the page using the Time New Roman font of size 12. Keep your title simple, and you must not underline, bold or italicize the title. The topic name of your research paper should be within one or two-line and it should not more than 12 words. The title in APA should be double-spaced as this rule is applied to the entire paper. Do not write the author's name, including Ms. Mr. Mrs. or Dr.  Institutional affiliation in the title tells where the writer conducted research and wrote the research paper.

Abstract/Executive Summary

In APA format and citation, you begin with an abstract after running head.

On the second page of your research paper at the very first line of page, the first and the centered words must be ‘Abstract’ without any quotation marks. The abstract of your research paper contains all the important points and elements of the research. An abstract is a summary of your research paper. This summary helps the reader to have the information about the main idea and theme of your research paper, the issues you have discussed in research and process it takes, and what are the findings and the output you get from it. The abstract should be at the limit of 250 words and double-spaced, but it should not be indented. If you want your research paper to be accessible for the readers and researchers, then you have to include important keywords after your abstract. These keywords will help the researchers get your research paper easily, searching it by the keywords. The caption of ‘keyword’ must be indented in italics, and then you can mention all the important keywords to make your research paper easily reachable.

Main Body of The Report/Essay

The main body of a research paper starts with Running Title, and after that on the next line the title of research is included and it is not underlined and italicized. Tight after that the introduction is begun. The introduction contains the principals and ideas on which the research is mainly based and the issues that are discussed in the research related to the topic. The introduction includes more information than the abstract, which is discussed before. After an introduction, here comes the part of the method; this subtitle should be written at the center with bold font. The method section discusses what techniques and processes are used to conduct research. Discuss the methodology you have used to collect the material for the research.

The “Result” section should be at the center of the page and bold. As a result, you have to summarize all the collected data; graphs can be used for this purpose. The next section is Discussion, and this should be written in bold font in the center of the page. In this part, you critically analyze the results.

Conclusion and Recommendations

At the end of the main body of a research paper, you represent the conclusion, it discusses that weather the premise of the research paper is definite and supports your results or not. You also provide suggestions for the improvement at the end of conclusion and conclude the limitation of your research.

Referencing in APA style format

In APA format and citation, you have to write the references on the new page. It always starts with the running title. Write at the center of page “References” and it must be bold without underlining quotation marks and italicization. You have to include all the references in alphabetical order and with double spacing. The article and sources you have mentioned in your research that must also be included in the reference list.

In-text Citation in APA

Whenever you paraphrase, refer and narrate any quotation from any source, as book, articles, etc., then you have to mention every in-text citation in your reference list. For in-text citation, you have to mention the last name of the author and then the publication year. This is well known APA format and citation style.

For example: (Reynolds, 2018). The number of pages is included in direct quotation, for example (Reynolds, 2018, p. 531). If the page number is not available on the website or E-book, you can use the paragraph number in this case.

In-Text Citation Examples

To improve the abilities of native speakers so that they can understand the sounds and pronunciations of the words and speech, some researchers of literature have designed a few training programs for this development (Beckett & Stiefvater, 2015).  The research method is used in the program that helped to improve the understanding by experiencing more languages that are non-native. Beckett and Stiefvater (2015) conducted this training with social work students.

Example of the References-Used Above

Beckett, G., & Stiefvater, A. (2015). Articles Change in ESL Graduate Students' Perspectives on Non-Native English-Speaker Teachers. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 73(2), 93-97.

Reynolds, A. (2018). Exploring How Non-native Teachers Can Use Commonalties with Students to Teach the Target Language. Hispania, 90(3), 523-537.