Definitions and Features of APA style


American Psychological Association (APA) Style is a commonly used form of social science academic writing developed by the American Psychological Association. This design style of academic works is often used in research articles in such fields of science as psychology, economics, sociology, pedagogy and other social sciences.

Features of APA style

One of the main features that distinguish this style from all others is the reduction of shifted words in the text. The authors usually try to use neutral vocabulary that will be understood by the majority of readers while writing academic works in the style of the APA. Another feature of this style is the special importance of the design of citations and references to the sources used.

Content of works in APA style

The work, executed in accordance with the criteria of the APA, contains:

  1. Title page;
  2. Annotation;
  3. The main part;
  4. References;
  5. Conclusion;
  6. Bibliography cited;
  7. Tables on separate pages each;
  8. Charts on separate pages each.

Title page

It contains the name of the document, the name of the author, belonging to the institution. The name is printed with a capital letter, it should be centred in the upper half of the page, it can take only one or two lines. Length of the name is usually no more than 12 words in this style of writing. The name of the author is indicated below: first name, initials of a middle name, last name. Do not specify positions or degrees. Under the name of the author is printed the name of the organization/institution.


The abstract begins on a new page. The annotation indicates the research topic, the problems that are discussed in the work, the research methods used, the results of the work and the conclusion. Annotation is not divided into paragraphs and is approximately 150-20 words by volume. The annotation can also include the name of the future work, which will be written on the basis of the developments in this work. Also separately can be specified keywords of the work.

Citation in the text

When quoting a particular work or an author, they indicate only the author and the date, it means that the name of the author and the year of writing should be indicated in the text, full information about the source is in the list of references. If the cited work does not have an author, then the title of this work is indicated. There is also a design rule in the APA style: if the quote exceeds 40 words, it is drawn up in a separate block.

To write good academic work in the style of the APA, it is necessary to review examples of such works in order to visually get acquainted with the structure and rules of registration. If you have to write an academic work in the style of the APA, but you do not have time to delve into all the subtleties of design, you can always entrust it to professional authors by contacting academic writing service.

Footnotes on the page and endnotes

The American Psychological Association does not advise to use the footnotes, as their use often makes reading an article inconvenient and increases the number of consumables during publication. However, if they are necessary, superscript numbers in the superscript are placed after any punctuation marks, except for a dash.

List of used sources

This section informs the reader about the sources used by the author. With the help of this list, it is possible to find the used literature and study the problem in more volume. This section also begins with a separate page and is constructed in alphabetical order according to the names of the authors.

The advantages of this style

Reasons why you should use the style of the APA in the design of academic works:

  1. Using this style, you honestly use elements of someone else’s intellectual property, using links and without violating anyone’s rights.
  2. Demonstrated evidence of research.
  3. Resources used by the author become available to the reader.
  4. Plagiarism is prevented.