How to write an essay in APA Format?

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How to write an essay in APA Format?
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What is APA format?

• APA stands for American Psychological
  Association. APA format is the official writing
  format of this association. This format is used
  to write papers in Psychology, education and
  social sciences. In psychology and other social
  sciences, it is important to write in APA format.
  It is because writing in a particular format
  allows readers to know what they look for. Also,
  the psychology writers can easily communicate
  their ideas and experiments in this format.

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Four Major sections of the essay in APA format.

• Title Page- Title page is the first page of your
  essay. It must contain a running head, title,
  author name, and school affiliation. The main aim
  of writing this page is to let readers know the
  topic and author of the paper.
• Abstract- Abstract is a brief summary of your
  paper. This page is placed just after the title
  page. According to APA, the abstract should be no
  more than 150 to 200 words.
• Main Body- The main body includes the main
  content of your writing. If you are writing an
  essay, the main body should include the essay
  itself but in APA essay format. If you are
  writing any paper then it can include further
  subsections.
• References- This section includes all the sources
  from where you have gathered the information.

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Things to remember about APA Essay Format

• Margins- There must be a uniform margin on all
  the four sides of the page. The margin should be
  of at least one inch.
• Double Spacing It means there must be two spaces
  after each sentence.
• Running Head According to the APA essay format,
  every page of your essay must contain a running
  head on the top left. Running head is the
  shortened form of the title. It should be no more
  than 50 characters.

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Things to remember about APA Essay Format (cont.)

• Pagination Page numbers should begin with the
  Title page. Every page of your essay must contain
  page number on the top right corner.
• Title Your title should not exceed 12 words. The
  title must clearly tell what paper is all about.
• Font According to APA format, font style must be
  Times New Roman and font size must be 12.
• Paragraph Indent The first word of each
  paragraph must be indented one-half inch. Avoid
  paragraphs of one sentence.
• Reference List This list must contain each
  source from where information is collected.

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Things to remember about APA Essay Format (cont.)

• Numbers The numbers less than 10 must be written
  in words(one to nine). Numbers more than 9 must
  be written in Arabic(10-100000 and so on).
• Citation Citation must be done in a proper
  format. For this, you must use author name
  followed by the date of publication.
• Format (author,publication date).
• Hyphen use APA essay format recommends writers
  to use fewer hyphens. So, do not over-hyphenate
  your content.
• Italics All the titles should be in italics.
  Especially the titles of books, newspapers,
  magazines, brochures, periodicals, journals etc.
• Language Do not use biased or pejorative
  language. For example do not use the word
  disabled child, in its place use child with
  disability.

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Things to remember about APA Essay Format (cont.)

• Abbreviations APA recognizes any seven acronyms
  that do not need definition. These are HIV, AIDS,
  ESP, REM, ACTH, NADP, and IQ. If you want to use
  other abbreviations also then define them once
  before using. For example- ___Stock Keeping Unit
  (SSU)___.
• Quotes Try to avoid the use of quotes. If
  necessary, use the quotes of less then 40 words
  and explain that in your words too. Quotes of 40
  words or more are considered as blocked quotes.

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Tips to make your writing in APA format easy

• Choose a good topic to write.
• List all the sources that you cite.
• Editing and proofreading
• Make your final draft.

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Resources which provide APA format help

• Homework Help Websites like CallTutors
• Online tools
• Purchase official APA manual