An APA style essay can be easily adapted to essay writing or any academic writing assignments. The American Psychological Association (APA) style of writing is used in social science and other genres. Though there are many distinct styles of writing, the APA style is closest to the Modern Language Association (MLA) style in terms of formats. The style of writing was devised to create a set of instructions that could be easily understood universally with the help of simple guidelines. Over a period of time, several revisions were made incorporating changes that were need through technological advances and revisions to streamline guidelines. Today, the APA style is widely accepted across the globe as a means to present custom essays and academic papers in social studies and other written works in the English language.
There are guidelines that need to be followed to complete any written assignment in the APA style. Basically, in-text citations are used within the sentences. These include the author’s name and date of publication. The structure is maintained as follows.
1. The APA style essay has a title page with the writer’s name and institution, and a short description or abstract of the research with the heading. The format includes the topic, research questions and content, guidelines, and conclusion.
2. The style permits the use of citations within the text. In-text citations are enclosed within parenthesis with the author’s name and publication date when a book has to be cited. The structure is such that the author’s last comes first followed by the initials or last name. The usage of citations does not tend to break the logic or flow of language.
3. The medium is important while using citations. If it’s a movie, DVD, television program, or other media that has been referred, the title of the works is followed by the year of release separated by a comma. With internet access being easily available, most sources of reference either in a hard-copy format or internet electronic pages can be downloaded directly to a computer. The purpose of citing media sources has thus been simplified Specific sources of reference can be specified by the curriculum to write an APA style essay.
4. The APA style of writing permits the use of a list of references or end note. References are listed using the author’s last name. All citations are listed alphabetically. End notes extend into a bibliography, which contains detailed information about the sources of reference. To make things clear, it can include annotated descriptions of the sources.
Any essay can be literally written using the APA format. For example, an A level coursework or a management essay can be written using the format. This is then understood by a great majority of people who are familiar with the APA style of writing. Though the style needs to be accurate, it is very popular among students. An important factor that makes the style very popular is that it is easily available over the internet. An APA style essay can be compiled with precision with a little bit of practice.
