Students often write APA term papers for courses in the social sciences. Like all term papers that use a specific writing style, APA term papers have certain unique elements that other writing styles do not use.
First, the APA term paper cites its sources using parenthetical citations, which are short pieces of identifying information for each source. In APA style, that identifying information is usually the author of the work and the year of the work's publication, as in the following example: (Smith, 1992). In the bibliography, then, the student will provide the full identifying information for each source, including author, title, editor (if applicable), periodical (if applicable), and year of publication. Students should become accustomed to referring to their APA style manuals frequently in order to ascertain the appropriate sequence of information, because each research source can have unique citation considerations.
Second, an APA term paper will often include an abstract, which students may not have to write for term papers in other styles. Because the goal of an abstract is to synopsize the contents of an APA term paper accurately, students can write their abstracts most effectively after having written the body of their papers. One should craft an abstract as a small paragraph that mentions the topic of the paper, the conclusion that the paper argues on that topic, and the main points that the paper makes to buttress that conclusion. Although the included information in an abstract is similar to that of a thesis statement, the abstract does not have to comprise a single sentence but rather can comprise several sentences.
Finally, an APA term paper will have certain minute concerns that the student should learn before attempting to write. Like all style manuals, APA has preferences for quotations, abbreviations, certain grammar and spelling issues, and the tone and writing style for a research paper. Students should be sure that while learning such issues, they are consulting the most recent edition of the APA style manual, because those preferences will change slightly from edition to edition.
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