helps readers of your paper to identify the sources of the information you used
helps you find the information you used, later on
helps you avoid plagiarism because it shows which ideas are yours and which ideas belong to another person
is expected for college-level and professional-level academic work
"Plagiarism" means submitting work that is someone else's as one's own. For example, copying material from a book or other source without acknowledging that the words or ideas are someone else's, and not one's own, is plagiarism. If a student copies an author's words exactly, he or she should treat the passage as a direct quotation and supply the appropriate citation. If someone else's ideas are used, even if it is paraphrased, appropriate credit should be given. Lastly, a student commits plagiarism when a term paper is purchased and/or submitted which he or she did not write. For more information on Plagiarism see the tab: Avoiding Plagiarism on this page.
APA style is a set of guidelines developed to help writers express their ideas and research findings clearly and consistently. APA Style was developed by the American Psychological Association and is used in the social sciences, including psychology.
This online guide is designed to help students with several basic areas of APA Style including:
Here is a great example of how to construct your paper in APA Style. A special thanks to our own Ginger Glodowske for developing this example for Beal University.
WRITING STYLE
Avoid writing in first-person. APA style papers should be written in third-person.
Be concise and clear
Style matters
AVOIDING BIAS
Be sensitive to labels
Gender pronouns
Informative video on how to set up your paper using Microsoft Word.
Informative video on how to set up your paper in Google Docs.