A research or project report is considered incomplete without proper referencing and citations. Citation in a research manuscript means that it has some connection with the referred source. References are generally found in footnotes and bibliography sections of a write-up, and are used to support and forward the discussion (and/or the explanation) by the author.
APA Referencing Style
APA, MLA, ASA, Harvard, and Oxford are some of the most common styles of referencing or giving citations in a research papers. APA stands for American Psychological Association, and is very popularly used referencing system for behavioral, social science and education based research assignments.
Constituted in the year 1929, the APA style eases the reading experience. There are multitude advantages of APA format, some of which are given below –
Professional and Decent – Papers adorned with APA referencing style look decent, formal, and well-structured. At higher and professional level, research reports, journals, and books are published using this format.
Less confusing – APA referencing style does not puzzle the reader, and conveys the writer’s message accurately. Additionally, it is quite convenient for the writers to learn.
Convenient – When you choose to compose your report in APA format, you have the set of rules, related to margin and paragraph space, font type and size, and sourcing. The MS Word application has inbuilt, pre-programmed APA referencing system, which could be of a great help for writers. The software program guides you how to add references in body and references’ sections. It also allows writers to add images and pieces of data (as graphs, tables, etc.) in the body of the paper. Even more, the application comes with innate grammar and language rules, to help writers avert such errors from their work.
However, if you are going to follow this format for the first time, you are advised to go through the set of rules before you head further.