Double-spaced including title, headings, footnotes, quotations, references, and figure captions Consider this example from the Athabasca University Centre for Psychology website: “What are the Psychology and Law Perspective with Respect to Sexual Assault?” A helpful way to structure your title is to “look at your hypothesis and experimental variables.” For example: “The Effects of (Independent Variable) on (Dependent Variable) ”Īn APA format title can also be written as a question. Remember that your title summarizes your entire work. In writing the actual title, it is important to be specific and on-point. A correctly done APA format title page helps establish the aptitude of the student or the writer, and gives the reader and reviewer (either your editor or your professor) a clear representation of the rest of your paper.Īn APA format title page has five essential elements: the article title, the author’s name, the author’s school affiliation, the running head and the page number. It’s a tough thing to get your head around but using the above should make it a bit easier to understand when (and when not) to use abbreviations in APA format.When writing and submitting an academic paper, your title page is your first impression. If you are talking about someone in political power in the USA, you would say U.S. The same goes for some countries – such as the United States. If you are ever unsure about expanding on an abbreviation, you should check that out for some useful ideas on whether or not you can use the intended abbreviation that you had in mind!Īlso, try and avoid using periods unless it’s in the name. APA permits any abbreviations which appear as a word in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. The challenge is that you have to work out what is and is not common knowledge.
#APA MANUSCRIPT FORMAT FULL#
The same applies for things like units of measurement.Įven things like common medical terms – such as HIV – could be written without having to give the full name first. For example, if you are discussing a UNESCO World Heritage Site, you will not have to write out the full name – you can simply get away with using UNESCO. However, please note that when it comes to things that are common knowledge then you could use abbreviations from the start. You don’t want anyone to feel needlessly confused by what you have put down on paper, so keep that in mind. It’s a very important thing to keep in mind, as it should be something you make clear. So, in the example of the NHS, it would make sense to write National Health Service (NHS) and then refer to it as the NHS from this point moving on. You should always make sure that you use the full term first.
Here an Editing service for a better writing! Learn more!Ĭreating the correct abbreviations in APA Format So, the general rule of thumb is to only use abbreviations when you think they are going to make a genuinely positive impact for the reader.
Any less than this, and you run the risk of making it easy for the person reading your paper to forget what you are talking about. If you are going to use an abbreviation, the accepted wisdom is that it must appear a minimum of three times in the paper. However, if you are spending a few paragraphs – or even pages – talking about one particular subject, such as the NHS, it makes sense to abbreviate it at this time.Īt the same time, don’t feel as if you need to avoid using abbreviations altogether. It’s often better for the reader for the whole word to be typed out. However, for the most part, you should avoid using abbreviations as much as you can. The other main reason to use abbreviations is if it will allow you to justifiably avoid wasting space. For example, if you are talking about the National Health Service in the UK, it’s fine to use NHS. For the most part, though, you should only look to use abbreviations which are common knowledge and standard for that reference. This can be surprisingly complex.Ībbreviations are something that you should try and limit the use of when you can. One common issue when writing APA papers and content is that you might make a mistake with regards to how abbreviations are going to be used. APA formatting is by no means easy, and it can be surprisingly simple to make a mistake that ruins the whole style of your writing. When it comes to writing any document using APA formatting, it’s easy to get confused by the process. You can certainly use abbreviations in your articles, essays and research proposals if you know how and where to use them. If you are here you may have asked whether you can use abbreviations in academic writing or how one can use abbreviations in APA format.