Scientists and researchers have developed several different styles of writing in order to present their results, theories and speculations. They do this for the sake of consistency, so that others can take up their work and clearly understand the nature of their discoveries. The American Psychological Association, or APA, has created a set of rules for their publications, known as APA style.The
. original APA style manual was first published in 1929. It was a seven page document that specified writing style in order to increase the ease of reading comprehension. The style manual was updated in 1952, and further expanded and revised in 1957, 1967, 1974, 1983, 1994 and 2001. The Sixth edition, called the "Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association" was released in July of 2009, with the final, corrected version released in October of that year.The Manual lays out the acceptable parameters for publication, including bias-free language, ethics, grammar, reporting standards, references, statistics and overall writing style. It is the result of years of work by several different task forces, with input from psychologists, publishers, business leaders and many others in the field.In order to simplify the publication process, many templates in APA style are available online for use with popular word processing programs. These templates include the title page, abstract of the paper, the proper style for fonts, margins, spacing and indentations, and a section on the correct way to cite references used in the paper. Persons wishing to write in APA style may download one of these templates and use it as a guide for the finished paper. Use of the template assures the writer that correct APA style is being used, and that the finished paper will meet these standards. This allows the writer to focus on content without worrying too much about the style of the paper.More reference links: http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/rptemp.htm http://www.bookwormlab.com/research-paper-writing/apa-style.html
