APA Research Paper Guide

When confronted with an APA research paper, there is no need to panic. The paper generally has the following sections: an introduction, methods carried out, the results of the research, discussions and finally the references.  The paper may also include some of the tables and figures used in the discussion and results sections. The APA format research paper has the following rules:

• One should not put page breaks in between the sections. That means there should be no page breaks between the introduction section and the methods section or any other sections for that matter.
• The following should appear on their own pages; title page, abstract, references, the tables, and the figures used.
• The paper should be double-spaced with a margin of just one inch all around.
• These are the most crucial guidelines in formatting using the APA research paper format. They often earn a student marks and can also result to penalties if they are omitted.

Research Paper Introduction

The introduction of the APA style research paper is perhaps the most challenging to write. One has to focus on the empirical areas that have a lot of weight and purpose in carrying out the research. It has to be a well-calculated introduction that; integrates, summarizes and critically evaluates the relevance of the research being carried out. It has to be a bold and concrete introduction that ushers in the other sections of the paper

The Method

The method section of the APA style research paper format is just the opposite of the introduction. It is possibly the easiest part of the paper but the part that requires a lot of precision. The idea is to make the research part of the writing simple in such a way that it can be duplicated easily by another person. The process carries other subsections sub-sections such as; the apparatus, participants, the materials and the procedures used.

The Results

The results for the APA style research papers describe how the researcher has analyzed the data and what he has found out. The researcher should show the results in sections if they are complicated and form a complex structure. The results can include a section of descriptive statistics. It should also include the tests that were carried out on the hypothesis.

The Discussion

The discussion part of the APA research paper format aims at interpreting the findings and placing them in a much broader perspective of the literature view. It starts in the opposite way from the introduction section. One has to begin with the most specific areas then narrow down to the more general areas of the analysis. It helps a lot, if one begins with a brief restatement of the main verdicts.  The discussion should be followed by how the findings supported the hypothesis and so on. The discussion section is generally featured at great depth in the APA research paper guidelines as it carries a lot of weight. It should feature the challenges encountered in carrying out the research and how much the research differs from other works carried out by other researchers. It should show how statistically the results were obtained and how they should be presented to get to the various conclusions.

The References

The research paper in APA format should have references which are aligned in an alphabetical order.  The Authors should be alphabetized by using the last name of the first author. They should also be double-spaced with no extra spaces in between. Ensure that the second line of each of the references is indented. They should also be relevant to the research findings and other works cited in other sections.