APA: Avoiding Plagiarism and Documenting Sources

What is the APA style?

The APA style is a writing style established by the American Psychological Association that makes recommendations for:

• Using appropriate Point of View and Voice; Word choice; clarity and conciseness.
• Grammar
• Reducing bias in language
• Punctuation
• Spelling
• Capitalization
• Abbreviations (use sparingly)
• Quotations
• numbers, metrication, statistical data, tables and figures
• Footnotes and Appendixes
• Documenting Sources and preparing a list of references

APA style is used for research papers in many classes, including psychology, sociology, economics, criminology, business and anthropology, but it is not the only research paper format. Examples of other common systems of documentation include the MLA (Modern Language Association), used in English and the humanities; Chicago, used in history and some humanities; and CSE, used in biology and other sciences.

You can learn more about the APA Format in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association as well as other books about the APA style, at your library.

Why Is the APA Format Important?

The APA format is important because it provides a consistent format for writing papers. It also guides you in documenting and citing your sources. You must cite your sources in order to...

• Give credit to an authors ideas or words
• Lend authority and credibility to your work
• Allow your readers to locate or cross-reference your sources of information
• Engage your reader intellectually
• Avoid Plagiarism. If you have not done so already, please complete Acadia University's online plagiarism tutorial, "You Quote It, You Note it." When given the chance to select a player, choose Maiko for situations similar to the ones you will encounter during your academic journey.

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