When people get assignments or write academic papers by using the rules of the APA formatting, they must follow guidelines. It is because the lack of knowledge can lead to plagiarism cases. Basically, any form of plagiarism leads to a failure to write a high-quality work. In turn, people must cover all aspects to meet the expectations of the academic community. Therefore, authors must know the main rules of making in-text citations from other scholarly sources and cite them on the reference page to avoid plagiarism.
General Aspects
The American Psychological Association (APA) referencing technique is one of the paper formats. In particular, the APA style is a documentation system used in different types of papers. The APA reference format is beneficial for the incorporation of sources in an author’s work. In this case, the APA style format covers two critical features. They enable an author to avoid plagiarism because of the APA in-text citation and APA reference page.
Formatting APA Citations
The in-text citations used in the APA 6th edition format differentiate it from other documentation systems. The parenthetical in-text citations used in APA formatting conform to the author-year structure. Basically, this structure requires the writer to provide the author’s last name and the publication year of each source in the APA style paper. People include page numbers in the in-text citation for direct quotes from sources. In this case, direct quotations have this additional requirement because it simplifies the process of locating the text within the source. Moreover, citing in APA format encourages authors to provide page numbers for summaries and paraphrases, but it is not mandatory. In turn, the inclusion of page numbers in all in-text citations depends on the guidelines provided by an instructor or publisher. Others may have a preference to maintain consistency of the in-text citations in works from different authors.
References in APA Formatting
A reference list is always provided at the end of an APA paper. Basically, this list is a comprehensive documentation of the source’s bibliographic information titled “References.” In this case, the provision of bibliographic information allows the audience to access the sources used for further reading or credibility assessment of the information extracted from a source on the APA style reference page. However, people should exclude sources that are not readily accessible to readers from the reference list. For example, writers need to avoid various forms of personal communication. In particular, the APA citation controls the presentation of bibliographic information. Rules outline specific ordering and styling rules for each bibliographic element. Hence, the APA citation format provides guidelines for almost all sources that may be used in an essay.
Avoiding Plagiarism
The APA formatting assists authors to avoid plagiarism by ensuring that information from other sources is distinguishable. Basically, the APA format reference page provides a coherent technique of documenting sources. In this case, correct documentation ensures that recognition is given to a particular work because the bibliographic details are unique for each source. Additionally, it allows an author to identify instances of paraphrasing, quoting, and summarising. Hence, an author can inform the reader of information acquired from other sources by using the in-text citations. In turn, plagiarism is not tolerated in the academic community, which makes the use of the APA style citation a necessity.
Conclusion on APA Formatting
The author-year parenthetical in-text citations and the “References” are unique features of the APA formatting. In particular, authors employ the APA referencing style to avoid plagiarism because it allows them to acknowledge the use of a source. Therefore, authors should strive to learn how to cite APA style and APA format website, enforcing them in their works.