5 Common APA Style Mistakes Committed By Students

30 Nov 2016 7404 share it:

APA referred to as the ‘American Psychological Association' is the preferred referencing or citation style prescribed by many UK universities and is meant for the specific subjects like Social Science, Business, Education, Nursing and many more. It is directed by the universities to prepare the academic documents like assignments, dissertations, essays, report writing, and many more; by following the APA referencing style.

While it is vital for the college students of the UK to follow the APA citation style, the scholars find it quite difficult to follow the same in their assignment writing. Assignment Desk offers the best online assignment help to the UK college students and prepares the assignment as per the prescribed citation style. We present to you an insight into some of the common APA style mistakes committed by the scholars. Have a read:

1.Formatting of the Running Head:

One of the most recurrent mistakes spotted by the university professors in the academic documents of the students is the absence of running head or the incorrect formatting of the running head. In addition to this, many scholars also miss out mentioning the page numbers or use the wrong format of the page numbers.

The students must understand the meaning of including the running heads in their documents. The running heads act as short title which is displayed on top of each page of the document. Hence, the document must contain the running head along with the respective page number as prescribed under the APA citation style.

2.Incorrect Abstract:

The scholars also misapprehend the meaning of writing an abstract. Many of them either miss out writing the abstract entirely or do not follow the guidelines for writing the same. Abstract is a vital part of any academic document. It should be presented on a separate page and should also include an appropriate heading. The heading of the abstract should be formatted in the center of the page and should not be made bold or italic.

3.Keyword Usage:

Keywords are the crucial part of any document and must be included in the academic paper. The keywords play the important role of providing the necessary indexing format and also allow the search engines to deliver the content that is searched by any user. It is recommended by the APA experts to include the keyword below the abstract.

4.Use of In-Text Citations:

The area of the document which the students find the most tricky is the inclusion of the in-text citations. The most common mistakes are the incorrect use of ‘et al.', incorrect spellings, improper use of punctuation marks, and the wrong use of multiple citations within a single parenthesis.

When the scholars are expected to follow the APA citation style for framing their assignment or research paper, the citing sources forms an integral part of it. Hence, it is essential for the students to be aware of the different rules for citing by different authors. The students must ensure that they have mentioned the correct author's name and the year of publication which should remain consistent throughout the document. The scholars must be careful with the use of the proper punctuation marks like comma and ampersand to avoid any errors. All the multiple citations which are mentioned in a single parenthesis must be ordered in an alphabetical order.

5.Other Common Mistakes:

In addition to the silly mistakes as already mentioned, the other frequent areas of errors encountered by a professor in the academic document of a college scholar might be the use of incorrect quotations, too many or less number of words, absence of indentation, incorrect format of the margins and flawed proofreading of the entire document.

While these are very common mistakes which might be effectuated by a college-goer, the students can avoid the same by giving proper attention to the rules as specified by the APA citation styles. If they find it difficult to understand, they might consider asking for expert help from the university professors.

With so many rules and guidelines to follow, preparing an academic document like an assignment with the use of the APA citation style, could be difficult for the college students. If as a scholar, you are having a hard time in completing your assignment, approach the expert team of ‘Assignment Desk' to avail the best assignment writing services in the UK.