How to Write an Abstract APA Format

American Psychological Association, or APA, style sets standards for formatting and citing papers for students and professionals in the social sciences. Many research papers and journal articles call for an abstract at the beginning of the paper, which offers a summary of the paper and its findings. APA style offers specific guidelines regarding the formatting and writing of an abstract. The abstract appears at the beginning of the document after the title page.

Instructions

    • 1

      Include a page header that matches your title page on your abstract page. The header, which is the title of your paper, should be left justified and in all capital letters. Also, include the page number in the header; right justify this text. The abstract page number is 2.

    • 2

      Type "Abstract" at the top of the page. Center this text. Initial cap the word, and do not use any formatting like bold, italics or underlining.

    • 3

      On the next line, write a summary of your paper. According to the Purdue Online Writing Lab, the abstract should focus on the key points of your research and, at a minimum, should include your "research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis and conclusions." Keep this text to one, unindented paragraph.

    • 4

      Add keywords after your abstract text. Type "Keywords:" (in italics) followed by a few keywords that you use in the paper. Center the text one line below your abstract. This step is optional, but it helps make your electronic document more searchable in databases.

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