Popularly used in numerous fields of academia, APA formatting is on equal footing with similar formatting methods, including the Chicago Manual of Style and the Modern Language Association of America guide. Thus, by developing a familiarity with APA style through frequent usage, you will learn to express your ideas in a format that is pervasively accepted. Indeed, in certain contexts, a failure to employ the APA style may cause dismay to readers of your work. As a result, you can compromise your credibility if you do not pay heed to the APA format. Dan W. Butin, author of "The Education Dissertation: A Guide for Practitioner Scholars," asserts that if readers are accustomed "to seeing every other academic book and article in APA format, it comes as something of a shock if there is a deviation from this format."
Leaving little room for doubt regarding content formatting, the APA style guide painstakingly describes how you should list citations, align headings and include abbreviations within a document. Consequently, if you routinely refer to an APA style guide, you will not need to establish novel methods of appending footnotes to an article or wondering how to use hyphens to form compound words. Instead, your APA guide will supply you with sound guidance that will permit you to focus the bulk of your attention on developing the content of your writing.
Frequent usage of an APA manual helps writers to sharpen their writing skills. In addition to bolstering a writer's awareness of the nuts and bolts of grammar usage, a deep acquaintance with the APA format challenges writers to refine their critical thinking skills. Writers are encouraged to detect bias contained within texts and are even instructed to avoid using of gendered pronouns, in order to address readers from a neutral perspective. Thus, using APA style facilitates writers' abilities to hone the technical aspects of their writing.