APA citing refers to a standard method of documenting sources used within a text. APA stands for the American Psychological Association and APA citing is a way of formatting a paper so that others can see exactly where a student gets his or her research and information.
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Because APA citing is standard for dissertations and most academic institutions and fields require proper APA citing, APA citing becomes a large part of any dissertation. Though it is such a large part of the dissertation, APA citing usually goes on the “back burner” as students are more concerned with the actual research and analyses of their dissertation. Students, then, wait until the last minute to include proper APA citing in their paper, and this often leads to improper APA citing.
If a student were to actually pick up an APA citing book, he/she would see that the book itself is hundreds of pages long. While not all of these pages concern proper APA citing rules and guidelines, many of the chapters and pages are indeed devoted to the different rules, formats and regulations of APA citing. APA citing, in fact, has hundreds of rules and regulations. These rules and regulations govern the boy of the paper as well as the bibliography. Both sections of APA citing—the in-text APA citing and the out of text APA citing (or bibliography page) —are very important.
In-text APA citing deals with all formatting within the actual paper itself. Not only must outside sources be formatted according to proper APA citing rules, but tables, graphs and charts must also be formatted correctly. Further, all aspects of the dissertation must be in proper APA citing style—including the title page, the table of contents, the abstract, etc.
Out of text APA citing refers to the bibliography page. In this section, all sources must be cited properly, according to current APA citing rules. There are different rules, for example, for books, journal articles, newspaper articles, magazine articles, encyclopedia articles, etc. Additionally, there are constantly changing rules for APA citing when it comes to on-line sources and technology. These APA citing rules are constantly changing as technology is constantly changing.
Because proper APA citing contains so many rules and regulations, many seek help with their APA citing. Unfortunately however, they do not turn to the accurate APA citing manual, because again, it is lengthy as it is hundreds of pages. This manual can be intimidating and time-consuming, so students seeking APA citing help do not often use it. Instead, a quick Google-search results in a student finding software that claims to quickly turn his/her dissertation into a paper with “proper APA citing.” What students don’t realize, however, is that software cannot replace the actual text because APA citing also deals with what things are written. In other words, the APA citing reference has many chapters that are dedicated to grammar and clear, precise writing of ideas. APA citing software, however, only plugs in a formula (which can actually be wrong in many cases) and does not address the larger issues of the paper. APA citing software, then, is simply a “quick fix” to what often requires more help.
There are services, however, that offer proper APA citing help. These services are extremely well versed in all things relating to APA citing. Additionally, these services deal with larger issues in the dissertation, such as whether or not the research answers the research question, whether or not the argument is laid out in the best possible way, and whether or not the conclusions made actually make sense. Students who wait until the last minute or who do not want to be bogged down by dealing with APA citing should seek this help and assistance as it will no-doubt save them valuable time and energy.
