As a student, learning all that you can conjure up and remember in your years of academia is not a bad idea. After all, you are never smarter for not knowing something. The APA referencing style and UK universities are like pineapple and pizza; they don’t go well together, yet some may not get enough of it.
What is meant by that is UK universities generally prefer another referencing style, known as the Harvard referencing style over the APA referencing style. However, there are exceptions, and your professors or university may specifically require you to mention your sources in the APA style.
So, in your best interest, let’s learn all about APA referencing. With an introductory understanding of what the APA style is.
What is The APA Referencing Style?
The acronym APA stands for the American Psychological Association. They created the APA referencing style somewhere in the 1920s, making this referencing style almost, if not over a century old at this point. Over the years the style has been updated, and new additions of reference types such as web pages have been created as later additions.
Generally, the APA citation is basically an author name and publication year citation style. It uses in-text citations as opposed to the footnotes citation style that’s used in the Chicago style of referencing. The main goal of the APA referencing style was to make it easier for readers to follow their reading without getting derailed by the interruptions of citation sources.
To minimise distractions, the use of footnotes was slowly debarred over the years, and the current APA style, as we know it today, came to be known from sometime in the 1950s. With that brief history of the APA referencing style, let’s review its characteristics and formatting.
Characteristics of the APA Referencing Style
There are several rules and formatting guidelines of the APA referencing style that you must know. Here are the most common characteristics of the APA referencing style.
- Make sure you mention the author’s name (last name, first name initial.) and the publication year in parenthesis for in-text citations. This is the basic requirement and must be fulfilled as per the formatting shown above.
- A separate reference list must be created at the end of your content that lists all the references used in your content in alphabetical order following the author last names listed.
- The formatting of each reference entry must be consistent. You must use the right punctuation wherever necessary when you are mentioning the references in your content. You must also italicise the name of the article you’re referencing.
- The first word of the title of the article referenced must be capitalised. All the following words need not be capitalised. This has to be maintained consistently throughout the content.
- In case, if any source is directly referenced, the page number also needs to be mentioned in the reference.
Why Should You Learn APA Referencing for UK Universities
1. Teaches Academic Integrity
The point of referencing your sources is to reduce the risk of plagiarism for students. Using references also ensures students learn the importance of referencing the actual authors for their ideas and not stealing someone else’s work and quoting it as their original. Academic integrity is an important lesson for students to learn in their years of academia.
2. Global Acceptance
The APA referencing style is recognised globally and is one of the most standardized formats used worldwide. Even though the APA style is not very popularly used in the UK, it is still recognised and if you learn the APA style well, only making a few changes can help you master the UK’s choice of referencing style, Harvard referencing style.
3. Short and To The Point
The APA referencing style is concise, and it allows readers to clearly know where the reference is coming from. Some referencing style has a difference in their style and formatting based on the subject and the author. The APA style is different as it doesn’t have any differences based on the discipline or author.
4. Easy for Students
The APA style is very well documented. It has clearly laid down rules and regulations that can be easily followed by students. The regulations and rules are also easily available online, and citation tools are even present to help you format your references correctly. This clear documentation allows students to easily learn how to cite their sources.
Conclusion
These are some of the best reasons why you should learn about the APA referencing tool and why it can even be essential for your UK academic writing. To learn more about the APA referencing style and its guidelines, you can avail of the services of our experts at Digi Assignment Help UK. We can help you write the best assignments that are properly cited and completely free of plagiarism. Check out our website to learn more about the services.
