The American Psychological Association, or APA, is a professional and scientific member organization for psychologists in the United States. Their mission is "to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives." APA format refers to the guidelines outlined and illustrated in the APA's style guide, The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Commonly referred to as the APA style guide, it is a manual and resource for formatting documents, primarily in the social sciences, including proper citation style for references. APA style provides rules for punctuation, reference citation, heading format, removing bias from writing and many other topics.
The purpose of APA style is to create consistent and clear writing, and punctuation can be invaluable for clarity of writing. A misplaced punctuation mark--or the omission of punctuation--can bog down communication. APA style guidelines require a comma before clauses, the omission of hyphens in compound adjectives if they are clear without the hyphen, and the punctuation included within parentheses when the parenthetical information is a complete sentence. These and many more rules and guidelines for proper APA punctuation are available in the APA style guide.
Citing sources accurately and completely is required in scholarly and professional writing. The APA style guide provides a clear set of rules for the citation of references. There are guidelines for citing any type of reference, including electronic sources, books, journal articles, brochures, company newsletters, unpublished works and personal communication. The APA style guide has information on how to cite references in text and also how to compile a reference list.
Parallel structure for headings in publications can improve reader navigation and content organization. The APA style guide has rules for formatting different heading levels. There are five different levels of headings, and each has its own unique style.
One of the primary purposes of APA style is to remove bias from language. Though often unintentional, biases can be apparent in all kinds of writing. These biases can be racial, ethnic, religious, gender-based or based on disabilities. The rules outlined by APA include using "handicap" instead of "disability," "non-disabled" instead of "normal," "sexual orientation" instead of "sexual preference" and "lesbian and gay male" instead of "homosexual." The goal is to remove labels whenever possible, but if labels are required to be as specific as possible, and to call people what they wish to be called. Also, avoid using adjectives as labels: Instead of "schizophrenics," use "people with schizophrenia."