The American Psychological Association, or APA, was founded in 1892 and has grown into an organization with more than 150,000 members in 54 divisions. In 1929, the APA developed a standard format for writing scientific articles to keep uniformity within the organization's published findings. Many students are required to write in APA style today. One element of APA papers includes an abstract, or short summary of the article, to appear on the second page of the paper.
Instructions
- 1
Begin your abstract on page two. Your title page should appear on page one, and each page should have the title of your article in its header. Write the word "Abstract" on the first line, with no bold, italic or underline print. Center the word in the middle of the page. Begin your abstract on the next line.
2Set one-inch margins on all sides of the page, and use 8.5 by 11 inch paper. Set your font type to "Times New Roman," and set the size to 12. Do not make an indentation before you begin typing your abstract.
3Write out the body of the abstract. Make it no more than 120 to 150 words in length. Include the purpose of the experiment, the methods you used to execute the experiment, the results you observed and your conclusion.
4Hit "Enter" or "Return" at the end of your abstract to begin typing on the next line. Type "Keywords:" in italics, followed by several key words used in your paper. This will allow other researchers to more easily find and categorize your article.
