APA Style focuses on making your paper clear. Including all information necessary to understand your syntheses of other papers and allowing others to comprehend your empirical studies.
In the 1920's, psychologists worried about the enormous overload of information, just as we do today. They had no idea what would be coming, but they designed styles that would allow readers to find the important information quickly.
APA Style includes guidance on several aspects of the writing up research.
This guide will point you to APA's website for Style and Grammar Guidelines, showing you where to find the information you need. Know that these are the rules for strict APA style. Your professor or program may modify these rules for any courses or assignments.
Citations for archival information differs from citations of journal articles, books, and other published materials.
APA divides archival material into 2 groups: those that have been digitized and are available on the Internet and those that are print available in archival collections.\
| Digitized databases | Print archives |
| If materials can be found only in one archive on the internet (a proprietary database) include information about the database in your citation. | If materials are available in the real world, you should follow these suggestions for citation. |
| "...there are a few cases when it is necessary for readers to retrieve the cited work from a particular database or archive, either because the database publishes original, proprietary content or because the work is of limited circulation." |
"As with any reference, the purpose is to direct readers to the source, despite the fact that only a single copy of the document may be available and readers may have some difficulty actually seeing a copy." |