American Psychological Association & Other Stylistic Guidelines

A short list of style manuals from APA to Turabian.

Various forms of style manuals, such as APA style, have developed over the past hundred years to determine how to best present information for publication or academia. These conventions establish a clear framework that allows students more time to focus on the written work rather than the format in which it is presented.

Proper formatting is an easy way to get higher marks on an essay. Students merely need to know which style manual their teachers have prescribed for their essay and use it to properly format footnotes, endnotes, and the bibliography.

The APA Style Manual

The American Psychological Association Style Manual was first presented in 1929 as a seven-page document created by psychologists, anthropologists and other publishing professionals. Its purpose was to clarify and streamline publication guidelines in the social and behavioural sciences. The latest edition, Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, was released in July 2009.

The MLA Style Manual

The Modern Language Association of America published its first style guide in 1985. This manual has been widely used in North America and provides writing and documentation research guidelines for academics in humanities disciplines. An earlier version, called "The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers", was published in the late seventies.

The AMA Manual of Style

The American Medical Association Manual Style appeared in October 1962 as a 68 page guide for in-house staff and authors. This manual is primarily used for scientific journals and has grown steadily over the years to incorporate an international scope that incorporates changes in the scientific publishing field associated with advances in technology and the electronic writing formats.

The Chicago Manual of Style

The Chicago Manual Style was created by a group of proofreaders within the University of Chicago press whose job was to correct typographical errors and stylistic inconsistencies in handwritten manuscripts presented from faculty to university typesetters. This style sheet dates back around the time the University Chicago press first began its operation in 1891. Since this time, the Manual has undergone many revisions to reflect significant changes to the writer's craft such as copyright laws and the advent of personal computers.

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The Turabian Manual of Style

The Turabian Manual Style was written by Kate L. Turabian, the graduate dissertation secretary at the University of Chicago between 1930-1958. Her style guide adapts the Chicago Manual Style for students. Turabian's manual has been widely used in literature, history and the arts as well as in the physical, natural and social sciences.

Students can rest assured that properly formating the five paragraph essay is a matter of following these guidelines to the letter, comma and period. Each style reflects the need for cheap essay writers of all stripes to follow the rules designed to assist the reader to efficiently process information for a wide range of academic disciplines.

An excellent reference resource for both APA and MLA can be found at the Online Essay Writing Service (OEWS) at owl.english.purdue.edu.