Annotation in APA Style

APA format is the official style of the American Psychological Association and it is used in psychology writing as well as other social sciences.

This format also stipulates the use of an abstract for brief summary of the key details of the document in general.

For an abstract of an experimental report:
For an abstract of a meta-analysis or literature review:

An abstract should be between 150 and 250 words. The abstract should be confined within a single paragraph. While the first line of the abstract is not indented, the other lines should be indented (5 spaces from the left margin). Like the rest of the document, the abstract is double-spaced and uses Times New Roman, 12 pt. Set the margins at 1'' on all four sides.

The title should be on the upper left margin of each page. The page number should be on the upper right margin of each page of the document. Please note that you should capitalize all letters of the title and limit it to 50 characters, including letters, punctuation, and spaces.

The title of the abstract should be centered at the top of the page; there is no extra spaces between the title and the paragraph. Do not format the title with bold, italics, underlining, or quotation marks.

When writing the abstract, note that
the APA recommends using two spaces after sentences that end in a period; however, sentences that end in other punctuation marks may be followed by a single space. Besides, use the active voice and past tense in the abstract. But the present tense may be used to describe conclusions and implications. Acronyms or abbreviated words should be defines in the abstract.

Formatting the Abstract Page in APA Style

Placement

The abstract should immediately follow the title page. The abstract is always placed on the page number 2.

Page header

Use the same title as on the Title Page

  • set at 1” (2.5 cm) on the upper page margin
  • Shortened title: capitalized letters, paragraph alignment to the left
  • The page number 2: paragraph alignment to the right

The title

Enter the title "Abstract" (without quotations) under the page header, align center

Recommendations:

There are the conditions that should be fulfilled in the abstract:

  • Summarize the most important elements of your article.
  • Represent the purpose and content of your article clearly
  • Be consistent in order your abstract is easy to read
  • Be objective while expressing your point of view

Annotation in APA Style