apa style

APA Style is a way of standardising the writing of scientific papers. Standards are necessary in order to make a document easier to read and to give it credibility in the community for which it is intended. To a certain extent, we all accept certain standards when we address certain classes of people. Often we do it without thinking (we would use a different style, perhaps, when talking to our professor, a policeman or a foreigner who has difficulty understanding English than we would when talking to our peers). Different styles are therefore necessary and useful and helpful to our audience. If you are considering writing for a particular audience, it is well to be familiar with any styles which are required. At first it may seem difficult (and even unnecessary) to comply with a very strict and rigid format but the more you practice using it, the easier it becomes. It's really the duty of any writer to be able to write in a style that the intended audience will be familiar with and will find credible and acceptable, so learning and practising different styles (both formal and informal) is something that every writer should regard as part of their skill set. I assume that you already know the basics of APA Style but, in case you don't (and for the benefit of anyone else who reads this), there is a good online introduction here: http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htm