Grammatical Rules and APA Format - Essay Example

Application: Grammatical Rules and APA Format al Affiliation: Application: Grammatical Rules and APA Format Grammar is one of the most significant aspects of any language. As such, it must be considered when writing any paper. Even though the grammar and the correct formatting of a document are crucial, there are several challenges that are experienced in the application of the rules. This document, therefore, discusses the various challenges that are encountered in the use of proper grammatical rules and APA formatting and the possible strategies that can be used to address the challenges (Strauss, 2011).

The first challenge is as a result of grammatical proficiency. That has to do with making the right choices of the words to be used and the proper arrangement of words and other parts of speech. Apart from this challenge, there are other challenges that result from the use of tenses. For instance, it is difficult in the utilization of the past perfect tense within the paper. When writing, it becomes difficult to stick to the past perfect tense while maintaining the subject-verb agreement in a sentence (Strauss, 2011).

The other challenge I experience has to do with the use of the past-prerogative-tense. Just like the past tense, the correct use of this tense and knowing the best place or part of the sentence to use it is a challenge to me when writing.The use of past modals is the other problem I find in the application of the proper grammatical rules. The use of words like “May” or “Might” indicates certainty becomes a problem. It is because it is difficult to determine when to use them in the past participle or past tense forms.

In addition, I find it challenging to use reported speech in my writing due to the many quotation marks that I have to apply to make it grammatically correct (Strauss, 2011). Also, I find it difficult to avoid the use of the passive voice when writing, which when used regularly lowers down the quality of writing. The other challenges involved that are similar to this include; the use of the future-real conditions, the future-unreal conditions, the use of the past-unreal conditions, the infinitive, and the gerund.

These challenges make my work difficult when writing as it is not easy to avoid them when writing (Strauss, 2011).Other difficulties I face when applying the grammatical rules include the use of the articles, the use of connectors, and the use of the punctuation marks, the repetition, and wordiness. Using the articles; “a, an, and the” are sometimes challenging to me when I want to apply the proper grammatical rules in writing. Wordiness and repetition are some of the problems that I face them mostly when writing thesis statements or other assignments that require longer explanations (Strauss, 2011).

The choice of words is another problem that I face when writing and trying to apply the rules of grammar. It is because many words have synonyms and antonyms. Choosing the correct word that follows the proper grammatical rules becomes difficult. It, therefore, poses a challenge to me when applying such rules (Strauss, 2011). Further, maintaining the flow of the writing is a challenge especially when I have to discuss a large number of events or points that I am not supposed to number or list.

(Strauss, 2011).When it comes to APA formatting, I face several challenges. Firstly, the format keeps on changing, and new rules emerge every other time. That makes it difficult to know which one to apply when writing. For instance, the latest APA formatting style is the 7th edition and is subject to change (Gurung, 2013). Secondly, I find it difficult to cite journals because of the challenge of finding all the requirements to be included when citing such sources. Many journals do not have page numbers and issue numbers indicated, and I have to find them to be in a position to quote the sources correctly.

A lot of time is wasted in trying to meet the basic requirements to ensure I come up with the correct citations (Gurung, 2013).The third challenge comes about when citing web pages and other online sources. Since the APA guidelines require in-text citations, the web pages have to follow the same rule. However, these sources do not have the author's names on most occasions. That makes it difficult to cite them within the paper. When finally mentioned, they contribute to the grammatical errors in the papers that I write (Gurung, 2013).

The other challenge on the application of the correct APA formatting has to do with the number of words per page. Whenever I write, I have to format the pages manually to have the required 275 words per page as required by the APA guidelines (Gurung, 2013). That is a major challenge given the fact that the work may be tedious, especially when I have to format more than ten pages (Gurung, 2013).When applying the APA formatting rules, I find it hectic to insert the in-text citations at the end of various sentences.

It is because it involves a lot of work given that I have to be exact about the sources of the information that I used in writing the paper. Writing the page numbers is another problem, especially when the title is so long that it cannot fit on one line. That makes the running head and other headers not presentable and the APA style guidelines may not be fully adhered to (Gurung, 2013).