General Guidelines for APA Text Formatting

It is important to master how to write an APA paper in order to make a paper easier to read and understand. Understanding the basic formatting is the key to writing an APA style paper effectively. An APA Paper should contain a title page, an abstract page, the body of the paper, and the reference page. Some professor does not require a title page, or an abstract, so it is best to check the professor first.

The title page is the first page. It includes a header with the Running head: with a short title (up to fifty characters) on the left corner and page number on the right corner. The title of the paper, author’s name (First M. Last), and school affiliation is centered below the header (American Psychological Association [APA], 2010, p. 41). All pages are double spaced, aligned left, and in Times New Roman, 12-point font. Margins are one inch and two spaces after punctuation marks at the end of a sentence (APA, 2010, p. 88). Some paper will require an abstract (it contains in the header, a short title on the left and the page number on the right). An abstract is a summary of the content of the paper in one paragraph, no longer than 150-250 words (APA, 2010, p.27).

The third page should be the body of the paper. The title of the pages is center (not bolded) and below is a short introduction. Level 1, 2, and 3 heading are bolded. Level 1 heading is center, while level 2 header is on the left margin and level 3 header is 0.5” from the left margin. According to Purdue owl “All research has its limitation. It is important to discuss the limitation of the article under examination” (Purdue Owl Lab [POL], n.d., p.6).

Paraphrasing is very important skill to learn and will always be recommended when writing any paper. It is rephrasing an idea of another person in one’s own words to avoid plagiarism. Taking direct ideas or words from the author must be in quotation and cited. Paraphrasing the information do not require the use of quotation marks, but only citation at the end of the sentence before the period. In-text citation includes the author(s), year, and page/paragraph number (APA, 2010, pp170-174).

The last page is where one’s cite all their work, also known as the “References”. The word “References” is center and not in bold. This is where all the source that were mention in the paper is listed. Sources are alphabetized, double spaced, and in hanging indentation (APA, 2010, pp. 37-49). There are many ways to cite the sources that were obtain for the paper. Reference can contain the following: author(s) first and last name, year, title of the source, journal name, volume/page numbers, city name, and publisher name (APA, 2010, pp. 181-198). Refer back to the APA Manual to see the correct font, order, and punctuation marks for citing different sources.