The American Psychological Association (APA) style is one of the most widely used formats for writing academic papers, particularly in the social sciences. This guide details key aspects of writing in APA style and includes information on the APA title page, running head, paper sections, in-text citations, reference page, numbers, headings, tables and figures, appendices, and more. It is intended to provide students and researchers proper guidelines for writing and formatting papers in APA style.
Title Page
The APA formatting guidelines specify that a paper in APA style should include a title page that identifies the paper and provides the author with identifying information. On the title page, there should be:
A running head: The running head is a short version of the full title in all capital letters and should be flushed left at the top of the page. Each page of the paper, including the title page, should display the running head. The title page displays the words “Running head:” before the running head.
The full title: The full title provides a brief summary of the paper’s core content. The title is centered on the top half of the page and typed in bold font. Only the first word of the title and any proper nouns or acronyms are capitalized.
Author’s name: Authors’ names are typed in upper and lowercase letters centered directly below the title.
Institutional affiliation: Below the author’s name, center the institutional affiliation that is sponsoring the research or this paper. Provide at least the school name.
Page header: The page header consists of the title of the paper in abbreviated form at the top of each page and is flushed with the right margin in all uppercase letters.
Paper Sections
The paper sections should be:
Abstract: The abstract provides a brief summary of the paper’s content and key findings. It includes keywords to assist researchers in finding the paper. The abstract is not indented and is between 150-250 words.
Introduction: The introduction discusses the background and rationale for the study. It indicates any controversies in the field and also hypotheses or research questions. The introduction uses past tense.
Method: This section describes the materials, participants, and procedure used. It provides enough information to allow replication of the study. Participant information like number and demographics is included. Research designs and statistical analyses are specified.
Results: The results section objectively presents the study findings without interpretation. It uses past tense and includes tables and figures. Tables and figures have table/figure numbers, titles, and are referred to in the text.
Discussion: The discussion section interprets the results and their meaning in the broader context. It connects with the existing body of literature and the research questions or hypotheses. Limitations and implications for future research are addressed.
References: All in-text citations are referenced here in the references section. References are organized alphabetically by author’s last name and double spaced in a hanging indent format.
In-Text Citations
APA requires brief citations within the text of the paper. These in-text citations direct readers to the full citations listed on the References page.
direct quote: “According to Smith (2019), “Students often had difficulty with APA style” (p. 200).” Here Smith is the author and 2019 is the year of publication.
paraphrase or summary idea: Several studies have shown difficulty with APA style (Smith, 2019; Jones, 2020; Brown et al., 2021). Here there are multiple sources in one parenthetical in chronological order separated by semicolons.
block quote: If the quote is more than 40 words, it is formatted as a block quote indented 0.5 inches from the left margin without quotation marks. The citation appears outside the closing punctuation at the end of the block quote.
Reference Page
The Reference page begins on its own page at the end of the paper and is titled “References” centered at the top of the page without formatting. All references cited in the text must appear on the References page and vice versa. Reference entries should be arranged in alphabetical order by the first author’s last name or by title if there is no author.
Some key points for reference entries:
One-author entries precede multi-author entries.
Entries with the same first author are arranged alphabetically by the co-authors’ last names.
References should have 1-inch hanging indent for second and subsequent lines.
The elements of each reference entry (author, year, title, source) are separated by a period.
Page numbers are included for direct quotes or specific citations.
Headings
APA uses five levels of heading levels to separate and classify paper sections. The levels are distinguished using format such as bold, italics, underline, or size differences.
Level 1: Centered, Boldfaced Main Heading
Level 2: Left-aligned, Boldfaced
Level 3: Indented, boldfaced, ending with a period.
Level 4: Indented, boldfaced italics, ending with a period.
Level 5: Indented, italicized, ending with a period. The first letter of the heading is capitalized.
Numbers
Numbers 10 and above should be written as numerals, while numbers below 10 should be written out as words. There are exceptions in APA style:
Always use numerals if the number is followed by a unit of measurement.
Numbers at the beginning of a sentence should be written out as words.
Numbers identifying discrete groups like participants in different conditions should be written as numerals.
Number series with five or more numbers should be written as numerals.
Tables and Figures
Tables and figures each receive a number (e.g., Table 1, Figure 2) and caption describing content. The table number and caption appear above the table, while figure number and caption are below the figure. Tables and figures must be referred to in the text.
Citations inside tables follow the same formatting rules as in-text citations in the paper. Tables are double spaced, including the caption. Figures are placed as close as possible to their first text mention.
Conclusion
This guide has provided an overview of key aspects of writing papers in APA style including the paper structure, in-text citations, reference page formatting, headings, numbers, and tables and figures. Consistent use of APA style will ensure professionalism in academic writing and allow readers to understand the origin of ideas and research findings. APA style is most suitable for writing psychology papers but also used in related social sciences. Following the guidelines will result in well-formatted papers meeting professors’ requirements.
Andrew Stroud