The American Psychological Association (APA) style guide is commonly used for citing references in social science and education fields. The standard APA format provides guidelines for the layout of an academic paper, especially research papers. This includes specific guidelines for formatting the title page, running head, body text, in-text citations, and reference list at the end. Understanding and following the basic APA style rules is important as it allows for clear and consistent presentation of written documents, whether it is a high school paper, graduate project, or professional journal article.
An APA research paper model document should use:
Times New Roman font, 12 point
1-inch margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right)
Page numbers in the top right corner on every page beginning with the title page as page number 1.
Double-spaced throughout
Header with abbreviated title in the top left and page number in the top right on every page except the title page
Title Page
The title page is the first page of an APA research paper and includes the following elements:
Running head: A shortened version of the title in all caps up to 50 characters including spaces
The title of the research paper: Centered and in title case (capitalize first letter of first word and proper nouns only)
Your name as the author: Centered and in normal font
Your institutional affiliation which is the college or university: Centered on the line below your name in normal font
An author note if required: appears 4 lines below the affiliation in 10-12 point font and italics
Page header: Running head and page number on the top right corner.
Abstract
The abstract page immediately follows the title page. It provides a brief summary of the contents of the paper highlighting key points and conclusions.
The word “Abstract” is centered and in bold at the top of the page as the heading.
The abstract body text is single spaced, not exceeding 250 words and summarizing the purpose, methodology, results and conclusions of the research. No citations are included.
The word count is noted in parentheses at the end of the abstract.
Body Text
The body of the paper begins on page 3. It includes the introduction, method, results and discussion sections with clear subheadings.
Sections are clearly labeled with a centered, boldfaced heading at the top of the page and body text is double spaced.
Citations in the body text are noted by the author’s last name, year of publication, and page number e.g. (Smith, 2020, p. 23).
Quotes longer than 40 words are indented five spaces from the left margin and double spaced without quotation marks. The citation comes after the closing punctuation.
Tables and figures have captions and are referred to by number in the body text e.g. As shown in Table 1…
Reference Page
The reference page begins a new page with the label “References” centered, in bold at the top. References are listed alphabetically by authors’ last names and formatted consistently in hanging indent format.
Author’s last name, first initial(s). Year Published. Title of work. Publisher.
Miller, J., Brown, D., & Subramaniam, S. (2019). The effects of social media on adolescent girls’ self esteem. Sage.
All lines after the first line of each reference should be indented half an inch from the left margin.
References from the same author with the same publication year should be differentiated with letters after the year (ex. 2019a and 2019b).
Adhering to these APA paper format guidelines for layout and consistent style is important for readers to clearly understand the structure and findings of a research study. It allows information and claims to be checked easily and demonstrates a professional mastery of the established writing style used in the social sciences. While the template may seem rigid, following conventions streamlines the assessment process for readers. The standard layout ensures credibility and focus on the content of the research presented. Overall, using an APA research paper format organizes thoughts and presents information clearly for every section of an academic paper.