Writing a research paper is an important skill you need to learn. In college and graduate school, you will probably write many research papers. Before you start writing your next research paper, you need to choose a topic, do some research, and write an outline. You also need to know which style guide to follow for formatting and citations. The most common style guides used in academic writing are APA (American Psychological Association) and MLA (Modern Language Association) styles. This article provides a sample APA research paper in Word format to help you get started.
The American Psychological Association (APA) is commonly used in social sciences like psychology, education, and other sciences. APA format consists of in-text citations and a reference page at the end. The reference page lists all the sources you cited in your paper in alphabetical order. You add an in-text citation whenever you paraphrase or quote information from a source. In APA style, in-text citations include the author’s last name and year of publication in parentheses. The reference page entry includes the author, year of publication, title of source, and publication information. This guide provides a template and sample of an APA style paper with explanations of the different sections.
The standard APA format provides guidelines for document layout including:
1-inch margins on all sides of the document
Times New Roman 12-point font
Double spaced throughout except for the title page
Page numbers in the top right corner on every page, starting with the title page as page 1.
The first page of an APA research paper consists of a title page. The title page includes:
The title of the paper, which should be centered in the upper half of the page.
Your name and your institution’s name on separate lines near the bottom of the page.
Here is a sample APA title page:
Insert sample APA title page here
The second page of the paper is the abstract. The abstract is a brief, comprehensive summary of your paper. The abstract page should have the heading “Abstract” centered at the top without any formatting. The body of the abstract is a single paragraph, no longer than 250 words.
The third page is where the paper officially starts. This page has the title of the paper centered at the top of the page, but this title is not bolded or in any large font. It appears in the regular 12 point Times New Roman font.
Here is a sample of an abstract page:
Insert sample abstract page here
The body of the paper follows standard essay formatting. The entire paper is double-spaced with 1-inch margins. Section headings are centered, bold, and title case. Subsection headings are flush left, bold, and title case. Both section and subsection heading text is in a larger font than the body text. You can additionally indent the first line of each paragraph. The introduction, conclusion, and body paragraphs should be in narrative form rather than outline form.
The body of the paper may include:
Introduction
Hook
Thesis statement
Background information
Preview of sections
Section 1 heading
Subsection heading 1
Subsection content
Subsection heading 2
Subsection content
Section 2 heading
Conclusion
Restate thesis
Conclude importance
Limitations
Suggest future research
Page numbers appear in the top right corner on every page, including the title page. This is the only page element that appears on the title page. It is not uncommon to have 4-6 or more double-spaced pages in the body of an APA paper, not including the title and reference pages.
At the end of the paper, a references page lists all sources cited in the paper in APA style. The heading “References” is centered at the top of the page. All reference entries are double-spaced, and subsequent lines of each entry are indented 0.5 inches from the left margin. Here is a sample Reference page:
Insert sample references page here
The basic parts of an APA style research paper are:
Title Page
Abstract
Body
References
This guide has provided a detailed template and samples of content for each section in APA style. Use this guide as you write your next research paper. Follow the APA style for formatting, citations, and references. Always check with your instructor if you have additional style questions. Proper formatting ensures consistent structure and credibility for your paper. I hope this sample APA paper in Word helps you get started! Let me know if you have any other questions.