GENERAL APA GUIDELINES

Your essay should be typed and double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11"),
with 1" margins on all sides. Include a page header (also known as the “running
head”) at the top of every page. For a professional paper, this includes your paper title
and the page number. For a student paper, this only includes the page number. To
create a page header/running head, insert page numbers flush right. Then type
"TITLE OF YOUR PAPER" in the header flush left using all capital letters. The running
head is a shortened version of your paper's title and cannot exceed 50 characters
including spacing and punctuation.

FONT

The 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual requires that the chosen font be
accessible (i.e., legible) to all readers and that it be used consistently throughout the
paper. It acknowledges that many font choices are legitimate, and it advises writers to
check with their publishers, instructors, or institutions for guidance in cases of
uncertainty.
While the APA Manual does not specify a single font or set of fonts for professional
writing, it does recommend a few fonts that are widely available. These include sans
serif fonts such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, and 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode as
well as serif fonts such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, 10-point
Computer Modern.

Major Paper Sections

Your essay should include four major sections: the Title Page, Abstract, Main Body,
and References.
TITLE PAGE

Note: APA 7 provides slightly different directions for formatting the title pages of
professional papers (e.g., those intended for scholarly publication) and student papers
(e.g., those turned in for credit in a high school or college course).

The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author's name, and
the institutional affiliation. A professional paper should also include the author note.
A student paper should also include the course number and name, instructor name,
and assignment due date.

Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centered in the upper half of the page.
The title should be centered and written in boldface. APA recommends that your title be
focused and succinct and that it should not contain abbreviations or words that serve no
purpose. Your title may take up one or two lines. All text on the title page, and
throughout your paper, should be double-spaced.

Beneath the title, type the author's name: first name, middle initial(s), and last name.
Do not use titles (Dr.) or degrees (PhD).
Beneath the author's name, type the institutional affiliation, which should indicate the
location where the author(s) conducted the research.

A professional paper should include the author note beneath the institutional affiliation,
in the bottom half of the title page. This should be divided up into several paragraphs,
with any paragraphs that are not relevant omitted. The first paragraph should include
the author’s name, the symbol for the ORCID iD, and the URL for the ORCID iD. Any
authors who do not have an ORCID iD should be omitted. The second paragraph
should show any change in affiliation or any deaths of the authors. The third paragraph
should include any disclosures or acknowledgements, such as study registration, open
practices and data sharing, disclosure of related reports and conflicts of interest, and
acknowledgement of financial support and other assistance. The fourth paragraph
should include contact information for the corresponding author.
A student paper should not include an author note.
Note again that page headers/page numbers (described above for professional and
student papers) also appear at the top of the title page. In other words, a professional
paper's title page will include the title of the paper flush left in all capitals and the page
number flush right, while a student paper will only contain the page number flush right.
Student APA title page

Title page for a student paper in APA 7 style.

ABSTRACT

Begin a new page. Your abstract page should already include the page
header (described above). On the first line of the abstract page, center and bold the
word “Abstract” (no italics, underlining, or quotation marks).
Beginning with the next line, write a concise summary of the key points of your
research. (Do not indent.) Your abstract should contain at least your research topic,
research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions. You
may also include possible implications of your research and future work you see
connected with your findings. Your abstract should be a single paragraph, double-
spaced. Your abstract should typically be no more than 250 words.
You may also want to list keywords from your paper in your abstract. To do this, indent
as you would if you were starting a new paragraph, type Keywords: (italicized), and then
list your keywords. Listing your keywords will help researchers find your work in
databases.

APA Abstract Page

Abstract page for a student paper in APA 7 style

APA Citation Basics
When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means
that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in
the text, like, for example, (Jones, 1998). One complete reference for each source
should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

If you are directly quoting or borrowing from another work, you should include the page
number at the end of the parenthetical citation. Use the abbreviation “p.” (for one page)
or “pp.” (for multiple pages) before listing the page number(s). Use an en dash for page
ranges. For example, you might write (Jones, 1998, p. 199) or (Jones, 1998, pp. 199–
201). This information is reiterated below.

Regardless of how they are referenced, all sources that are cited in the text must
appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

In-text citation capitalization, quotes, and italics/underlining

• Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials: D. Jones.
• If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four
letters long or greater within the title of a source: Permanence and Change. Exceptions
apply to short words that are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs: Writing
New Media, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.

(Note: in your References list, only the first word of a title will be capitalized: Writing
new media.)

• When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word: Natural-
Born Cyborgs.
• Capitalize the first word after a dash or colon: "Defining Film Rhetoric: The Case of
Hitchcock's Vertigo."
• If the title of the work is italicized in your reference list, italicize it and use title case
capitalization in the text: The Closing of the American Mind; The Wizard of Oz; Friends.
• If the title of the work is not italicized in your reference list, use double quotation marks
and title case capitalization (even though the reference list uses sentence case):
"Multimedia Narration: Constructing Possible Worlds;" "The One Where Chandler Can't
Cry."
SHORT QUOTATIONS

If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of
publication, and page number for the reference (preceded by "p." for a single page and
“pp.” for a span of multiple pages, with the page numbers separated by an en dash).
You can introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author's last
name followed by the date of publication in parentheses.

According to Jones (1998), "students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was
their first time" (p. 199).
Jones (1998) found "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199); what implications
does this have for teachers?

If you do not include the author’s name in the text of the sentence, place the author's
last name, the year of publication, and the page number in parentheses after the
quotation.

She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not
offer an explanation as to why.
LONG QUOTATIONS

Place direct quotations that are 40 words or longer in a free-standing block of

typewritten lines and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented
1/2 inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph.
Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent
paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing
throughout, but do not add an extra blank line before or after it. The parenthetical
citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.
Because block quotation formatting is difficult for us to replicate in the OWL's content
management system, we have simply provided a screenshot of a generic example
below.

Formatting example for block quotations in APA 7 style.

QUOTATIONS FROM SOURCES WITHOUT PAGES

Direct quotations from sources that do not contain pages should not reference a page
number. Instead, you may reference another logical identifying element: a paragraph, a
chapter number, a section number, a table number, or something else. Older works (like
religious texts) can also incorporate special location identifiers like verse numbers. In
short: pick a substitute for page numbers that makes sense for your source.

Jones (1998) found a variety of causes for student dissatisfaction with prevailing citation
practices (paras. 4–5).
A meta-analysis of available literature (Jones, 1998) revealed inconsistency across large-scale
studies of student learning (Table 3).

SUMMARY OR PARAPHRASE

If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to
the author and year of publication in your in-text reference and may omit the page
numbers. APA guidelines, however, do encourage including a page range for a
summary or paraphrase when it will help the reader find the information in a longer
work.

According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners.
APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (Jones, 1998, p. 199).