APA

Formatting

APA has two different styles: Professional and Student. Most faculty will want Student style until you get to higher level courses. For Professional, click here. 

Title Page Formatting

Student papers contain: 

• Page number on the upper right side, with the title page being 1
• The title of your paper, centered and bold (3-4 lines down from top of page)
• Your name, centered (one blank line between the title and your name)
• Course name/number, centered
• Professor's name, centered
• Your institution and school, centered
• Due date, centered 

More information: Title Page Setup

Headings 

APA Style has 5 levels of headings. Not all levels will be used in every paper, with Level 1 being the most common. 

Because the first paragraph(s) in a paper are understood to be introductory, an Introduction heading is not needed.

More information: Levels of Headings

In-Text Citations

Both paraphrases and direct quotations must be cited. This way credit is given to the ideas that were used to develop your thesis, as well as providing documentation for all information that is not common knowledge. 

The Reference list entry must match the author and date given in-text. 

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), p.262. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

More information: 

Paraphrasing
Author-Data Citation System

References 

The reference list at the end of a paper provides the information needed to identify and retrieve each work cited in the text. Entries must enable readers to retrieve and use the cited works, and therefore need to be complete and correct. 

There are four elements that go into a reference: author, date, title, and source. These elements form a complete reference. 

All references must be formatted with hanging indents.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), p.283. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

More information: 

References: Overview

Common Reference Examples Guide

Reference Guide for journal articles, books, and book chapters

Secondary Citations

Hanging Indents