APA Paper Format

How to Format an APA Paper

An APA-formatted paper follows a particular set of style guidelines. From margins and spacing to required sections and more,  you will find everything you need to put together a proper, well-formatted APA paper. Note: These are general APA guidelines. Your instructor's guidelines  may differ. Always check. 

General formatting guidelines

• Font:  APA recommends 11-pt Calibri, 11-pt Arial, 10-pt Lucida Sans Unicode, 12-pt Times New Roman, or 11-pt Georgia. Use the same font throughout.

• Margins: Set one-inch margins on all four sides.

• Italics: Italicize titles of all major works, e.g., titles of books, periodicals, movies, music albums, video games, and TV series.

• Spacing: Double-space all lines in the body of the paper and in the separate reference page. 

• Indentation: Indent paragraphs by half an inch. 

• Pagination: Set page numbers sequentially, starting with "1" on the title page.

Cover page

• Page number

• Title of paper

• Your name

• Your school name

Body of the paper

• Write solid, organized paragraphs that are supported by research, where necessary.

• Document research with proper in-text citations.

• Use a concise, professional tone.

• Meet the required word count.

• Proofread, proofread, proofread.

Reference page                                                                                               

• Set off on a separate page within the same document (following the end of the body, use the page break function or hit enter until you reach a clean page).  

• List a complete reference entry for each in-text citation (except Personal Communications). 

• Use a half inch hanging indent for any reference with more than two lines. For help, refer to Microsoft's page on how to create a hanging indent.

• Organize reference entries alphabetically.