APA Formatting And Style Guide

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Contributors:Joshua M. Paiz, Elizabeth Angeli, Jodi Wagner, Elena Lawrick, Kristen Moore,

Michael Anderson, Lars Soderlund, Allen Brizee, Russell Keck.

Summary:

APA (American Psychological Association) is most commonly used to cite sources within the

social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th edition, second printing of the

APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations,

endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. For more information, please consult the

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, second printing.

General Format

Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in APA.

To see a side-by-side comparison of the three most widely used citation styles, including a

chart of all APA citation guidelines, see the Citation Style Chart.

You can also watch our APA vidcast series on the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel.

General APA Guidelines

Your essay should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11") with 1"

margins on all sides. You should use a clear font that is highly readable. APA recommends

using 12 pt. Times New Roman font.

Include a page header (also known as the "running head") at the top of every page. 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.

Major Paper Sections

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

References.

Title Page

The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author's name, and the institutional

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affiliation. Include the page header (described above) flush left with the page number flush

right at the top of the page. Please note that on the title page, your page header/running head

should look like this:

Running head: TITLE OF YOUR PAPER

Pages after the title page should have a running head that looks like this:

TITLE OF YOUR PAPER

After consulting with publication specialists at the APA, OWL staff learned that the APA 6th

edition, first printing sample papers have incorrect examples of Running heads on pages after

the title page. This link will take you to the APA site where you can find a complete list of all

the errors in the APA's 6th edition style guide.

Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centered in the upper half of the page. APA

recommends that your title be no more than 12 words in length 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 (Ph.D.).

Beneath the author's name, type the institutional affiliation, which should indicate the

location where the author(s) conducted the research.

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Image Caption: APA Title Page

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 the word “Abstract” (no bold, formatting,

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 be between 150

and 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.

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