Organizational Team Building

APA-Style Formatting Guidelines for a Written Essay

When you format a paper in APA style, there are some basic formatting rules. Each page should have 1-inch margins all around and double-spaced lines. APA allows for a number of different fonts, but we recommend you use 12-point, Times New Roman font.

Title Page

Your APA-style title page will include: • A page number • The title of your paper • Your Name • Your institution (university) • The course title • The instructor's name • The assignment date

1

Title of Paper

John Q. Student

University Name

Course

Instructor

Assignment Date Top, bottom, and side

margins throughout the paper should be 1 inch

You should also include the course title, assignment date, and instructor's name

APA guidelines include the title of the paper, the author’s name, and institutional affiliation.

• Center the text in the upper half of the page.

• Use 12-point Times New Roman font

• •

Double space Do not use bold, underline, or italics

• Include your middle initial

Page numbers for the paper begin in the header on the title page and appear in the upper- right corner

Indented

The Body of Your Paper

There are several things to remember when you are formatting the main body of your paper:

• 1-inch margins all around • 12-point Times New Roman font in double-spaced lines • The page number • Your full title centered on the first line in title case • Indent the first line of each paragraph • Include in-text citations for quoted, paraphrased, or

summarized material from others

2

Full Title of Essay

Start your first paragraph here. This is the introduction paragraph. Here you want

to introduce your topic and grab the reader’s attention. Your introduction paragraph

should be 4–6 sentences long and will include your thesis statement. Remember, the

thesis statement states the main focus or main idea of the entire essay and is normally the

last sentence in the introduction; however, more importantly, it should be obvious what

your thesis statement is.

Begin the second paragraph here. This is your first body paragraph. Paragraphs

should be between 5–12 sentences. Your body paragraphs should begin with the

paragraph’s topic, which is the topic sentence. This topic sentence explains the main

focus of this paragraph, and should clearly relate to your thesis statement. Next, you will

include supporting details. If you are using outside sources (research) to lend credibility

to your details, this is where you should include them; most importantly, this is also

where you use in-text citations to cite other people’s ideas from your sources (Author,

date). Finally, the last sentence of a body paragraph concludes the paragraph and refers

back to the paragraph’s main focus.

Page numbering that began on your title page

Full title centered and in title case First line indented

The References Page

Like the other pages in your paper, the References page will include basic APA-style page formatting. Guidelines specific to the References page include:

• The word “References” should be centered on the first line • Alphabetize the entire list using the authors' last names • If you are using multiple works by the same author, list the entries in chronological order, beginning with the

earliest work • Each source you cite in a paper must correspond to a related reference on your References page • Each reference on your References page must be cited somewhere in your paper • References that stretch to two lines require a hanging indent

7

References

Berrett, D. (2014). Dissecting the classroom. The Chronicle of Higher

Education. http://chronicle.com/article/Dissecting-the-

Classroom/144647/

Doe, J. (2014). Citing sources: Finding a way to cut through the confusion. The

Journal of Exceptional Instruction, 8(4), 78.

Heath, J. (2007). An adversarial ethic for business: Or when Sun-Tzu met the

stakeholder. Journal of Business Ethics, 72(4), 359–374. https://

doi.org/10.1007/ s10551-006-9175-5

Top, bottom, and side margins throughout the paper should be 1 inch

Page numbering that began on your title page

“References” should be centered on the first line

Sources appear in alphabetical order based on the author’s last name

Hanging indent for references exceeding one line