Your Philosophy of Education

1

Title of Paper (Adjust top-bottom centering on the page as needed by using print preview)

Your Full Name

University

Course Title

Your Instructor’s Name

Paper Due Date

Note Regarding APA Format: While often APA format refers to the professional format of scholarly papers submitted for publication including many details such as font, margins, headers, footers, etc., when we discuss the use of APA format for educational purposes, we are primarily referring to the need for proper citing of sources, not the typographical details required for publication.

Your paper’s APA format will be primarily evaluated on whether citations in the text, references, and overall writing structure conform to the relevant APA format standards. Use this template as a guide to ensure proper formatting.

Make a copy of this document in your GoogleDrive using the "Make a copy..." command found under the File menu.

   

Abstract

Type your abstract here. The abstract should be one paragraph in length and shall not exceed 120 words. All numbers in this paragraph should be typed as numbers and not in word format. There is no indentation to the abstract paragraph. You start a new page for the body of your paper. Use the Page Break command (under the Insert menu) rather than the return or enter key to start a new page.

For further information about writing abstracts please consult section 2.9 and 3.3 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).

Title of Paper

Start the paper with a short introduction to the subject about which you are writing. Format the body of the paper in 12-point Times New Roman font if printing on paper. Use Arial/Helvetica if it will remain an online document; double-spaced; aligned flush left; and paragraphs indented (using the document ruler, not spaces) about one-quarter inch (again, assuming it will be printed on paper, otherwise, use a sans serif font such as Arial/Helvetica for screen reading).

Page breaks have been put into their proper places and will create the proper format when printing. Adjust these page breaks as needed when removing sections. Do not use additional carriage returns to force a page break. This often leads to inconsistent and/or irregular spacing. Use the Break command (under the Insert menu) to force text onto the next page.

The page number appears one inch from the right edge on the first line of each page along with the first 2-3 words of the title separated by 5-7 spaces, excluding the Figures page.

Paragraphs do not include extra returns and retain the same line space as the paragraph body. Be sure to check your page numbering before printing.

Citations in text are most commonly formatted like this (Last Name, Publication Date). So for example, (Johnson, 2021). Page numbers are used only when you are using a direct quote, “so they might look like this” (Johnson, 2021, p. 35). Note that periods are placed at the end of the phrase, not within the actual quote, i.e., only one period per sentence--at the end of the sentence.

For further information on what goes in each portion of an APA report please consult chapter two of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed., 1st printing). Refer to Purdue OWL and other course resources for formatting models of various other sorts of citations in text such as personal communication.

First 2-3 words of Title 2

Headings

Heading Level 1

The heading for the first section of your paper (heading number one--in this paper, your introduction) should be centered on the page, bolded, have all primary words capitalized (title case), and be on its own line. In this educational APA formatted report-style paper, each section of your paper (i.e., each major theme or idea you are exploring) would typically have its own section title. Be sure to title the heading appropriately. If there are subsections, use the heading levels illustrated below.

Heading Level Number 2

Heading number two should be flush to the left side of the page, bolded, have all primary words capitalized (title case), and be on its own line. Be sure to title this heading appropriately, and that the text of your paper begins a new paragraph.

Heading Level Number 3

Heading number three should be flush to the left side of the page, bolded, italicized, have all primary words capitalized (title case), and be on its own line. Be sure to title this heading appropriately, and that the text of your paper begins a new paragraph.

Heading Level Number 4. If you are using a fourth-level heading it gets indented, bolded, has all primary words capitalized (title case), and has a period at the end. Begin the text of your paper on the same line immediately following heading 4.

Heading Level Number 5. If you are using a fifth-level heading it gets indented, bolded, italicized, has all primary words capitalized (title case), and has a period at the end. Begin the text of your paper on the same line immediately following heading 5.

References

You start a new page for the reference list and any appendices. Use the Page Break command (under the Insert menu) rather than the return or enter key to start a new page.

References use hanging indentation with the first line flush left and each additional line indented 5-7 spaces. This has been done already with the example reference below. Hit "enter" to create a new reference after the first to keep the correct hanging indentation formatting or simply copy and paste the first example to make more references.

If you lose the formatting of this first reference, use the paint roller (found in the toolbar of GoogleDocs) to copy and paste the style of the text you wish to replicate.

Insert your alphabetized list of references here. Be sure to use a hanging indent to differentiate between citations, like this:

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

Some templates to follow for commonly used reference types:

Author’s last name, Initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of the book. Publisher. https://doi.org/DOI

Author’s last name, Initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of the article. Title of Journal, Volume(Issue), Pages. https://doi.org/DOI

Author’s last name, Initial(s). (Year, Month Day of publication). Title of the work. Website. https://URL

Author’s last name, Initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of the article. Newspaper. https://URL

Last name, Initial(s). [Channel]. (Year, Month Day of publication). Title of the video [Video]. Website. https://URL

Organization. (Year of publication). Word. In Dictionary. Publisher. https://URL

You don’t include personal communication in your reference list; instead, parenthetically cite the communicator's name, the phrase "personal communication," and the date of the communication in your main text only, e.g., (D. Johnson, personal communication, January 29, 2021).

Refer to Purdue OWL and other course resources for formatting models of various other sorts of references.

Appendix

Use appendices for items such as original surveys or other whole documents to which you refer in the text but do not want to insert within the body of your paper. One appendix per page. You start a new page for each appendix. Use the Page Break command (under the Insert menu) rather than the return or enter key to start a new page.

Footnotes (rarely used, omit section if not using)

Use standard APA formatting.

Figure Caption (omit section if not using)

Figure 1. Caption of figure