Nursing: History & Physical Assignment

1) Never assume the reader knows what abbreviation represents. Always type the word first with abbreviations in (), then you may use the abbreviation throughout the paper. Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR).

2) Header will be used in every APA paper, no exceptions. 1st page header is different from all other pages.

3) Numerals <10 are spelled out unless it used in a date, height, weight, etc.

4) Introduction does NOT warrant header. (Page 27, Section 2.05)

5) First page is cover page with the header at top of page with page number. Title of the paper, your name, and university is in the upper first half of the paper. NOTHING else is on the cover page!

6) Second page should be the start of your paper. The title is always centered on the second page unless an abstract is required. THERE IS NO abstract required for this course. With that being said, the second page should have the title of your paper, then the introduction. Remember do NOT include INTRODUCTION at top of page as APA states the intro does not warrant a title!

7) Headers are used in APA. First page should have this in the header: Running head: TITLE OF PAPER (no more than 50 characters including spaces) flush left with page number flush right.

8) The header for all pages after page 1: TITLE OF PAPER flush left with page number flush right.

9) First line of every paragraph is indented.

10) First level headers are bolded, centered. No lines underneath, colons, bullets.

11) Second level headers are bolded, flush left. No lines underneath, colons, bullets.

12) Third level headers are bolded, flush left with indent and period at end. Comments start immediately after period.

13) Double space, Times Roman New Font, 12 inch pica, one inch margins all the way around.

14) To remove the extra space that seems to appear in some papers (especially after a paragraph), highlight the text, click on review, line spacing, and remove the line after the paragraph (you may also need to remove the line before the paragraph.

15) If the requirement is for a six page paper, APA format: the first page is the title page, pages two, three, four, and five are filled with the text (evidenced based research), and page six is the reference page. Make sure you adhere to the required page limit.

For those of you that this is your first class that requires APA …keep your papers, correct the errors, and use your papers as a guide for the next paper.

The Owl at Purdue is an excellent resource of APA formatting. Your writing center on your campus is an EXCELLENT resource for APA formatting.