APA 7th Edition: Guide and Templates: General Formatting Guidelines

Following APA paper format guidelines ensures your work is clear, consistent, and professional. These standards help readers easily follow your ideas and find your sources. If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to a librarian through the AskALibrarian form. We're here to help! 

Font: Use a readable font. APA recommends:

• 12-Point Times New Roman
• 11-Point Calibri
• 11-Point Arial
• 11-Point Georgia

Margins: Set 1-inch margins on all sides of the paper. In Microsoft Word, margins can be adjusted under the Layout tab.

Line Spacing: Double-space the entire paper, including the title page, quotations, and reference list.

Paragraphs & Indentation: Paragraphs should be left-aligned with an uneven right margin. Indent the first line of each paragraph by 0.5 inches using the tab key once. Do not use the space bar to create the indent.

Title Page: A student paper title page should include:

• Paper title
• Author name(s)
• School/author affiliation
• Course number and name
• Instructor's name
• Assignment due date
• Page number (top-right corner)

Headings: APA style has five levels of headings. Level 1 is the main level of heading, level 2 is the subheading under level 1, and so forth. The number of headings used in a paper depends on the length of the paper.

• Level 1: Centered, Bold, Title Case Heading
• Level 2: Flush left, Bold, Title Case Heading
• Level 3: Flush left, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading
• Level 4: Indented, Bold, Title Case Heading, Ending with a Period.
• Level 5: Indented, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading, Ending with a Period.

Page Headers (Running head) & Page Numbers: 

• Add page numbers to the top-right corner, starting with 1 on the title page.
• If required, include a running head, which is a shortened version of your paper title (in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, max 50 characters including spaces and punctuation). Running headlines should be aligned to the left margin of the page header, directly across from the right-aligned page number. 

For additional resources, visit: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format