APA 7th Edition: Formatting

The Title Page (sections 2.3 to 2.8)

The title page of your assignment should contain:

• The page number: flush right in the header of the page.
• The title of the paper: bold and centred; three or four lines down from the top margin; each word begins with a capital letter (Title Case). It is important to know that the title of the paper also appears on the first line of the first page of the text paper’s.
• The author's name: centred; one blank double-spaced line down from title.
• The institutional affiliation: centred.
• The course code and course name: centred.
• The instructor’s name: centred.
• The assignment due date, written in month, date, and year: centred.
• A running head: abbreviated title (no more than 50 characters, including spaces) in all capitals and flush left in the header of the page.
  • Note: In APA 7 ^th edition, running heads are optional for student papers, but some professors may request that you include a running head in your university paper. According to APA, running heads are usually only required for professional publications (section 2.8).

Here is an example of a student paper title page:

For additional support, check out the APA Style Student Title Page Guide.

The Headings (section 2.27)

Long papers usually have headings that separate one section from another. In APA 7 ^th edition, there can be five heading levels:

How to use Level Headings in APA 7

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

What determines the level of a heading is its organization within the main structure of the paper: main headings will use first-level headings, where as subsections will use second-level headings and so on.

Here is an example of headings used in an APA 7 ^th paper:

For additional support, check out the APA Style Heading Levels Template for Student Papers.

Font, Font Size, and Line Spacing (sections 2.19 and 2.21)

In APA, you should use double spacing throughout your paper. Fonts and sizes can be: 

• 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode.
• 11-point Calibri, Arial, or Georgia.
• 12-point Times New Roman. 

Most instructors will indicate in their assignment requirements the necessary font, size, and spacing. The most commonly required is 12-point, Times New Roman.

Reference Pages (sections 9 and 10)

The information included in the referencing entries varies according to the type of publication being referenced, but in general, a reference entry should contain all of the authors’ names, the date of the publication, the title of the work, and the source of the work, formatted with hanging indentation. The references are listed in alphabetical order considering the first piece of information in each entry: the author’s last name. For more information on reference pages, go to the page.

Here is an example of the reference page format:

For additional information on APA 7 ^th Edition formatting, look at these resources from the APA Style Blog:

• APA Style Guide to Common Reference Examples.
• Creating an APA Style Reference List Guide.
• APA Style Reference Guide for Journal Articles, Books, and Edited Book Chapters.
• Journal Article Reference Check List.

References