Always consult your syllabus and assignment sheets. They may differ from information you see here (or anywhere else) on citing your sources and formatting your paper!
APA Style, currently in its seventh edition, was developed by the American Psychological Association (APA). The style is commonly used in the fields of behavioral and social sciences. In addition to being one of the most popular style guides in academia, APA Style's most enduring legacy is its continually updated guidelines for reducing bias in language.
Why does paper formatting matter? According to APA, "Consistency in the order, structure, and format of a paper allows readers to focus on a paper’s content rather than its presentation."
Alignment:
Align to the left margin. Leave the right margin uneven. Do not use full justification.
Do not insert manual breaks in words at the end of a line.
Font:
Acceptable font options generally include the following: Calibri (11 point), Arial (11 point), Lucida Sans Unicode (10 point), Times New Roman (12 point), Georgia (11 point), or Computer Modern (10 point).
Use the same font throughout your paper, including on the title page and on the works cited page. Exceptions include the following. For computer code, use a monospace font. For footnotes, use the default font settings of your word processing program, which may be smaller than the text font and/or have different line spacing.
Indentation:
Indent the first line of each paragraph 0.5 inches from the left margin. This is typically the default setting of the tab key in your word processing program. The title page and all headings should follow the rules for these areas.
The first line of the abstract should not be indented. All lines of block quotations should be indented 0.5 inches from the left margin.
Line Spacing:
Generally, all parts of the paper should be double-spaced with no extra space before or after paragraphs. For tables, figures, and equations, choose the most effective layout for the information. For footnotes, use the default spacing of your word processing format, which may not be double-spaced.
Margins:
Use 1-inch margins on every side of the page unless told otherwise.
Page Numbers:
Each page should have its page number in the upper right corner.
Headings:
APA Style has five styles of heading. Level 1 is the highest/main level of heading, Level 2 is a subheading of Level 1, and so on down through Level 5. Use only the number of headings necessary; short papers may not require any headings.
Level 1: Heading should be Centered, Bold, Title Case Heading. Text begins as a new paragraph.
Level 2: Flush Left, Bold, Title Case Heading. Text begins as a new paragraph.
Level 3: Flush Left, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading. Text begins as a new paragraph.
Level 4: Indented, Bold, Title Case Heading, Ending With a Period. Text begins on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph.
Level 5: Indented, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading, Ending With a Period. Text begins on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph.
Title Page Format:
The title page should include the following: page number, paper title, author, school, course (formatted as listed in course material), instructor name (formatted as listed in course material), and due date. The font and font size should be the same as the rest of the paper.
The page number should be in the upper right corner.
The title should be three or four lines down from the top of the page, centered, and in bold.
The rest of the information should start two lines below the title and centered.
American Psychological Association. (2020). Paper Format. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format