How to Format an Essay in Basic APA Style

Many college papers have to be formatted according to APA (American Psychological Association) standards. This can be a very daunting prospect for someone who is new to college writing. This guide will provide you with some basic, easy to follow guidelines that will take you a long way to getting that paper formatted correctly.

Things You'll Need

• A word processor
• An essay that must be formatted in APA style
• About 10 minutes of time

Instructions

1. Setting Margins:
   The first thing you want to do is check your margins. If you are using Microsoft Office 1997-2003, the default is 1.25" on the left and right. APA requires 1" on both sides - Office 2007 uses 1" margins as a default. In Office 1997-2003, Select the FILE menu, then PAGE SET UP. The MARGIN tab should be open in the dialogue box. Type the number 1 in all boxes: left, right, top, bottom.

   Click the DEFAULT button at the bottom of the dialogue box. Then check YES.

2. Double Spacing: (Office 1997-2003)
   Select the FORMAT menu, then Paragraph. In middle of the Paragraph dialogue box, click the drop-down menu under LINE SPACING, select double. Do this before starting your document. If you have already typed your document, you must highlight the text you want double spaced before you do this. There are NO extra spaces between paragraphs. Paragraphs are delineated by indenting the first sentence.

3. Creating a Header (Office 1997-2003)
   Select the VIEW menu, then HEADER and FOOTER. The Header box will open up - it will be outlined in a dotted line. You can either tab to the last tab in the header (but you will have to move it to the margin because it will be set in about an inch, or your can select the right justify icon to move the cursor to the far right side of the header.

   Type in the title of your paper (a revised version that is less than 50 characters) and then in the header dialogue box, click the auto page number icon (it is the first one, looks like a box with a # sign on it)

   Close the header. It will now appear on every page of your document, with the correct page number.

4. Some APA Basics

   All papers MUST have the following:
   1. Title Page including the following:
   • Title of the paper
   • Your name
   • Name of the college or school
   • The course prefix and name
   • Faculty member's name
   • Date (due date of assignment)
   The above information is double spaced and centered on the first page of the document (centered both top to bottom and side to side)

   2. Header, including shortened title and page numbers on EVERY PAGE

   3. The entire document is double spaced (including the title page and reference page)

   4. There are no extra spaces between paragraphs

   5. The font is either Times New Roman, 12 point, or Ariel, 12 point

   6. Margins are 1 (one) inch all around

5. About References:
   If you use someone else's words, research results, ideas, etc. in the body of the paper, there must be a citation. Citations usually look like this: (author's last name, year of publication: Sullivan, 2005). If you have a citation in the body of the paper, there MUST be a reference listed on the reference page. If there is a reference on the reference page, there MUST be a citation in the body of the paper that ties to that reference.

6. More about References
   1. All references are listed alphabetically, by last name of author or, if there is no author, by the first word in the title of the article.
   2. Last names of the authors are always used, never first or second names. If there are first or middle names available, just use the initials.
   3. If there is no date, then put (n.d.) after the author's last name and initials. If there is no author, then put the name of the article, followed by (n.a.)
   4. All references are double spaced
   5. The second, third, etc. lines of a reference are indented ½ inch

Tips & Warnings

• There is more to APA than just formatting the citations and references. Pay close attention to margins, page numbers and spacing.

• APA guidelines govern the mechanical (grammar and spelling) aspects of the paper as well. Always check your paper for grammar and spelling errors.

• When writing an academic paper, NEVER use second person (YOU, YOUR, YOURS, etc.) and be careful of using first person (I, me, my, etc.). Some faculty will not allow first person writing, depending on the type of paper.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Read this Article in Spanish