How to Format a Running Head in APA Style

Sample title page

American Psychological Association (APA) style guidelines require the writer to use particular conventions when composing a proper title page for a document. In addition to the long title of the paper, which typically explains the central idea or claim of the paper, a writer must include an abbreviated form of the long title, known as a running head. The running head typically contains key words from the long title and appears prominently at the top of the title page. The purpose of having a running head is to allow writers a way of communicating the content of their papers quickly and concisely to the reader.

Instructions

1. Set top, bottom and side margins to 1 inch.

2. Insert page header (first two words of title and page number) in top right corner.

3. Skip a space after the page header.

4. Align tab flush-left.

5. Type "Running head" followed by a colon.

6. Abbreviate the long title by choosing key words.

7. Insert abbreviated title after colon.

Tips & Warnings

• A running head should not appear on any page following the title page. Chapter and page headers are different from the running head and have different style rules.

References

• Owl Writing Lab at Purdue University
• Pearson Education Online Handbook

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish