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Writing and Citing: APA 7th Edition: Guidelines and Formatting

A guide to help users create citations using American Psychological Association Style, 7th edition.

APA 7 Paper Example

Image of a student paperSample Student Paper References Page

Paper Formatting

Student papers in APA 7th edition do not need a running head.

Overview:

  • 1-inch margins on each side
  • Font Styles & Size Options: 12-pt font in Times New Roman,11-pt font in Arial, 11-pt font in Calibri, 11-pt font in Georgia
  • Double-Spaced
  • Page numbers in the upper right corner
  • Four sections: 
    • Title Page
    • Abstract (if needed)
    • Main Body
    • References
  • References page in alphabetical order by authors' last names, double-spaced, with a hanging indent.
  • Print on white 8.5/11" paper.

Pronouns: Singular pronoun "they/their" accepted.

  • Example: A person should enjoy their vacation.

Punctuation: One space after a period.

In text citations: Sources with 2 authors, cite both. Sources with 3 authors and more, cite first author and use "et al."

  • Example: (Stevens et al., 2018)

Page Number: If there is a page number and you are directly quoting, you must include it in your in-text citation.

  • Example: (Stevens et al., 2018, p.7)

Course Materials (provided by instructor in Canvas, for example) are cited in References and in-text. 

Setting Up References Page

Every item on the References page MUST be used and cited in text of your paper.

The word References should appear on the very top line, on a new page, at the end of your paper, with the alignment set to center.

All lines after the first line in each entry must be indented by a half inch, known as the Hanging indent. Make sure that the entries are all double spaces.  

List authors using last name first, followed by first and middle initials. 

For multiple resources by the same author, list the entries in chronological order, from oldest to newest.

Make sure the journal titles look exactly as they are written in the journal.

Capitalize all major words in journal titles.

For article titles, chapters, and websites, capitalize only:

  • The first word of the title.
  • The first word after a colon, semicolon or dash.
  • Proper nouns.

Journal and Book titles are italicized. Article titles, chapters and websites are not italicized, underlined or presented with quotation marks. 

Here are some tutorials on  setting up a hanging indent and double spacing for your References page