APA Format: The Complete Guide

• Margins: 1 inch on all sides. Font: a readable, consistent choice — 12pt Times New Roman, 11pt Calibri or Arial all comply.
• Spacing: double-spaced throughout, including the references page.
• Title page: paper title (bold, centered, title case), your name, affiliation, course, instructor, and date. Student papers no longer need a running head in APA 7.
• Page numbers: top right corner of every page, starting with the title page.
• Headings: five levels; Level 1 is centered bold title case, Level 2 is flush-left bold title case.

Every source you use appears in the text as (Author, Year): a paraphrase is (Rasch & Born, 2013); a direct quote adds the page — (Rasch & Born, 2013, p. 685). Name the authors in your sentence and only the year stays in parentheses: "Rasch and Born (2013) found…"

Three or more authors shorten to et al. from the first use: (Harris et al., 2020). Organization authors are written out: (National Sleep Foundation, 2024). No author? Quote the first words of the title: ("Sleep and memory," 2024). No date? (Author, n.d.).

Deep dive with every edge case: APA In-Text Citations.

Title it References (bold, centered), start it on a new page, alphabetize by first author's surname, double-space, and give every entry a hanging indent (first line flush, rest indented ½ inch). Every in-text citation must match a reference entry and vice versa.

Full formatting walkthrough: APA Reference Page — or let the Bibliography Builder assemble and export it as a Word document with the formatting already applied.

The three formats that cover most papers — generated by our engine, exactly as the generator produces them:

Title page: the title in bold, centered, three or four lines down, in Title Case; then your name, affiliation, course number and name, instructor, and due date, each on its own line, all double-spaced. Abstract (when required): its own page, the word Abstract bold and centered, a single unindented paragraph of 150–250 words, optionally followed by an indented Keywords: line. Body: starts on a new page with the title repeated in bold, then ordinary double-spaced paragraphs with ½-inch first-line indents.

Headings structure the body: Level 1 centered bold, Level 2 flush-left bold, Level 3 flush-left bold italic — all in Title Case, none ALL CAPS, and never a lone subsection (if you have a 2.1 you need a 2.2).

• Numbers: words below 10 (three trials), numerals for 10+ (12 participants) — but always numerals with units and statistics (5 mg, 3.4%).
• Quotes under 40 words run in your sentence with quotation marks and a page: (Rasch & Born, 2013, p. 685).
• Quotes of 40+ words become a block: new line, ½-inch indent, no quotation marks, citation after the final period.
• Statistics are reported with italicized symbols: M = 4.2, SD = 1.1, p < .05 — no leading zero on values that can't exceed 1.
• Lists like this one are fine in APA — numbered for sequences, bulleted otherwise, parallel grammar throughout.

If a guide tells you otherwise, it's describing APA 6 — retired in 2020.

• Publisher location dropped — "New York, NY:" is gone from book references.
• DOIs are links — https://doi.org/10.xxxx, not "doi:10.xxxx".
• Up to 20 authors listed in a reference (was 7).
• "et al." from first citation for 3+ authors in text (was: list all up to 5 the first time).
• No running head required on student papers.
• Singular "they" endorsed; bias-free language guidelines expanded.
• One space after a period, settled officially.

The full order: title page → abstract (if required) → body → references → tables and figures (if not embedded) → appendices, page numbers running continuously top-right. The two places points actually get lost are the in-text/reference mismatch (cite it in text, forget the entry — or vice versa) and formatting drift on the references page. Both are mechanical, which means both are automatable: generate each citation here, add to bibliography, and export the finished References page to Word with the indents, spacing, and alphabetization done.