How to format your paper in APA style
The guidelines for students that includes high school students, college students up to graduate
students, as long as your paper is not for publish then you would follow the APA guidelines for
students.
Set Up your Writing Software (Microsoft Word)
First thing you want to do is pull up your blank document where you'll be writing your paper in a
software such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
I'll be using Microsoft Word for this demonstration the next thing you'll want to do is ensure that
your page margins are set up correctly as APA requires, a one-inch margin on all sides of your
page, this is actually the default setting in both Microsoft Word and Google Docs but if you want
to check your margins you'd simply go to layout margins where you would see that the normal
tab is checked which ensures 1-inch margins around the top bottom left and right hand side of
the page.
Move on to the next step the next thing you'll want to do is set the font for your document APA
predetermined font Times New Roman size 12, after you set your font, you will format your
paper in double spacing, you can do this by selecting the line spacing option from the toolbar and
then selecting the option number two. See figure below.
1|Page
, After you double space your text, you will to go back into the line spacing tab and select more
options, from here you'll click on “Remove Space After Paragraph” to don't add space between
paragraphs of the same style if you set this, both Microsoft and Google Docs has a default setting
that will automatically add in additional space when you hit enter and begin a new paragraph that
extra line goes against the APA standards for double spacing
Start formatting your page
Now your page is set and ready as format as APA Style, first page is your title page, write your
topic on top of the page, bold it and center it , for set position center , select your text and press
Ctrl+E, your text will be center of the page.
A good title should be a concise description of what your paper is about and should not exceed
more than 50 characters, after you type your title, you'll hit enter twice leaving a gap line
between your title, in the next line here you will un bold your text by again either hitting
command B or hitting B in the toolbar you will then type your name on this line if you are
working with a coauthor you would separate your names.
After your name, write on second line, your affiliation, your affiliation line should include your
department or division first followed by a comma and then the university you are affiliated with,
from here you will hit enter again and enter in your course information, this line should be typed
as your course number code followed by its name you'll want the course code and name to match
the way your university hasn't listed if you'll notice the course code and course name is separated
by a colon again you will hit enter where you will type out your professors name you'll want to
double check your course materials for the correct spelling of your professors name before doing
so you will hit enter once more and then type out the due date of your assignment.
See figure below, your title page should be like this.
2|Page
The guidelines for students that includes high school students, college students up to graduate
students, as long as your paper is not for publish then you would follow the APA guidelines for
students.
Set Up your Writing Software (Microsoft Word)
First thing you want to do is pull up your blank document where you'll be writing your paper in a
software such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
I'll be using Microsoft Word for this demonstration the next thing you'll want to do is ensure that
your page margins are set up correctly as APA requires, a one-inch margin on all sides of your
page, this is actually the default setting in both Microsoft Word and Google Docs but if you want
to check your margins you'd simply go to layout margins where you would see that the normal
tab is checked which ensures 1-inch margins around the top bottom left and right hand side of
the page.
Move on to the next step the next thing you'll want to do is set the font for your document APA
predetermined font Times New Roman size 12, after you set your font, you will format your
paper in double spacing, you can do this by selecting the line spacing option from the toolbar and
then selecting the option number two. See figure below.
1|Page
, After you double space your text, you will to go back into the line spacing tab and select more
options, from here you'll click on “Remove Space After Paragraph” to don't add space between
paragraphs of the same style if you set this, both Microsoft and Google Docs has a default setting
that will automatically add in additional space when you hit enter and begin a new paragraph that
extra line goes against the APA standards for double spacing
Start formatting your page
Now your page is set and ready as format as APA Style, first page is your title page, write your
topic on top of the page, bold it and center it , for set position center , select your text and press
Ctrl+E, your text will be center of the page.
A good title should be a concise description of what your paper is about and should not exceed
more than 50 characters, after you type your title, you'll hit enter twice leaving a gap line
between your title, in the next line here you will un bold your text by again either hitting
command B or hitting B in the toolbar you will then type your name on this line if you are
working with a coauthor you would separate your names.
After your name, write on second line, your affiliation, your affiliation line should include your
department or division first followed by a comma and then the university you are affiliated with,
from here you will hit enter again and enter in your course information, this line should be typed
as your course number code followed by its name you'll want the course code and name to match
the way your university hasn't listed if you'll notice the course code and course name is separated
by a colon again you will hit enter where you will type out your professors name you'll want to
double check your course materials for the correct spelling of your professors name before doing
so you will hit enter once more and then type out the due date of your assignment.
See figure below, your title page should be like this.
2|Page
