APA document formats

Paper and binding

　　Use sturdy white, unlined 8.5" by 11" paper. Essays should be stapled or paper-clipped in the upper left corner. Don't use binders or plastic covers unless your teacher wants them. Don't hold your paper together by folding or tearing pages—this sets teachers' teeth on edge.

　　Margins, line spacing, and paragraphs

　　Except for page numbers （see below）, use margins of one inch on all sides. The paper should be double-spaced throughout （including quotations, notes, and the list of references）, with no blank lines between paragraphs. The first line of each new paragraph is indented a half-inch on the left （or five to seven spaces if you use a typewriter）. Set-off quotations are indented one inch on the left.

　　Text runs flush-left and ragged right.

　　Printing and fonts

　　Type or print; don't turn in handwritten formal work. Print on only one side of the page, in black ink. Use a plain serif font such as Times Roman or Courier, or a plain non-serif font like Aria. 12-point is the usual size.

　　Page numbers and the manuscript header

　　APA format requires use of a manuscript header, not just a page number. The manuscript header includes the first two or three words of the title followed by five spaces, and then the page number. The header is placed flush right, a half-inch from the top. （Word processors, of course, can automate this process.）

　　Begin page numbers on the title page, which is page 1. The text of the paper begins on page two （or three if you include an abstract: see below）.

　　Running head （for manuscripts submitted for publication）

　　APA format for manuscripts submitted for publication requires use of a running head flush left on the first text line of each page （an inch from the top of the page）…… This is a short version of the title in all capitals （not more than 50 characters including spaces）, included for the convenience of the manuscript editor. Papers submitted in courses typically don't use running heads.

　　Emphasis

　　Use either italics or underlining for emphasis throughout your paper （including titles of books）. Whichever you choose, be consistent

　　Spaces

　　In the old days of typewriters and nonproportional fonts （in which every letter, from i to w, takes up the same space）, the rule was to put two spaces between sentences to improve readability. But if you print from a computer, you should put just one space between sentences.

　　Don't put spaces between periods in abbreviations: a.m. and U.S.A., not a. m. or U. S. A. If an abbreviation ends a sentence, its final period also counts as the sentence's terminal punctuation.

　　Tip: when you're at the stage of final proofing, use a global search-and-replace to get rid of inadvertent multiple spaces.

　　Late corrections

　　Sometimes you will discover mistakes in what you thought was a final draft, when you no longer have time to print out a corrected version. In such cases, you should hand-correct the printed version （that's one reason to double-space essays）. It's usually okay to turn in a paper with one or two such corrections. How to do it: Cross out the mistake with a single horizontal line. Mark the insertion point with a caret （^）. Neatly write in the correction above the printed line. Don't write below the line or in the margin. If you need to make a more substantial correction, make a clean printout.