APA Format Guide: Rules and Examples
A complete reference for APA formatting rules with before-and-after examples.
What APA formatting is for
APA format, from the American Psychological Association, is the standard in social sciences, psychology, education, and nursing. It covers everything from the title page to the reference list, and following it tells a reader exactly what to expect on every page.
The rules can feel fussy, but they exist for a reason. Consistent margins, fonts, and citation placement make a long paper easier to read and easier to grade. This guide pulls the rules you will use most often into one place.
Use it as a checklist while you write, then again before you submit. Most formatting points are lost not because the rules are hard, but because they are easy to miss on a final read.
The core of a APA paper
- Title page with a running head and a page number in the top right.
- One-inch margins on all sides, double-spaced text throughout the paper.
- A page header that repeats a short version of the title on every page.
- In-text citations in author-date format, like (Smith, 2023).
- A reference list at the end, sorted alphabetically with a hanging indent.
APA rules at a glance
| Element | What the rule asks for |
|---|---|
| Margins and spacing | One inch on every side, double-spaced everywhere including the reference list. |
| Font | A readable 11 or 12 point font such as Times New Roman, Calibri, or Arial. |
| Title page | Paper title, your name, school, course, instructor, and due date, all centered and double-spaced. |
| Headings | Five heading levels, from centered bold to indented italic, used in a set order. |
| Reference list | Alphabetical by author surname, with a hanging indent of half an inch. |
Before and after fixes
| Spot | Common mistake | Corrected version |
|---|---|---|
| Vague in-text citation | (Some research shows this.) | (Lee, 2022) found the effect in three trials. |
| Reference formatting | Lee J. (2022). The Study. Journal of Stuff. | Lee, J. (2022). The study. Journal of Stuff, 14(2), 33-47. |
| Heading | My Section (no formatting) | Method (centered, bold) |
Set up a document in APA
- 1Open a clean template
Start from a blank document or an official APA template so you are not fighting inherited formatting from an old file.
- 2Set margins and spacing
Lock in one-inch margins and the line spacing the style asks for, then turn on a hanging indent for the reference list before you type any entries.
- 3Build the title page or header
Add the identifying details APA wants on the first page, whether that is a full title page or a header block, and insert the running header if the style uses one.
- 4Write with citation placeholders
Insert your in-text citations as you draft using APA's format, even if the reference entries are not finished yet, so nothing gets missed later.
- 5Finalize and proofread
Once the text is stable, build out the reference list in full and do a final pass focused only on formatting, since content edits tend to undo spacing and indentation.
A reader who knows APA can skim a well-formatted paper and find any source in seconds. Bad formatting slows them down at exactly the moments you want them thinking about your ideas.
APA seventh edition dropped the requirement for a running head on student papers, so check whether your instructor wants the professional or the student title page.
The reference list is where most APA points are lost. Run it through the AI Humanizer Lab Citation Checker to catch missing fields, wrong italics, and punctuation slips before you hand the paper in.
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