Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by This LibGuide is based on the APA Citations LibGuide created by Montgomery College Libraries. The content and format are used with permission.
The APA Formatting Style Guide by OWL at Purdue was also used with permission.
APA Citation Guide from Columbia College was also used with permission.
This guide is based on the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. APA formatting is often used in the sciences, social sciences (psychology, economics, sociology), business, and health fields. Many students will use APA formatting at university. This guide will review the general format of an research paper, in-text citations, and the Reference page.
Teachers ask students format their papers in the same style so both the writer and reader are not distracted by style choices a student may make. The consistency allows the teacher to focus on the student's work and not on the look of the paper.
Teachers may adapt these guidelines for their own purposes. Always follow your teacher's requirements.
In most high school papers your teachers will not expect you to use headers to separate the sections of your paper. Headers, however, are expected in lab reports.
At a high school level, there are general three sections to your paper: Title page, Main body, and Reference list. Each section requires a title. So, you will include the title of the essay centered on the first line of the main body.The title of the reference list is References.
In the Main body of the paper/lab report, headings can be used to organize paper. If you are asked to use headings, they need to be formatted as follows:
First Level Headings (Centered, bold, capitalize)
**The title of your paper is not a first level heading **
Second Level Headings (flush left, bold, capitalize)
Text starts a new paragraph.
Third level headings. (Flush left, bold, italics).
Text starts a new paragraph.
Please use the APA sample paper as a guide.
