APA 7th Edition Quick-Reference Toolkit

Paper format at a glance

• Font: Any legible font used consistently, e.g., Times New Roman 12 pt, Calibri 11 pt, Arial 11 pt, Georgia 11 pt, or Lucida Sans Unicode 10 pt.
• Spacing: Double-space the entire paper (including the title page and references).
• Margins: 1 inch on all sides.
• Page numbers: Top-right of every page. Student papers do not need a running head (professional papers do).
• Title: Centered and bold, in the same font size as the rest of the paper (APA 7 does not use a larger title font).

Student title page (in order, centered)

1. Paper title (bold), 3–4 lines down
2. Author name(s)
3. Affiliation (department, university)
4. Course number and name
5. Instructor name
6. Due date

(Professional papers use a running head + author note instead of the course/instructor/date block.)

Headings (5 levels)

In-text citations (author–date)

• Paraphrase: (Author, Year) — e.g., (Smith, 2020).
• Direct quote: add a page/paragraph number — (Smith, 2020, p. 15).
• Two authors: (Smith & Jones, 2020). Three or more: (Smith et al., 2020).
• Block quote (40+ words): no quotation marks; indent the whole quote 0.5 inch; citation after the final period.
• No author: use a short title — (“Study Habits,” 2021). No date: (Author, n.d.).
• Secondary source: (as cited in Author, Year).

Reference list

• Start a new page titled References (centered, bold).
• Double-spaced, alphabetized by author's last name, with a 0.5-inch hanging indent.
• Use sentence case for article/book titles (capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns); title case and italics for journal/newspaper/book source names.

Reference examples

• Journal article (with DOI):
  Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxx
• Book:
  Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book (edition). Publisher.
• Chapter in an edited book:
  Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of the book (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.
• Web page:
  Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the page. Site Name. URL
• Report / organization as author:
  Organization Name. (Year). Title of the report. URL
• Online video (e.g., YouTube):
  Channel/Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of the video [Video]. YouTube. URL

Common APA mistakes to avoid

• Using title case in article titles on the reference page (should be sentence case).
• Forgetting the hanging indent or single-spacing the references.
• Adding a page number to a paraphrase (only required for direct quotes — though it's encouraged for paraphrases).
• Adding a running head to a student paper (not required in APA 7).
• Retrieving-date phrasing on stable web pages (only use “Retrieved [date] from” for content that changes, like a wiki).

References & official sources

• APA Style (official) — Reference examples & style guidelines. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples
• APA Style — Student Paper Setup Guide (PDF). https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/student-paper-setup-guide.pdf
• Purdue OWL — APA Formatting and Style Guide (7th Edition). https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/index.html