APA Format Paper Example
A complete APA 7 student paper laid out section by section — title page, headings, citations and references — with the student-versus-professional differences made explicit.
Why APA Trips Students Up
APA 7 split the rules into a student version and a professional version, and most guides online still describe the professional one. That is why students add running heads they do not need and abstracts nobody asked for.
A Paper That Is Already Correct
This page shows the student format APA 7 actually specifies: what goes on the title page, the five heading levels with their exact formatting, how in-text citations changed in the 7th edition, and how the reference list is built.
How it works
- Set 1-inch margins, double spacing and an approved font
- Build the student title page: title, name, affiliation, course, instructor, due date
- Page numbers flush right on every page — and no running head
- Use the heading levels in order, never skipping a level
- Start References on a new page, bold and centred, with a 0.5-inch hanging indent
Student papers and professional papers are formatted differently
This is the change in APA 7 that causes the most confusion. The 7th edition defined a separate student format, and most guides written before 2020 — plus plenty written since — describe only the professional one.
| Student paper | Professional paper | |
|---|---|---|
| Running head | Not required | Required — shortened title, all caps, flush left |
| Abstract | Only if your instructor asks | Normally required |
| Author note | Not used | Required, on the title page |
| Title page shows | Title, author, affiliation, course, instructor, due date | Title, author, affiliation, author note |
| Keywords | Not used | Usually, under the abstract |
| Page numbers | Flush right, every page | Flush right, every page |
Adding a running head is not a safe default
An all-caps running head on a student paper is a visible sign of following outdated guidance. Unless your brief asks for the professional format, leave it out and let the page number stand alone.
The student title page, line by line
Unlike MLA, APA does use a separate title page. Everything on it is centred and double-spaced, with the title starting three or four lines down from the top margin.
1
Passive and Active Social Media Use as Predictors of Sleep Onset Latency in Adolescents
Amara Okafor
Department of Psychology, Westbrook University
PSYC 3410: Research Methods
Dr. Elena Whitfield
10 October 2026
- The title is bold in APA 7, in title case, and centred. MLA's title is plain — do not mix the two.
- No "by" and no label. Your name goes on its own line with nothing in front of it.
- Affiliation is department and institution, in that order, on one line.
- Blank double-spaced line between the title and your name, and none between the lines that follow.
- Page number 1 appears here, flush right. The title page counts as page one.
- Keep the title under about 12 words and avoid "A Study of" or "An Investigation into" — APA asks for a title that states the variables.
Page setup and approved fonts
APA 7 is unusually explicit about fonts: it names the acceptable options rather than describing them, which removes the guesswork MLA leaves you with.
| Setting | APA 7 requirement |
|---|---|
| Margins | 1 inch on all four sides |
| Font | Times New Roman 12, Calibri 11, Arial 11, Georgia 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10 or Computer Modern 10 |
| Line spacing | Double throughout, including the reference list and block quotes |
| Paragraph indent | First line 0.5 inch |
| Alignment | Left-aligned, ragged right |
| Page numbers | Flush right in the header, every page, starting at the title page |
| Section starts | Abstract, body and References each begin on a new page |
The body of the paper does not repeat a heading called "Introduction". The paper title is repeated, bold and centred, at the top of the first body page, and your introduction simply begins underneath it.
The five heading levels
APA headings are a strict hierarchy. You start at Level 1 and may not skip a level — a Level 3 heading cannot appear unless a Level 2 precedes it.
| Level | Format | Where the text starts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Centred, Bold, Title Case | New line, indented |
| 2 | Flush left, Bold, Title Case | New line, indented |
| 3 | Flush left, Bold Italic, Title Case | New line, indented |
| 4 | Indented, Bold, Title Case, ending with a full stop. | Same line, after the stop |
| 5 | Indented, Bold Italic, Title Case, ending with a full stop. | Same line, after the stop |
Levels 4 and 5 are run-in headings: the paragraph begins on the same line as the heading, immediately after its full stop. Most undergraduate papers never need more than Levels 1 and 2.
In-text citations, and what changed in APA 7
Two rules changed in the 7th edition and both affect nearly every paper.
- Three or more authors use "et al." from the very first citation. The 6th edition made you list all authors the first time; that is no longer correct.
- Publisher location is gone from reference-list entries. No more "New York, NY:".
- Up to 20 authors are now listed in a reference entry before you abbreviate.
- DOIs are formatted as URLs — https://doi.org/10.xxxx/yyyy — with no "doi:" prefix and no full stop after.
- "Retrieved from" is dropped for most web sources; the bare URL is enough.
| Situation | In text |
|---|---|
| One author | (Santos, 2021) |
| Two authors | (Santos & Reyes, 2022) — ampersand inside brackets |
| Two authors in your sentence | Santos and Reyes (2022) found… — the word "and" |
| Three or more | (Santos et al., 2023) |
| Direct quotation | (Santos, 2021, p. 214) |
| No date | (Santos, n.d.) |
| Organisation | (World Health Organization, 2024) |
The reference list
Start a new page, centre the word References in bold, and keep everything double-spaced with a half-inch hanging indent.
| Source | APA 7 pattern |
|---|---|
| Journal article | Surname, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Journal Name, 00(0), 00–00. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/yyyy |
| Book | Surname, A. A. (Year). Title of work. Publisher. |
| Edited chapter | Surname, A. A. (Year). Chapter title. In B. B. Editor (Ed.), Book title (pp. 00–00). Publisher. |
| Web page | Surname, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL |
| Report | Organisation. (Year). Title of report. URL |
| Dataset | Surname, A. A. (Year). Title of dataset [Data set]. Publisher. URL |
- Alphabetise by the first author's surname. Never by order of appearance.
- Same author, several years: oldest first. Same author and year becomes 2021a, 2021b, matched to your in-text citations.
- Sentence case for article and chapter titles — only the first word, proper nouns and the word after a colon are capitalised.
- Title case and italics for journal and book titles. This asymmetry is the single most common APA error.
- Hanging indent of 0.5 inch — Ctrl+T in Word, ⌘+T on Mac.
APA and MLA side by side
If you take modules in more than one faculty you will be asked for both, and the details that differ are small enough to mix up.
| APA 7 | MLA 9 | |
|---|---|---|
| Title page | Yes, required | No — four-line header on page one |
| Paper title formatting | Bold, centred | Plain, centred |
| In-text citation | (Santos, 2021, p. 214) | (Santos 214) |
| List heading | References, bold, centred | Works Cited, plain, centred |
| Article titles in the list | Sentence case, no quotation marks | Title case, in quotation marks |
| Three or more authors | et al. from the first citation | et al. always |
| Date position | Immediately after the author | Near the end of the entry |
| Headings | Five defined levels | No prescribed system |
Want the method, not just the tool?
How to Write an RRL (Review of Related Literature) — The chapter students rewrite the most — because nobody teaches you to argue with sources instead of listing them. Structure, synthesis examples, and how to name your research gap.
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