Most college professors require specific writing styles to be followed when submitting written papers. The American Psychological Association (APA) has written a comprehensive guide to formatting academic papers. This is a nutshell version of the main style requirements of APA.

Setting Margins According to APA Standards

The margins in an academic paper need to be consistent. APA guidelines stipulate one inch margins on all sides. Check the defaults in the word processing program you are using. In Office 1997-2003 the default is 1.25 inches on the left and right. Change this to one inch. Office 2007 is already using one inch margins as a default.

To change the default in the earlier versions of Word, select the FILE menu, then PAGE SET UP. The MARGIN tab should be open in the dialogue box. Type the number 1 in all boxes: left, right, top, bottom. Click the DEFAULT button at the bottom of the dialogue box. Then check YES.

The Header in an APA Formatted Paper

According to the standards, each page of an academic paper must contain a header with up to 50 characters from the title of the paper and the page number. The easiest and most efficient way to do this is to go to the header section of the paper and insert the title information and add an auto page number. Do not try to just add this at the top of the paper, use the header/footer function in the word processing program. This will ensure that the header appears on the top of every page and the page number is correct. The header only needs to be added once if using the header/footer function.

Some APA Basics for Every Paper

All papers MUST have the following:

1. Title Page including the following:

• Title of the paper
• Author's name
• Name of the college or school
• The course prefix and name
• Faculty member’s name
• Date (due date of assignment)

The above information is double spaced and centered on the first page of the document (centered both top to bottom and side to side)

2. Header, including shortened title and page numbers on EVERY PAGE
3. The entire document is double spaced (including the title page and reference page)
4. There are no extra spaces between paragraphs
5. The font is either Times New Roman, 12 point, or Ariel, 12 point
6. Margins are 1 (one) inch all around

References According to APA

Using someone else's words, research, results, ideas, etc. in the body of the paper is fine, but proper credit must be given to the originator of the information. APA guidelines state that in-text citations appear at the end of the paraphrased, quoted, or summarized information that came from another source. The format of an APA citation is (author last name, year of publication). The citation appears in parenthesis before the period at the end of the information.

Whenever a citation is used in the text, there must be a corresponding source listing on the Reference page at the end of the article. The sources are listed in alphabetical order, by author's last names or article tiles if there is no author.

More about the References

• Last names of the authors are always used, never first or second names. If there are first or middle names available, just use the initials.
• If there is no date, then put (n.d.) after the author’s last name and initials. If there is no author, then put the name of the article, followed by (n.a.)
• All references are double spaced.
• The second, third, etc. lines of a reference are indented ½ inch.

More to APA than Citations and References

Just because the professor asks that the paper be formatted according to APA guidelines it is not always about citations and references. There is much more to APA than properly giving credit where credit is due. An academic paper may be all original content with no citations and references, yet still be formatted according to APA standards. The margins, spacing and font are all part of APA as well as proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

When writing an academic paper it is NEVER correct to use second person (YOU, YOURS, YOUR, etc.) and always double check with the professor to see is first person (I, ME, MY, WE, OUR, etc.) is allowed.