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APA Citations

Note: Always read your assignments carefully and defer to your instructors’ guidelines if they differ from APA. Instructors may have their own preferences about citing and formatting. This page represents the standard APA style according to the APA Manual 7th Edition. A printable version of this information is available here.

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Formatting APA Papers

How to set up the title page and first page for a student APA paper

Image of a title page for student A P A paper. The title, author, and university name are centered and halfway down the page. The page number is in the top right-hand corner. The running head is in all capital letters in the top left-hand corner in the document header. The page number it in the top-right corner.The running head is a shorter version of the full paper title. The actual paper title is written in title case. The words “Running head:” are removed from all papers. The shortened title in the header is not required for students according to APA. Refer to your instructor’s preferences.

The rest of the Title Page includes the Full Title, Author, and Institutional Affiliation in that order. They are centered on the Title Page from left to right and top to bottom. No date is needed unless your instructor specifies for it to be included.

 

Image of the second page of a student A P A paper.  If the running head is included, it is in the header of every page. The page number 2 is in the top right corner.

The title is repeated on page 2 before the body of the paper. If there is an abstract or author's note, it will come between the title page and main paper.The paper has 1” margins, excluding the header.The text should have double spacing with no extra lines between paragraphs.Indent paragraphs

In-Text Citations

In-text citations, both narrative and parenthetical appear in the body of a paper.
For APA style, narrative means the author's name and year are part of sentence; however, the page number will still be in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Parenthetical means the author's name, year, and the page number are all in parentheses at the end of the sentence but still inside the ending punctuation mark.

The two main components are the author's last name and publishing year.

References

Writing Centers of Texas Tech