Academic Writing: Categories
Quick Guidelines for Formatting Research Papers in APA Style
Formatting a research paper according to APA style can be a difficult task since one has to remember several rules at once. This article provides some quick guidelines to ensure that the title page, in-text citations and references in an APA research paper are formatted as per APA guidelines.
APA Research Paper – Title:
All pages in an APA research paper should consist of a short title and page number. The main title page should consist of full title, writer’s name, name, course number, instructor’s name, and date. All of this information should be centered in the page.
APA Research Paper – Body and In-Text Citation:
The body of an APA research paper should begin with the full title that is centered across the page. All headings should be centered and should help readers follow the organization of the paper. When citing a source within the text for the first time, all authors' names are included and the date is given in parentheses. If the same source is cited again, then the first author's name followed by "et al." is used in case the number of authors was more than three. If the author is not named in the main sentence, then the author's name and the date appear in parentheses, along with the page number. An ampersand is used to link the names of two authors in parentheses whereas the word "and" is used if it is mentioned within the main sentence.
APA Research Paper – Quotations:
Quotation marks are used for material that is directly quoted from a source in an APA research paper. However, if the quotation is more than 40 words, then it is indented about half an inch from the text. Also, in this case quotation marks are not used. If for the sake of clarity, you wish to add certain words in the quotes, square brackets are used to indicate that they were not in the original source. It is very important to ensure that the page numbers from where the quotes are picked up are mentioned.
APA Research Paper – References:
The list of references in an APA research paper begins on a new page with the heading centered. The list is alphabetically sorted and except for the first line, subsequent lines are indented about half an inch. Double-spacing is used throughout.