How to present your paper using the APA formatting style

Prepared by: Language Arts Department

Shortwood Teachers’ College - 2020

How to present your paper using the APA formatting style (7th

Edition)

Title page

APA requires a title page for documents. The title page should have a running head, page number at the

top right hand corner, title of the essay/paper, name of student, affiliation/institution, course number and

name, name of instructor and the due date of the assignment.

1. Create a header

a. Click on the INSERT tab (or double click in the header section of the paper).

(The 7th

edition does not require a header for student paper unless required

by the instructor)

b. Click on HEADER and select BLANK



c. Type the running head as outlined

TITLE OF PAPER (NB: The 7th

edition does not require use of the words Running head)

The title of the paper is a short version of your work. It should be contained only in one line and should

not exceed 50 characters including spaces.

For example, if your assignment stated the following: For the course Child Care Development with

code CCD 101 and taught by Mr. Denzzell Fabrique, do a research essay on three theories of language

acquisition in young children. Outline the main principles of each theory. Your name is Bwille

Drannon and your ID# is WS000-20. You attend the North Westbank University. The shortened or

paraphrased title could state: Theories of language acquisition.

For the running head you would use that shortened version of the title of the paper and it should be

placed in full CAPS.



2. Insert the page number

a. After typing the running head information, press the TAB key once or twice (i.e. until the cursor is at the

right hand margin

b. Click on PAGE NUMBER in the header ribbon, then from the drop down menu click

CURRENT POSITION, then select PLAIN NUMBER

c. After the page number has been inserted, exit from the header and the footer mode by clicking on CLOSE

HEADER AND FOOTER

THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION



3. Formatting the title page

a. Once back in the document mode, do the following formatting:

- Select the font style based

on the information

below

Set the font size

based on the information

below

A variety of fonts are permitted in APA Style papers.

Font options include the following:

sans serif fonts such as

o Calibri, 11-point

o 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode,10-point

o Arial, 11-point

serif fonts

o Times New Roman, 12-point

o Georgia, or normal 11-point

o Computer Modern (the default font for LaTeX), 10-point

- Centre the cursor

- Set the spacing to double line

(i.e. 2.0)

- Also remove:

• space before paragraph

• space after paragraph



Then set the page margins which should be 1” for the top, bottom and sides.

To set the margins, click on the PAGE

LAYOUT tab,

Select MARGINS

From the drop down options, choose

Normal

Once the formatting is complete, it is time to type the information for the title page.

4. Typing the pertinent information for the title page

The following information is required for the title page:

- Title of the paper, author, affiliation, course, instructor, due date

b. Type the title three to four lines down from the top of the title page. Center it and capitalize major words

of the title and place it in bold.

Using the example that was presented above, the assignment stated: Do a research essay on three

theories of language acquisition and outline the main principles of each theory. Therefore the title for

this paper could be: Essay on three theories of language acquisition.

c. Type the following pieces of information in separate lines:

- Author’s Name (& ID#) - Affiliation/Institution - Course code and course name - Instructor’s name

- Due date

Here are other pieces of information to complete the title page: The course, for which you are to do a

research essay on three theories of language acquisition in young children, is taught by Mr. Denzzell

Fabrique; the course name is Child Care Development with code CCD 101. Your name is Bwille

Drannon and your ID# is WS000-20. You attend the Northbank West Fourth University. This

assignment is due December 20, 2020.



Here is an example of the final presentation of the title page

After creating the title page, insert a new page to set up the header for subsequent pages in the document

as well as to format main heading (level 1 heading), sub-heading (level 2 heading), paragraph alignment and

paragraph indentation.

d. After typing the information on the title page, press the ENTER key; then press CTRL and ENTER

together to create a new page OR click the INSERT tab, then click on PAGE BREAK

Essay on Three Theories of Language Acquisition



5. Typing the document

Main heading and sub-heading

a. Start typing on the first line of the page (DO NOT INSERT line spaces even if the information seems

too close to the header)

b. Type the main heading (which is the title of the paper that was presented on the title page). The

main heading must be centred and placed in bold. Do not use full caps

c. Press the ENTER key to go to the second line.

Typing the paragraphs

d. The cursor is now on the second line of the document. Align the paragraph (cursor) to the left by doing

one of the following actions:

- clicking on the LEFT ALIGHNMENT icon

- pressing the BACKSPACE key or

- pressing CTRL and L together

- Never use the full justify alignment for

your papers.



e. The first line of each paragraph must be indented 0.5” away from the margin. To create the paragraph

indentation, do the following:

- In paragraph section of the home ribbon, click on the

down pointing arrow at the bottom left hand corner.

Once the arrow is clicked, this will open a box

with additional setup features for paragraphs.

Click the drop down arrow in the box under the

word ‘Special’

Select FIRST LINE.

It will automatically change the number in the

‘By’ box to 0.5”

Click OK to close the paragraph formatting box.

Begin typing the information for your assignment;

when you get to the end of the line do not press the

ENTER key; the information will automatically go

to the next line. Use one space after most

punctuation marks; use two spaces after a period. Do

not use contractions in your academic papers.



Here is an example of how the paragraph would be presented.

Setting up a sub-heading

In the example above the paragraph made mention of three theories of language acquisition that

presumably will be discussed in the paper; although the writer can present each theory using separate

paragraphs, it is likely that all the information for one theory will not be captured in one paragraph. In

this case, the writer can use sub-headings to organize the paper for ease of navigating through the

information that will be presented in the essay.

To set up the sub-heading, here are the guidelines:

- APA stipulates that sub-headings

• Must begin at the left margin

• Should be placed in bold

• must capitalize all major words in the heading for example: The Effects of Short-term

Memory on Listening Skills

After typing the first paragraph, press

the ENTER key TWICE



Place the cursor on the line space

immediately below the paragraph

Use the backspace key to remove the

paragraph formatting (i.e. the

indentation).

The cursor will then be at the left hand

margin.

The second line space will maintain the

paragraph indentation formatting when

the information is to be typed.

Once the cursor is at the left hand

margin, click on the bold formatting

icon

Then type the sub-heading. Go to the

second line and type the information

related to that sub-heading



See the example below.

Please note the other levels of headings:



In-text citations

Ensure that you include in-text citations when you use information from the varied sources. This is

how you acknowledge the sources of your information and avoid plagiarism.

For the in-text citations, APA requires the following:

- Use only the surname(s) of author(s) and the year

- The year must immediately follow the name(s) of the author(s)

- If there is no identifiable date on the source, then use the abbreviation for no date, which is

"n.d.". Add a period after each letter and do not add a space between the letters

As it relates to paraphrased information from sources (i.e. information that you put in your own

words), please note the following:

If you present the author’s name before presenting what the author said, then ONLY the YEAR is

placed in parentheses (brackets). This is called narrative in-text citation. For example:

- According to Williams (2099) it is important to develop ...

- This view is shared by Smith and Taylor (2087) since they indicated that ...

- Brown, Green and White (2065) believe that children should not be ...

- Based on arguments by Ramsay (n.d.), it seems logical that...

If you present the author’s name after presenting what the author said, then both the author’s

name and the year are enclosed in parentheses separated with a comma. This is called

parenthetical citation. For example:

- It is critically important to develop language in young children (Williams, 2099) since ...

- Teachers play a critical role in ... (Thompson & Bailey, 2045)

- Learning is ... (Riley, Evans & Clarke, 2077)

If the in-text citation is at the end of the sentence, the full-stop should appear after the

parentheses.

When presenting an in-text citation with more than one author, the ampersand (&) is used

within the parentheses, for example:

- Learning is ... (Riley, Evans & Clarke, 2077) - Teachers play a critical role in ... (Thompson & Bailey, 2045)

The word AND is used when the names of authors are not enclosed in parentheses, for example:

- This view is shared by Smith and Taylor (2087) since they indicated that ...

- Brown, Green and White (2065) believe that children should not be ...



Citing multiple sources for a specific point

When citing multiple works parenthetically, place the citations in alphabetical order, separating

them with semicolons. For example:

(Evans & McLeod, 2017; Gallant, 2014; Ryan et al., 2019)

When citing multiple works narratively, they can appear in any order and are separated with

a comma. For example:

McConomy (2015), Ternes (2010), and Guenther (2018) examined...

Using URL’s

If the content of a website is used to support the points in your written essay, then the URL should

not be written in the body of a project. Instead of writing the full address in the text, either use the

last name of the author and the date the source was published OR, if no author is shown, the title of

the article or web page should be used.

However, if making reference to an entire website in general, the website can be included in the

document along with the URL which should be placed in parentheses. This would not appear in the

References list. For example

- The CSS Library website (http://libguides.css.edu/CSSLibrary) provides services and resources for

all faculty, staff, and students who are currently affiliated with the institution.

6. Typing the reference page

a. The list of references is generated from the sources that you cited in the body of your

written presentation. Therefore, if you did not cite any sources, you will not have a

reference list.

b. The reference page should be:

Placed on its own page, after the content of the document but before the appendices

Labelled in bold, centred, and the first letter capitalized; for example: References

In the same font as the rest of the paper

Double-spaced

Formatted with hanging indents (each line after the first line of every entry indented 0.5 inches).

- The sources must be presented in alphabetical order using the surname of the author

c. To set up the reference page do the following:

- Begin on a new page; click the INSERT tab or press CTRL and ENTER together

- Press the backspace key to remove the paragraph indentation formatting

- Type the word References. It should be presented as a main heading (centered on the page and



placed in bold)

After typing the main heading, press the ENTER key once, click on the left justify icon or press

the backspace key so the cursor will be at the left margin; then set the hanging paragraph

formatting.

To set the hanging paragraph format:

In paragraph section of the home ribbon, click on the

down pointing arrow at the bottom left hand corner.

Under the “SPECIAL” box, select

“Hanging”; the “BY” box, will

automatically insert 0.5”;

NB: The hanging paragraph formatting allows only

the first line of the source to begin at the margin.

The second and subsequent lines in the source will

be indented away from the margin.

Click OK



Typing each source information

d. The items that make up each source are called bibliographic elements. APA uses a set standard

for presenting the bibliographic elements. Some of these are outlined below. Please pay keen

attention to the punctuation markers. They are critical to the presentation:

Citation for a book

Surname, Initial of first name. (Date of publication). Italicized title. Place of publication: Publishing company.

Smote, J. (2034). Theory of Language Development. Jones Publishing. Author. (year). Title of book place in italics Publishing Company

Citation for an article (in a journal, magazine, newspaper)

Author. (Date of publication). Title of article. Italicized title of journal, magazine or newspaper, Volume (Issue), Pages.

Ke, F., & Hoadley, C. (2019). Evaluating online learning communities. Educational Technology Research & Development,

57, (4), 487-510

e. Here is a sample outline of a reference page. Note that the sources are listed in alphabetical order,

beginning with the surname; only the first line of each source begins at the margin, titles of books,

newspapers are placed in italics, and the information is presented in double-line spacing

throughout.

Please note that this presentation outlines the basic information about formatting your

document; it does not cover all that you need to know about using the APA formatting

style. Please visit the APA website for additional information on how to format your

document using the APA formatting style: https://library.nic.bc.ca/apa7th/intro

https://library.nic.bc.ca/apa7th/intro

Documents

How to present your paper using the APA formatting style