This handout will help you prepare a research paper in the APA 6th Edition format.

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1 Easy APA Formatting Guide- Word 2010/2013 This handout will help you prepare a research paper in the APA 6th Edition format. FONT The font for APA is Times New Roman, with 12-point font size. MARGINS APA guidelines require at least one inch margins at the top, bottom, left side, and right side of your paper. To change margin sizes: 1. Go to the Page Layout ribbon then click on the Margins button, as shown in the picture below. 2. Select Normal (1 ).

2 DOUBLE-SPACING APA requires that your paper be double-spaced. 1. Go to the Home tab and click on the line spacing button. 2. Choose 2.0 for double-spacing. 3. You should also select Remove Space After Paragraph to prevent Word from inserting an extra line between each paragraph. INDENTATION The first line of each paragraph should be indented.5 from the left margin. Use the ruler to format these lines: 1. Go to the View ribbon and check the Ruler box. The ruler will appear. 2. Click on and drag the top triangle to change the indentation for the first line of the paragraph, the bottom triangle for all other lines of a paragraph, and the bottom rectangle for an entire paragraph or block quotation.

3 RUNNING HEAD & PAGE NUMBERS A shortened title (running head) followed by the page number should appear at the top of each page. To add this header: 1. Go to the Insert tab and click on the Header button as highlighted in the picture below. 2. This will bring up a menu. At the bottom of the menu, click on Edit Header. This takes you to the Header & Footer Tools ribbon, as shown in the image below. You will also see the document header across the top of your paper. To insert the paper s title and page number: 1. Type the shortened title, all in capital letters, flush with the left margin. Do not bold, underline, or italicize it. 2. Now insert the page number. Tab to move your cursor flush with the right margin. 3. Go to the Header & Footer Tools ribbon and select the Page Number option. 4. Select the Current Position option. 5. Choose Plain Number. The page number will be inserted, aligned to the right side of your paper, as APA requires. Word will automatically update the page numbers as you edit and revise the paper.

4 TITLE PAGE The first page of your paper should be a title page, consisting of the following elements: title, running head, author s name, school, and teacher s name. The running head on the title page must be labeled Running head: 1. Select Different First Page on the Header & Footer Tools ribbon, as shown in the image above. 2. Type Running head, flush with the left margin. Follow it with a colon, then a space, then type a shortened title for your paper in capital letters. Do not bold, underline, or italicize the label or the running head. Example: Running head: SHORTENED TITLE 3. Repeat steps 2-5 above to add the page number to the title page. TITLE Type the full title of your paper at the top of the first page. The title should not be underlined, in italics or in quotes. Double-space between each line within the title. Center the title horizontally between the left and right margins: 1. Select the text of title. 2. Go to the Home ribbon and click on the center alignment button You must also center the title vertically between the top and bottom margins: 1. Select the text of the title. 2. Go to the Page Layout ribbon and click on the Page Setup Dialog Box launcher 3. Select the Layout tab. 4. Change Page Vertical alignment to Center. 5. Change the Apply to option to Selected text.

5 AUTHOR S NAME, CLASS NAME, TEACHER S NAME Double-space after the title and type your first name and last name. Then hit enter and type your class name. Now hit enter again and type the teacher s name. Center them horizontally and vertically, just as you centered the title.

6 INSERT YOUR SOURCES/CITATIONS Under the References tab, the first button from the right is Insert Citation. When you click on this button you can Add New Source and another window will open. Choose the type of source you are using (Website, Document from Website, Book Section, etc). Fill in as much information as you can here. It is important you know the name of the author, the date created, and the date accessed, as well as the URL, if from an electronic source. Once you ve filled in this form as best you can, click the OK button. At this point, you should see the citation placed in your paragraph. It will appear something like this (Walker, 2009) if Walker was the last name, and the year 2009 was the year that the document was created.

7 INSERTING A CITATION ALREADY USED IN THE DOCUMENT Each time you use one of these references in your body you can click on the Insert Citation button and select the appropriate source from there. Word will automatically include the (Walker, 2009) wherever your cursor is. REFERENCES PAGE Place the reference list after the main body of your paper. Begin on a new page. Click on the References tab in the Ribbon. In the Citations & Bibliography group, click on the Bibliography button. Choose either Bibliography or Works Cited, it doesn t make much difference. This will include an alphabetized listing of all the sources you included in the paper, via the Insert Citation entries. Click on the heading (either Bibliography or Works Cited on this page) and change the heading to read References. Do not bold, underline, or italicize it. It should already be centered. The only real problem with Word's formatting here is the indentation of the references. You will have to do this manually. The rule is that only the first line of each reference is to the far left. Any second or third lines in a reference would have this hanging indent. Select all of the lines. In the ruler, drag the bottom triangle to the.5 mark. Now only the first line of each entry will be left-aligned.

8 Lastly: Do a Spelling & Grammar check AS WELL AS read the report SLOWLY & CAREFULLY to find errors.