Concise Guide to APA Style

The American Psychological Association is the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States, with researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students as its members.

1. Student Paper Types, Elements, and Format General Guidelines for Student Papers 1.1 Application of APA Style to Student Papers 1.2 Student Essays 1.3 Annotated Bibliographies 1.4 Dissertations and Theses 1.5 Student Paper Required Elements Paper Elements 1.6 Title Page 1.7 Title 1.8 Author Name (Byline) 1.9 Author Affiliation 1.10 Abstract 1.11 Text (Body) 1.12 Reference List 1.13 Footnotes 1.14 Appendices Format 1.15 Importance of Format 1.16 Order of Pages 1.17 Page Header 1.18 Font 1.19 Special Characters 1.20 Line Spacing 1.21 Margins 1.22 Paragraph Alignment 1.23 Paragraph Indentation 1.24 Paper Length Organization 1.25 Principles of Organization 1.26 Heading Levels 1.27 Section Labels Sample Student Paper 2. Writing Style and Grammar Effective Scholarly Writing 2.1 Continuity and Flow 2.2 Transitions 2.3 Noun Strings 2.4 Conciseness and Clarity 2.5 Wordiness and Redundancy 2.6 Sentence and Paragraph Length 2.7 Tone 2.8 Contractions and Colloquialisms 2.9 Jargon 2.10 Logical Comparisons 2.11 Anthropomorphism Grammar and Usage 2.12 Verb Tense 2.13 Active and Passive Voice 2.14 Mood 2.15 Subject and Verb Agreement 2.16 First- Versus Third-Person Pronouns 2.17 Editorial We 2.18 Singular They 2.19 Pronouns for People and Animals (Who vs. That) 2.20 Pronouns as Subjects and Objects (Who vs. Whom) 2.21 Pronouns in Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses (That vs. Which) 2.22 Subordinate Conjunctions 2.23 Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers 2.24 Parallel Construction Strategies to Improve Your Writing 2.25 Reading to Learn Through Example 2.26 Writing From an Outline 2.27 Rereading the Draft 2.28 Seeking Help From Fellow Students 2.29 Working With Writing Centers 2.30 Revising a Paper 3. Bias-Free Language Guidelines General Guidelines for Reducing Bias 3.1 Describe at the Appropriate Level of Specificity 3.2 Be Sensitive to Labels Reducing Bias by Topic 3.3 Age 3.4 Disability 3.5 Gender 3.6 Participation in Research 3.7 Racial and Ethnic Identity 3.8 Sexual Orientation 3.9 Socioeconomic Status 3.10 Intersectionality 4. Punctuation, Lists, and Italics Punctuation 4.1 Spacing After Punctuation Marks 4.2 Period 4.3 Comma 4.4 Semicolon 4.5 Colon 4.6 Dash 4.7 Quotation Marks 4.8 Parentheses 4.9 Square Brackets 4.10 Slash Lists 4.11 List Guidelines 4.12 Lettered Lists 4.13 Numbered Lists 4.14 Bulleted Lists Italics 4.15 Use of Italics 4.16 Reverse Italics 5. Spelling, Capitalization, and Abbreviations Spelling 5.1 Preferred Spelling 5.2 Hyphenation Capitalization 5.3 Words Beginning a Sentence 5.4 Proper Nouns and Trade Names 5.5 Job Titles and Positions 5.6 Diseases, Disorders, Therapies, Theories, and Related Terms 5.7 Titles of Works and Headings Within Works 5.8 Titles of Tests and Measures 5.9 Nouns Followed by Numerals or Letters 5.10 Names of Conditions or Groups in an Experiment 5.11 Names of Factors, Variables, and Effects Abbreviations 5.12 Use of Abbreviations 5.13 Definition of Abbreviations 5.14 Format of Abbreviations 5.15 Unit of Measurement Abbreviations 5.16 Time Abbreviations 5.17 Latin Abbreviations 5.18 Chemical Compound Abbreviations 6. Numbers and Statistics Numbers 6.1 Numbers Expressed in Numerals 6.2 Numbers Expressed in Words 6.3 Combining Numerals and Words to Express Numbers 6.4 Ordinal Numbers 6.5 Decimal Fractions 6.6 Roman Numerals 6.7 Commas in Numbers 6.8 Plurals of Numbers Statistics and Equations 6.9 Presentation of Statistics 6.10 Statistical Symbols and Abbreviations 6.11 Spacing, Alignment, and Punctuation for Statistics 6.12 Presentation of Equations 7. Tables and Figures General Guidelines for Tables and Figures 7.1 Purpose of Tables and Figures 7.2 Design and Preparation of Tables and Figures 7.3 Graphical Versus Textual Presentation 7.4 Formatting Tables and Figures 7.5 Referring to Tables and Figures in the T