APA Professional Paper

Text (Body)

1. Begin the text on page 3, the page right after the abstract

Repeat your title exactly as it is on the title page, including keeping it centered and bold.

2. Indent first line when starting a new paragraph

On the Home tab go to Paragraph and click the arrow.

Find Indentation and change Special to First line.

Then, your paragraph will be half inch 0,5" or 1,27 cm indented.

3. Use section headings

APA Style specifies five levels of section headings.

• Level 1 is the highest level and denotes the start of a major new section.
• Level 2 headings are one level lower and are used to split a major section into sub-sections.
• Levels 3, 4, and 5 are used to create more specific sub-sections and sub-sub-sections.

For example, in a research paper, you would use a Level 1 heading to denote the start of the ‘Methods’ section and Level 2 headings to denote the start of sub-sections for ‘Participants’ and ‘Procedures.’ You could further sub-divide the ‘Procedures’ section into sub-sections explaining each of your different groups or conditions using Level 3 headings. And so on and so on.

Note that using all five levels of section headings is not required, so don’t feel any pressure to do so. You should only use as many headings and levels of headings as needed to neatly organize your paper.

Each type of Section Heading is formatted differently. Check the following table which demonstrates how to format headings in APA Style.

4. Indent a block quotation

If you want to include in your paper a block quotation, start writing it on a new line and indent the whole block 0.5"(inch) or 1.27cm. from the left margin. If there are additional paragraphs within the quotation, indent the first line of each paragraph an additional 0.5" (inch) or 1.27cm. Double-space the entire block quotation.

5. Insert footnotes

A footnote is a brief note that provides additional content or copyright attribution. You can place a footnote at the bottom of the page on which it is discussed. To insert a footnote, leave the cursor to the spot that you want the footnote to appear.

On the References tab, click Insert Footnote.

A superscript number will appear in the text, where you have the cursor, and it will also appear at the bottom of the page where you can start writing the note.

Alternatively, You may place the footnotes at the end of your paper after the References. In this case, go to the References tab, click Insert Endnote.

A superscript number will appear in the text, where you have the cursor, but the footnotes with appear at the end of the paper, right after your Reference list page. Check the End matter section of this guide to see how to set up the Foonotes page.

6. Insert a page break 

When you finish writing the text of your paper, go to the Insert tab and add a Page Break to ensure that the Reference list of your paper will start on a new page.

Once you’ve done that, you have finished formatting the text (body), and you are ready to move on to formatting the Reference list of your paper.