Formatting your Paper:

The Title Page
The rules of APA require a paper to have a title page. The title page should include 4 things:

• A running head and page number - The running head version of your title is printed at the top left of your paper in all uppercase letters. The page number appears with the running head and is found flush right.
• The title of your paper - You should have a simple title centered on the page that explains your paper in 10 to 12 words.
• Your name and the name of your school - This should be double spaced and centered directly below your title.
• Author Note (not typically required for student papers)

Line Spacing, Margins and Font
Your paper must be double spaced and APA recommends using 1" margins and a 12pt Times Roman font.

In-Text Citations

• In general, APA in-text documentation format uses the author-date style of citation, with the author's name, followed by the year of publication, cited within the body text of an article.
• Normally, an in-text citation will be introduced with a "signal phrase" that includes the author’s last name, followed by the year of publication in parentheses. The page number in the source document, preceded by a "p.", should appear in parentheses immediately after the quotation. Example: As Smith (1998) observed, "There was only one way to go after that" (p. 97).
• In cases when the author's name is not in the signal phrase, enclose the author's last name, the year, and the page number, in parentheses at the end of the quotation. Example: (Smith, 1998, p. 263).
• If the work cited has two authors, name both authors in the signal phrase and in parentheses at the end of the quotation. For the latter, separate their names with the "&" symbol. Example: (Hartwick & Rogers, 1999).
• For more than two authors, identify all of the authors in the introductory signal phrase or in the parentheses the first time they are named. Example: (Brendan, Donaldson, Smith, & Warden, 1995). Later citations of the same work can use the first author's name followed by "et al." Example: (Brendan et al., 1995).
• If the author is an organization with a long cumbersome name, use the entire name in the body text the first time it is used, with the acronym for the organization enclosed in parentheses, followed by the year. Example: (American Society of Strategic Planners [ASSP], 1997). For later citations of the same work, use the acronym followed by the year. Example: (ASSP, 1997).

Electronic Sources

If possible, cite an electronic document the same as any other document by using the author-date style.

Kenneth (2000) explained...

Unknown Author and Unknown Date: If no author or date is given, use the title in your signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses and use the abbreviation "n.d." (for "no date").

Another study of students and research decisions discovered that students succeeded with tutoring ("Tutoring and APA," n.d.).

Formatting a Reference List

What is a Reference List?
The reference list is located at the end of your paper. It is an alphabetical list of works you consulted and cited within your paper. Your reference list citations should contain all the necessary information to enable someone else to find the sources you have used, including:

• Author or entity (corporate author) that created the work
• Publication date
• Title
• Whether the work is part of a larger work (such as an article in a journal or newspaper, or an essay in an encyclopedia)
• Place of publication
• Publisher
• Any other information that would help in finding your source (such as a web page address)
• The sources in the reference list are listed alphabetically by the author's last name. Citations are double-spaced and a hanging indentation is used.  

Some general rules for citations:

• Include the doi (digital object identifier) if available for online sources. If no doi is available, include the URL for the website (if applicable). 

DOI numbers (Digital Object Identifiers) are unique number combinations assigned to an article. With the help of this DOI number the article can always be located.
The numbers consist of

• numbers assigned to the publisher (in the example used below these are 10.1016)
• the journal title (j.fertnstert or the Journal of Fertility and Sterility)
• some numbers that define the actual article 

If you have written an article and are looking for the accompanying DOI, you can find it as follows:

1. In recent articles, the DOI number is given at the beginning of the article.
   For example, you can find: doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2004.08.029.
2. When there is no DOI number in the article, you can check whether a DOI number exists for the article on the Crossref website. A search query on this site gives you the DOI and a persistent link; in this case this is dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2004.08.029 .
3. If this last option does not give you any results, you can copy the address (the URL) of the article from the address bar. 

• It is no longer necessary to include the database title or access date if the article is retrieved from a subscription source.
• Titles of books and journals appear in italics.
• Article titles and titles of book chapters, essays, and short stories do NOT appear in "quotes."
• If an author isn't given, begin with the corporate author (the sponsoring organization) or the title.
• Give the initials of the author's first and middle name rather than spelling out the full name.
• If you have multiple works written by the same author, arrange your citations by the years of publications with the earliest date appearing first. If the works have the same year of publication alphabetize by title.
• Include the publisher's city and abbreviated state, except if the publisher is a university and the name of the state is included in the name of the university.

Want More Help?

Sample APA Paper - Great Resource that shows exactly what your paper should LOOK like with side note explanations.

APA Tutorial: You can use this presentation to search for answers to basic style questions. 

Owl at Purdue: APA Formatting and Styling Guide

In-Text Citation Tutorial - See Youtube Video Below