For Student Papers

Contents
1. What is APA? 6. In-text citations
2. General format 7. References
3. Title page 8. Tables and Figures
4. Headings and 9. Appendix
Seriation 10. Word for APA
5. Abstract 11. Useful links

1. What is APA?

American Psychological Association citation and format style is the most

common in social sciences/humanities. It has rules for in-text citations,
reference pages, overall formatting of the text and the title page.
2. General format
Normally, the format should be the following:
• 12pt. Times New Roman font is preferable1
• Double space2
• 1" margins on all sides (2,54cm)
• Header3 at the top of every page

1 – You may also use: 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans
Unicode, 11-point Georgia, or 10-point Computer Modern
2 – No additional spacing is needed before/after paragraphs/headings
3 – In student papers, the header should only contain the page number that has to
be flush right.

► Find more detailed information on how to organize the format of the textin
the section 10. Word for APA
3. Title page
This is the first page of a paper. It must
contain:
• Header with the page number
• Title of the work (bold, up to 2 lines)
• Student’s name
• Name of institution
• Course name
• Professor’s name
• Date

Have a look at the sample of a title page

→
4.1 Headings:

First Level 1
Second Level 2
Third Level 3
Fourth Level. 4 text text text
Fifth Level. 5 text text text

1– Centered, bold, headline-style capitalization

2 – Flush-left, bold, headline-style capitalization
3 – Flush-left, bold and italicized, headline- style capitalization
4 – Indented, bold, headline-style capitalization
5 – Indented, bold and italicized, headline-style capitalization

► The title of the paper is centered and not bolded.

4.2 Seriation
• For lists where a specific order or numbered procedure is necessary, use an Arabic
numeral directly followed by a period.
• Numbered lists should contain full sentences or paragraphs rather than phrases.
• For lists that do not communicate hierarchical order or chronology, use bullets.
• For seriation within sentences, authors may use letters: (a), (b), (c), etc.

5. Abstract
• Abstract is the second page of the paper where the author gives a short summary
of
the work stating the main idea/purpose of the paper.
• The first line of the abstract should not be indented.
• Abbreviations and acronyms used in the paper should be defined in the
abstract.
• Generally, an abstract is needed for big papers (3 and more pages);
however, sometimes it is required for small ones too.
6. In-text citations
• Indirect quotes:
While referring to a source indirectly, only the author's surname and the year of publication
are needed.
Examples:
1) Contamination of soils causes 20-40% crops losses (Jackson, 2013).
2) According to Jackson (2013), contamination of soils causes 20-40% cropslosses.
3) Jackson (2013) claims that contamination of soils causes 20-40% crops losses.

• Direct quotes:
In this case, it is necessary to indicate the author’s surname, year of publication and the
page.
Examples:
1) According to Jackson (2013), “Contamination of soils causes 20-40% cropslosses”(p.112).
2) Jackson (2013) claims that “contamination of soils causes 20-40% crops losses”(p.112).

► Try to avoid long direct quotations (especially in small papers) as it may cause plagiarism-
related issues and is not welcomed in the academic field.
• 2 authors
If the source has 2 authors, the rules are the following (examples):
1) A study by Collins and Berry (2009) revealed the correlation between the droughts and
population of rabbits.
2) There is a correlation between the droughts and population of rabbits (Collins & Berry, 2009).

• 3 and more authors

1) Russel et al. (2000) state that the climate change is not a disaster but a regular
natural phenomenon.
2) Climate change is not a disaster but a regular natural phenomenon (Russel et al., 2000).

► Use the same pattern throughout the paper, not matter if it is first citation of a source or if it has
already been cited.
► While referring to a title in text:
▪ capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater within the title of a source with
exceptions for short verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs.
▪ Italicize the title if it is italicized in reference list; if it is not, use double quotation marks.
Unknown author

In this case the source should be cited by its title or the first word or two in the
parentheses; the words should be capitalized according to common capitalization rules.
Italicize: titles of books and reports. Put in quotation marks: titles of articles,chapters
and web pages.
Example:
Climate change is not a disaster but a regular natural phenomenon (“Climatic
Problems,” 2000).

2 or more works in the same parentheses

The sources should be organized alphabetically (as they appear in the reference list) and
separated by a semi-colon.
Example:
The flow of tourists on the Saronic Islands in Greece increased twice during the past
decade (Daniels, 2017; Marlow, 2016).
7. References
General rules:
• Hanging indentation
• Order: author’s last name, initial letter(s) of the name, year, title of the reference,
additional info
• All the entries in the list should be in the alphabeticalorder
• No capitalization except the proper names and the first word in a sentence and the
titles of periodicals.
• If there are more than 2 sources by the same author,list them chronologically
• A source by
▪ One author: Jackson, M.B. (2013).
▪ Two authors: Collins, P.B., & Berry, H.P. (2009).
▪ From 3 to 20 authors: Russel, T.H., James O.L., Queen H.T., & Peters B.L.
(2000).
▪ 21 and more authors: use an ellipsis (but no ampersand) after the 19th author, and
then add the final author’s name.
▪ Unknown author: Climatic problems. (2000).
3 main types of sources:
Book
Author – year – title – location – publisher.
Example:
Jackson, M.B.(2013). Marketing for dummies. New York: Teach YourselfBooks.

Journal
Author – year – title – journal – volume – issue – pages.
Example:
Collins, P.B., & Berry, H.P. (2009). New approaches in studying the cytoplasm. Biology
Today, 13(3), 45-56.

Website
Author – year, month, date – title – site name– URL.
Example:
Marlow, D.C., & Daniels, L.P. (2017). Greek Islands today. Geography insight.
http://www.georaphyinsight.com/sites/2017/345nks80v5
8. Tables and Figures
Tables and figures should be named sequentially as they appear (Table 1, Table 2
etc.). Also, it is necessary to refer to each table and figure in the text.

Tables

• If the data presented in the text requires only 2 columns, the table is not
needed.
• Statistical information has to be presented in separate parts of the table.
• Each table needs to have clear title; if there are headings, they have to be well-
organized too.
• For the specific types of tables, consult one of the sources mentioned in the
Useful Links list.
Figures

Types:
• Graphs
• Scatter plots
• Line/bar graphs
• Pictorial graphs
• Circle (pie) graphs
• Charts

The figures should be clear and readable, with no special effects or anything
that can distract the reader. One-column figures should be of 2-3.25 inches
(5-8.45cm) wide; two-column figures – 4.25-6.87 inches (10.6-17.5cm) wide.
Font: a san serif font; size – between 8 and 14.
9. Appendix

• An appendix is the part of the paper where you list all the supplementary
materials (tables, figures, questionnaires, images, etc.) that were referred
to in the paper but were too distracting to be presented in the main body.
• The appendices follow the reference list.
• You can have more than 1 appendix; in this case, label them with letters
(A, B, C, etc.) in the order they appear in the text.
• Each appendix should be titled and on a separate page.
• The formatting of the appendices should be the same as of the rest of the
paper. The visuals and the text should not extend beyond the margins of
the rest of the paper.
10. Word for APA

10.1 Headers.
• Double click on the upper part of the page.
• Choose Different first page among the options

• Go to the Header & Footer section in the Design tab. Click Page Number →
Top of Page → Plain Number 3
• Write the header for the first page

• Go to the second page and create the header for the rest of the paper.Double
click on the top of the page and type.
 • Make sure your paragraph settings
10.2 Paragraphs.
are like this (click the right button of
the mouse → Paragraph):
• Here is how you organize the general
format of the text.

• Margins are fixed this way:

► For References choose Hanging indentation

11. Useful links

1. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_overview
_and_workshop.html
- Here you will find all the necessary info and the latest updates on the APA formatting style.

2. http://www.apastyle.org/
- An official website of the APA formatting style.

3. http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/
- A blog that is run by a group of experts who work with APA.