This is an electronic template for papers written in APA style (American Psychological Association, 2010). The purpose of the template is to help the student set the margins and spacing. Margins are set at 1 inch for top, bottom, left, and right. The type is left-justified only—that means the left margin is straight, but the right margin is ragged.
Each paragraph is indented five spaces. It is best to use the tab key to indent. The line spacing is double throughout the paper, even on the reference page.One space is used after punctuation at the end of sentences. The font style used in this template is Times New Roman and the font size is 12.
First Heading The heading above would be used if you want to have your paper divided into sections based on content. This is the first level of heading, and it is centered and bolded with each word of four letters or more capitalized. The heading should be a short descriptor of the section. Note that not all papers will have headings or subheadings in them. First Subheading The subheading above would be used if there are several sections within the topic labeled in a heading.
The subheading is flush left and bolded, with each word of four letters or more capitalized. Second Subheading APA dictates that you should avoid having only one subsection heading and subsection within a section. In other words, use at least two subheadings under a main heading, or do not use any at all. When you are ready to write, and after having read these instructions completely, you can delete these directions and start typing.
The formatting should stay the same. However, one item that you will have to change is the page header, which is placed at the top of each page along with the page number.The words included in the page header should be reflective of the title of your paper, so that if the pages are intermixed with other papers they will be identifiable. When using Word 2003, double click on the words in the page header. This should enable you to edit the words.
You should not have to edit the page numbers. In addition to spacing, APA style includes a special way of citing resource articles. See the APA manual for specifics regarding in-text citations. The APA manual also discusses the desired tone of writing, grammar, punctuation, formatting for numbers, and a variety of other important topics.Although the APA style rules are used in this template, the purpose of the template is only to demonstrate spacing and the general parts of the paper.
The student will need to refer to the APA manual for other format directions. GCU has prepared an APA Style Guide available in the Student Writing Center for additional help in correctly formatting according to APA style. The reference list should appear at the end of a paper (see the next page). It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper.
Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text. A sample reference page is included below; this page includes examples of how to format different reference types (e. g. , books, journal articles, information from a website). The examples on the following page include examples taken directly from the APA manual.
