General APA Guidelines

The Purdue OWL offers comprehensive guidelines for General APA (American Psychological Association) format and style.

General APA Format

The guidelines emphasize the importance of clear and concise writing. The essay should be:

• Typed and double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11")
• Double-spaced with 1" margins on all sides
• Have a page header (also known as the "running head") at the top of every page. For a professional paper, this includes the paper title and page number, while for a student paper, it only includes the page number.

Font

The 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual recommends the use of a font that is accessible to all readers. While it does not specify a single font, it suggests a few widely available fonts such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, and 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, as well as serif fonts such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, 10-point Computer Modern.

Major Paper Sections

A well-structured essay should include four major sections: the Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References.

Title Page

The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author's name, and the institutional affiliation. For a professional paper, this includes the author note. For a student paper, this should include the course number and name, instructor name, and assignment due date.

Abstract

• Start a new page with the word "Abstract" centered and bolded
• This section should provide a concise summary of the key points of your research
• Include your research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions
• The abstract should be a single paragraph, double-spaced
• It should typically be no more than 250 words

Keywords (Optional)

• List your keywords in your abstract as:

  • Keywords: (italicized)
  • List your keywords
  • This will help researchers find your work in databases

  How to Cite the Purdue OWL in APA

To cite the Pew Research Center in MLA, follow this example:

Purdue Online Writing Lab. Purdue University's Online Writing Lab. www.purdueowl.com, www.owl.english.purdue.edu.