Title page for a professional paper in APA 7 style.


Writing a paper in APA format can be challenging if you are unfamiliar with it. Sometimes, you may be accustomed to crafting essays in other styles, and, therefore, switching to another new approach can be an uphill task for you.


So while it appears that APA does not have any special short paper format it appears , from samples above, that institutions either have a formal policy or leave it to the discretion of the instructor.

From an on-line search of APA style guides it appears that the APA style-guide is set up for research papers that would include a title page and abstract.

Abstract page for a student paper in APA 7 style.

I recall that, as a student, my instructors were never very consistent in their requirements for the format. For example, some instructors required a cover page if the paper exceeded 5 pages or so, but otherwise preferred a heading like this, even if they said they requested APA format:

APA () is one of the most popular academic styles used to cite sources in various disciplines, such as psychology, business, finance, and other social sciences. With APA format, you can craft your documents and consistently convey your message.

Note that the first page of the argument should have a heading on the left hand side (not in the header) with the student’s name, the instructor’s name, the course, and the date. The title should be centered on the page with no special formatting. On subsequent pages, the author’s last name and the page number should be in the header justified to the right. (ie Doe, 2). In-text citations should reference the author’s last name (or the first word of the Works Cited listing) and a page number, if applicable. If there is no page number, only include the author’s last name. Note that the entire paper should be double spaced.

Play around with the Scribbr Citation Example Generator below to learn about the
of the most common source types or generate APA citations for free with Scribbr’s .


First, second and Works Cited page of APA formatted essay.

There are a couple resources you can use to learn how to format your research paper into APA or MLA Style. Linked below are sample APA and MLA research papers from Purdue OWL that explain the formatting rules for each citation style. Linked below are also the formatting rules from the APA and MLA websites for formatting research papers.

Here is an example of APA citation in an essay

The APA Style website includes a great section on. The 7th edition of APA Style has two types of papers: student papers and professional papers. Please consult your assignment or reach out to your professor or instructor to determine which paper format you should use.

The following tips can help you in formatting your essay in APA style

I have two related questions:1) In an APA paper, When you quote an example that is longer than 40 words, is it appropriate to indent it and bring it to size 10 font (from your essay's size 12 font)? For example:

APA Format 6th ed. for Academic Papers and Essays Template

That last post from me was referring to the need for a page number when using a direct quote.

And it is annoying also that in MLA there is no comma separating the items in parentheses and in APA there is!

How To Write an Essay in APA Format Complete Guide with Examples

There seems to be a widespread ignorance about the intended scope of application of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Assossiation, so I want to clarify that the APA Manual is a guide on how to write, structure and format an academic manuscript for submission to a publisher. It is NOT a guide on how to style publications. Printed journal articles differ hugely in appearance from journal to journal, even if they all adhere to the rules set forth by the APA.

Below is an example of a student APA format essay

There are two types of paper formats in APA 7--a student paper and a professional paper. You can download an APA-styled Microsoft Word template adapted by CityU librarians for student papers here: