APA Citation Builder

APA papers may contain the following elements (check your assignment instruction for more details about what elements need to be included in your paper): 

• Title Page
• Abstract 
• Body of the work, including in-text and/or parenthetical citations and headings 
• References Page
• Appendices 

All papers written in APA style need to meet the following formatting guidelines: 

• Page numbers are indicated in the top right-hand corner of each page, beginning with the Title Page 
• All pages have a one-inch margin
• Double-space the entire document, including quotations and the works cited
• Use a readable typeface and keep the size and font consistent throughout the paper; acceptable fonts include:
  • sans serif fonts such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode
  • serif fonts such as 12-point Times New Roman or 11-point Georgia
• Indent each paragraph .5 inches; the Tab key is usually defaulted to do this
• Headings should be included as identifiers of the sections within your paper; generally, headings are centered and bolded, with the text of the new paragraph following on a new line 
• Include one space after each sentence
• Use a hanging indent for each entry on the References page

The first page of your paper is the Title Page and must contain the following information:

• A header, justified right, containing the page number

All other elements are centered on the page and double-spaced 

• The title of your paper 3 - 4 lines down from the top of the title page, bolded and separated by one double-spaced blank line between the paper title and author name
• Author name, aka your name
• The author affiliation, or the name of the department followed by the college name
• The course number and name 
• Instructor name
• Assignment due date

The References Page is a list of all the sources you cited in your paper.  Proper formatting in the References Page include:

• The References Page is a new page after the last page of your essay
• The word "References" is bolded and centered at the top of the page
• Entries are double-spaced
• Entries having hanging indentation, which means the second and subsequent lines of the text are indented to the right; this makes the distinct entries easier for the reader to identify
• Alphabetize the citations according to the first important words; disregard articles ("a," "an," and "the") when alphabetizing