How to write an APA research paper: a guide for master's students

Most students who say they struggle with APA are struggling with four separate things. They are unsure how to organize the paper, how to cite inside the text, how to build the reference list, and how to use a source without copying it. Each has its own rules, and each can be learned on its own. This guide takes them in the order you meet them.

It follows APA 7, the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Your course may change some details, so read your assignment instructions and your instructor's notes before you format anything. Where the two disagree, your instructor decides.

Organize the paper before you format it

Formatting cannot rescue a paper whose structure is unclear. Settle the structure first.

A research paper needs a question or claim that the whole paper serves. Write it in one sentence before you draft, and put it at the end of your introduction. If you cannot write that sentence, the problem is the argument, and no style guide will fix it.

A literature-based paper usually runs in this order:

• Introduction. Names the topic, explains why it needs attention, and states your question or claim.
• Body sections. Each section takes one theme or one part of the argument. Organize by idea, not by source. A paragraph that summarizes one article, then the next, then the next, is a list of summaries and not an argument.
• Conclusion. States what the sources show together and what remains unanswered.

If you are reporting your own study, the body follows the usual empirical sequence of method, results, and discussion. Your instructor will say which kind of paper you are writing. Ask if the assignment does not.

Set up the document

These settings apply to a student paper in APA 7. They take ten minutes in Microsoft Word, and doing them before you write saves a long clean-up later.

• Margins: one inch on all sides.
• Font: one readable font used throughout. APA 7 accepts 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, and 11-point Georgia, among others. Use the one your instructor names.
• Spacing: double-spaced everywhere, including the reference list, with no extra space between paragraphs.
• Alignment: left-aligned, with the right edge ragged.
• Paragraphs: first line indented half an inch. Use the Tab key or the paragraph setting, not spaces.
• Page numbers: top right corner on every page, beginning with the title page.

The student title page has its own layout. Place the paper title in bold, centered, three or four lines down from the top. Below it, with one blank double-spaced line between, add your name, your department and university, the course number and name, your instructor's name, and the due date. Student papers do not need a running head unless your instructor asks for one, and they do not need an abstract unless the instructor asks for that too.

Our APA 7 formatting guide goes through the same settings for longer documents.

Use headings to show the structure

APA headings come in five levels. Most research papers use only the first two or three.

• Level 1: centered, bold, Title Case. The text begins on the next line.
• Level 2: flush left, bold, Title Case.
• Level 3: flush left, bold italic, Title Case.
• Level 4: indented, bold, Title Case, ending with a period. The paragraph text follows on the same line.
• Level 5: indented, bold italic, Title Case, ending with a period. The paragraph text follows on the same line.

Use the levels in order. A Level 2 heading sits under a Level 1 heading, and you do not jump to Level 3 without a Level 2 above it. The introduction takes no heading of its own, because the paper title already serves that purpose. Never label it "Introduction."

Do not use a heading to fill space. A section with a single subsection is a sign the structure needs another look. If you use Level 2, you need at least two Level 2 headings under the same Level 1. Our guide to heading formatting shows each level in detail.

Cite inside the text

APA uses the author-date system. Every idea, finding, or figure that came from a source carries the author's surname and the year of publication. There are two ways to write it.

A parenthetical citation puts both in brackets at the end of the sentence: (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Use the ampersand inside the brackets.

A narrative citation puts the author in the sentence and the year in brackets after it: Hattie and Timperley (2007) reviewed the evidence on feedback. Use the word "and" outside the brackets.

The rules for the number of authors are short.

• One author: (Author, 2020).
• Two authors: name both every time, joined by "&" in brackets and "and" in running text.
• Three or more authors: give the first author followed by et al. from the first citation onward: (Author et al., 2020).

Use a direct quotation only when the exact wording matters. A quotation needs a page number, written as (Author, 2020, p. 14). A quotation of 40 words or more becomes a block quotation: begin it on a new line, indent the whole block half an inch, leave off the quotation marks, and place the citation after the final period. Most paragraphs in a research paper contain no quotations at all. Paraphrase instead, and cite the source every time you do.

If you read a source cited inside another source and cannot find the original, cite the one you read and write "as cited in": (Author, 2018, as cited in Author, 2020). Use this rarely. Your instructor will expect you to read the original wherever you can.

Build the reference list

The reference list begins on a new page. The heading "References" is bold and centered. Entries are double-spaced and alphabetized by the first author's surname, and each entry has a hanging indent of half an inch, which means the first line sits at the margin and every following line is indented.

Every source cited in the text must appear in the list, and every entry in the list must be cited in the text. Check both directions at the end, because mismatches are the most common error instructors mark.

A journal article follows this pattern:

Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487

A book follows this pattern:

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Note these details, because they are where most entries go wrong.

• Article titles use sentence case: only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns take capitals.
• Journal names use Title Case and are italicized, together with the volume number. The issue number is in brackets, not italicized.
• Book titles are italicized and use sentence case.
• Give the DOI as a full web address. If there is no DOI, give the URL of the page. Do not write "Retrieved from."
• Do not give the publisher's city in APA 7.
• List up to 20 authors by name. For a work with more, list the first 19, add an ellipsis, and end with the final author.

If a reference manager such as Zotero fills in your entries, check each one against the source. These tools copy errors from databases, and capitalization is the usual casualty. Our article on citation mistakes lists the other errors to look for.

Paraphrase without copying

A paraphrase restates a source's idea in your own sentence structure and words, and it still needs a citation. Swapping a few words in the original sentence and keeping its shape is close copying, and instructors and plagiarism software both catch it.

A method that works: read the passage, close the source, and write what you understood from memory. Then open the source and check that you kept the meaning and did not reproduce the phrasing. Add the citation before you move on, so no sentence goes into your draft without one.

Keep your voice in charge of the paragraph. A strong paragraph states your point first, brings in the sources as evidence for it, and says what the evidence adds. Do not hand the opening sentence of every paragraph to a source.

Write in the style APA expects

• Use past tense for what researchers did and found: "Braun and Clarke (2006) described six phases of analysis." Use present tense for what the paper does now: "This paper examines."
• First person is accepted in APA 7. Write "I reviewed" and not "the author reviewed."
• Prefer plain, specific wording. Name the group you mean ("women over 65") and not a broad label.
• Use bias-free language. Describe people with the terms they use for themselves, and mention a characteristic only when it matters to the point.
• Spell out abbreviations on first use, with the abbreviation in brackets after, and use the abbreviation alone afterward.

Check before you submit

Run through these in order. Each takes only a few minutes.

1. The paper answers the question stated at the end of the introduction.
2. Headings are in order, with the correct format for each level.
3. Margins, font, spacing, indents, and page numbers are consistent from the first page to the last.
4. Every in-text citation has a matching reference entry, and every entry is cited.
5. Quotations carry page numbers, and long quotations are set as blocks.
6. Reference entries use sentence case for titles, italics where required, and DOIs as web addresses.
7. You have followed any rule your instructor added to the APA defaults.

When another reader helps

A second reader catches what you stopped seeing three drafts ago. If you are working toward a deadline and want a review of structure, citations, and formatting, our editing and formatting service works with master's and doctoral students. For the longer formatting questions that follow a research paper, the bibliography guide compares APA with the other major styles.