APA 6th Edition Format — For Academic Writing

APA style is one of the most widely used academic writing styles. The APA 6th edition is an older version of this style, succeeded by the updated APA 7th edition in 2019.

Get to know the details on how to format and write in the APA 6th edition style below.

Definition: APA 6th edition format

APA 6th edition format is now an outdated but still useful resource on how to organize an academic paper. Traditionally, APA was formulated by the American Psychological Association and its published manual of style has been in use since 1952. As such, the APA style is largely applied to psychology departments among other behavioural sciences.¹

The APA 6th edition format published in 2009, however, adapted to a broader audience of disciplines outside of psychology. The APA style covers all aspects of paper writing, from the organization of content on the page to reference citation. The APA 6th edition format introduced a number of changes to the formatting of a paper.²

These included a wholesale simplification of the rules and increased guidance on specific details. In terms of APA 6th edition format requirements, the general guidance is to use :

• 12-point Times New Roman throughout
• A 1-inch margin on each page
• Double line-spacing throughout
• Running head on every page
• Each new paragraph requires a 0.5-inch indent including the first paragraph

APA 6th edition format – Running head

A running head is a repeated header found throughout the paper. In the APA 6th edition, you must include both the paper title (in the left-hand header) and page number (in the right-hand header) in the running head.

With paper titles that are longer than 50 characters, shorten them. You can do this by removing articles or by skipping lengthy subtitles.

In the APA 6th edition, you must include the words “Running head:” before this on the title page. Every subsequent page of the main body simply repeats the titling.

This would be repeated in the top left-hand header in place of the full title. The full title, however, will appear as-is on the title page.

APA 6th edition format – Headings

With the APA 6th edition format, heading types are formatted differently.

• Heading 1 is used for major headings, like chapter titles.
• Each subsequent header level works as a sub-heading of the previous level.
• This levelling refers to the content rather than its position in the text.

Many heading 2s can follow a heading 1, but a sub-heading of heading 2 must be formatted per heading 3.³

APA 6th edition format – Title page

The title page is the first to appear in your paper. Here, you must include the full name of your paper/thesis, the full author name(s), not including titles, and the university/institution. A running head must also be included with the title page numbered 1 and the running title labelled “Running title:”.

APA 6th edition format – Abstract

In the APA 6th edition format, an abstract is a one-paragraph summary of your paper’s contents. It will introduce either an objective, research question or problem and how you’ll solve it. This includes a shortened outline of your methodology and research conclusions.

When creating an abstract in the APA 6th edition format, follow typical APA conventions but with a few changes. No styling should be applied throughout and the first paragraph is not indented. Your abstract is followed by a list of keywords. Begin this section with an indented line and the first phrase “Keywords:” in italics, followed by your chosen keywords in plain text.

APA 6th edition format – Reference page

Your reference page or list is one of the final sections of your paper. Here, you’ll list all sources referenced directly in your paper in bibliographic detail.

As with other APA 6th edition format pages, you begin this section with the title “References” centered with the running head continuing throughout and a 1-inch margin. Each individual entry is listed alphabetically with double-space text. Apply a hanging indent of 0.5 inches for every entry’s second line onward.

APA 6th edition format – In-text citations

The APA 6th edition format advocates for in-text citations matched with a full reference list. Follow the citation guidelines in the APA style for success. As a general rule, footnotes or endnotes are discouraged and shouldn’t be used for citation. Instead, the formatting of in-text citations includes the author name(s), year and page number when quoting. When paraphrasing or referring to a general text, no page number is required.

Sources

¹ American Psychological Association. “About APA.” January, 2022. https://www.apa.org/about.

² American Psychological Association. “Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (2020).” Accessed December 9, 2022. https://apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition.

³ American Psychological Association. “Headings.” July, 2022. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/headings.