The guidelines for basic setup apply to the entire paper. Information on paper format and tables and figures and a full sample student paper are also available on the APA Style website. Tables and figures are covered in Chapter 7 of both books.

Chapter 1 of the Concise Guide to APA Style and Chapter 2 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association describe the elements, format, and organization for student papers. The guidelines for student paper setup are described and shown using annotated diagrams in the Student Paper Setup Guide (PDF, 3.40MB) and the A Step-by-Step Guide to APA Style Student Papers webinar. Finally, it concludes by describing how to organize student papers and ways to improve their quality and presentation. It then covers formatting for the major sections of a student paper: the title page, the text, tables and figures, and the reference list. This article walks through the formatting steps needed to create an APA Style student paper, starting with a basic setup that applies to the entire paper (margins, font, line spacing, paragraph alignment and indentation, and page headers). The start of the semester is the perfect time to learn how to create and format APA Style student papers.

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