APA Manuscript Form

In addition to following the general conventions described under manuscript form, APA style also covers other aspects of the appearance of the finished manuscript. Students who are preparing laboratory reports and technical papers may want to consult the APA manual for additional information about preparation of tables and figures and treatment of statistical and mathematical copy.

Margins. Leave at least 1 inch at the top, the bottom, and the sides.

Title Page and Headings. Center the title on the page. Follow APA’s conventions of capitalization for titles: Capitalize all major words (including those following the hyphen in compound words) and all words of four letters or more; capitalize conjunctions, articles, or prepositions only if they have four or more letters; capitalize the first word after a colon or a dash.

Double-space and center the author’s name, the instructor’s name, the course name and number, and the date on separate lines underneath the title.

If there is an abstract, put it on the page following the title page, with the heading “Abstract” centered at least an inch from the top of the page.