General paper format in APA 7 Style

Before you begin: format the whole document

General format controls how the paper looks and reads before you review the title page, headings, citations, or references. Setting it up first prevents the same correction from appearing on page after page.

These are the general settings for an APA 7 student paper:

Element	Setting
Margins	1 inch on every side
Font	One readable and consistent combination, such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Arial, or 11-point Calibri
Line spacing	Double spacing through most of the paper
Paragraph spacing	0 points before and after
Alignment	Flush left, not justified
Paragraph indentation	First line indented 0.5 inch
Page number	On every page, at the top right

Your instructor or institution may require an adaptation, especially for a thesis or a paper that will be bound. Apply that direction only where it is required and keep the remaining settings consistent with APA Style.

Margins

Use 1-inch margins at the top, bottom, left, and right of every page. This creates a uniform area around the text.

Set margins with the page layout controls. Do not imitate them with spaces, tabs, text boxes, or blank lines. Check that every section in the file keeps the same measurements.

A university may require a wider left margin for a bound thesis. That is an institutional adaptation and does not change the general APA margin for other papers.

Font and size

APA Style permits several fonts. Choose a readable combination and use it consistently throughout the paper:

Font	Size
Times New Roman	12 points
Georgia	11 points
Arial	11 points
Calibri	11 points
Lucida Sans Unicode	10 points
Computer Modern, commonly used with LaTeX	10 points

You do not have to choose Times New Roman simply because it is familiar. If your institution requires a particular font, apply that combination throughout the document.

Some exceptions serve a specific purpose. Text within a figure generally uses an 8- to 14-point font such as Arial or Calibri; code may use a fixed-width font such as Lucida Console or Courier New; and footnotes may retain the word processor's default settings.

Line and paragraph spacing

Use double spacing on the title page, abstract, body, headings, block quotations, reference list, table and figure notes, and appendices. Keep the same double spacing between consecutive paragraphs.

Do not add extra space before or after paragraphs. In paragraph settings, set both values to 0 points. Do not insert blank lines to separate headings or sections.

On a correctly formatted page, every line follows a consistent rhythm. The example in the next section shows double spacing, flush-left alignment, and first-line indentation together.

The main exceptions are:

• table cells and words within a figure image may be single-, one-and-a-half-, or double-spaced, depending on what is easiest to read
• a footnote at the bottom of a page may retain the default single spacing
• a displayed equation may need additional space before or after it

These exceptions do not apply to ordinary body text.

Paragraph alignment and indentation

Align text to the left and leave the right edge uneven. Do not use full justification, which changes the spacing between words to make every line end at the same point. Do not manually divide words at the end of a line.

In each regular paragraph, the first line begins 0.5 inch from the left margin. The remaining lines return to the margin. Set a first-line indent or use one tab when beginning the paragraph. Do not insert several spaces.

Not every block uses the same indentation:

• the first line of an abstract is not indented
• an entire block quotation is indented 0.5 inch from the left margin
• reference list entries use a hanging indent: the first line remains at the margin and subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inch
• some heading levels have their own alignment and relationship to the following paragraph

Page numbers and the header

Every page has a number in the top-right corner of the header. The title page is page 1. Insert automatic page numbering so that the sequence updates when pages are added or removed.

In a student paper, the header contains only the page number unless the instructor or institution asks for something else. A running head is required for professional papers submitted for publication and should not be added to a class paper by habit.

Do not type page numbers manually or place them in the document body. Also check that a section break has not accidentally restarted the numbering.

Final format review

Before submitting the paper, check the entire document rather than only the first page:

• All four margins measure 1 inch unless an institutional adaptation was explicitly required.
• The font and size remain consistent.
• Ordinary text is double-spaced with no extra paragraph spacing.
• Paragraphs are aligned left and the right edge remains uneven.
• Every regular paragraph has a 0.5-inch first-line indent.
• Exceptions such as block quotations and references use their corresponding indentation.
• Every page is numbered automatically beginning with the title page.
• A student paper does not include an unrequested running head.

The most common problems appear when formatting is built with spaces, blank lines, or manually typed page numbers. Use the page and paragraph controls in your word processor so the format remains stable when the content changes.