Text begins as a new paragraph.
2 | Text beings as a new paragraph. |
3 | Text begins as a new paragraph. |
4 | Text begins on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph. |
5 | Text begins on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph. |
Adapted from American Psychological Association. (2009). Format for Five Levels of Heading in APA Journals. Publication manual of the American psychological association (6th ed., p. 62) Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
- If you need to use subsections in any given section, use a least two, otherwise omit their use.
- Do not label headings with numbers or letters
- Use of title case : Use of both upper and lower case letters, all major words are capitalized
- Paragraph headings are immediately followed by text for that subsection, rather than starting on a new line. The heading sits at the start of the first paragraph for that section.
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The main goal of a heading is to inform the reader of what content they can find in that section, so make your headings as descriptive as possible. The examples below show one non-descriptive heading and three descriptive headings that provide the reader with much more information.
Headings identify the content within sections of a paper. Make your headings descriptive and concise. Headings that are well formatted and clearly worded aid both visual and nonvisual readers of all abilities. Levels of heading. There are five levels of heading in APA Style.
Heading level 1 is used for main sections like “Methods”, “Results”, and “Discussion”. There is no “Introduction” heading at the beginning of your paper because the first paragraphs are understood to be introductory. Heading level 2 is used for subsections under level 1.
APA Style uses a unique headings system to separate and classify paper sections. Headings are used to help guide the reader through a document. The levels are organized by levels of subordination, and each section of the paper should start with the highest level of heading.
Left-aligned. 12 point standard font (e.g. Times New Roman) Put each piece of information on a separate line, and don’t use periods or other punctuation at the end of each line. The header and title should be in plain text, without any styling. Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services. Excellent.
Headings and subheadings can help organize and structure your writing. In general, longer and more complex works warrant more of them than shorter ones. Avoid overusing headings in short projects; they should never be used to compensate for poor structure or to explain an underdeveloped idea.
Like a reference list, in-text citations, footnotes, and abstract, APA headings require correct formatting. More so since the American Psychological Association (APA) released the 7th edition of their style guide. In this article, we’ll go through the different APA heading levels and their formats.
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).
Headings are used to effectively organize ideas within a study or manuscript. It can also highlight important items, themes or topics within sections. By creating concise headings, the reader can anticipate key points and track the development of your argument.
APA Style headings have five possible levels. Each main section starts with the highest level of heading, even if one section has fewer levels of subheading than another section.