Citation Style: APA 7th Edition: Basic Formatting

Rules for Basic Formatting

APA style dictates a particular format for your paper. Before you begin typing your paper, set up your document in the following way:

• Double-space your paper. Remove any extra spaces between paragraphs.
• Leave uniform margins of 1 inch at the top, bottom, left and right of each page.
• Indent the first line of every paragraph. For consistency, use the tab key to indent.

Font Sizes

APA 7th edition gives you some flexibility with your font-type and font-size choices. Different font types require different sizes due to the varying size of the font itself. Here are the options. Choose what works best for you! 

Note: We will try to represent what each font looks like below. However, it may look a little different in your word processing application, so we suggest you try each one out to make your own decision.

Sans-Serif Fonts

• Calibri, size 11
• Arial, size 11
• Lucida Sans Unicode, size 10

Serif Fonts

• Times New Roman, size 12
• Georgia, size 11
• Computer Modern, size 10

APA Student Paper Formatting Guidelines Video

For more information about APA formatting guidelines, we recommend you view the short video below, which covers all of the basics. (This video was created by Keuka College librarian, Nancy Marksbury.)

Template for APA in Microsoft Word

You can also start by downloading this APA template made by the Keuka College Writing Center. Add your own information, delete the instructions, and all the formatting has been done for you! Download and save this template to keep it for future APA assignments.