APA Citation Guide (6th ed.): Reference List, Sample Paper, Headings

The APA Sample Paper Template may be used to set up your assignment. The template includes:

• a title page;
• a sample assignment page;
• and a references list in APA format.

If your instructor requires you to use APA style headings and sub-headings, this document will show you how they work.

If you are adding an appendix to your paper there are a few rules to follow that comply with APA guidelines:

• The Appendix appears after the References list
• If you have more than one appendix you would name the first appendix Appendix A, the second Appendix B, etc.
• The appendices should appear in the order that the information is mentioned in your essay
• Each appendix begins on a new page

Your research paper ends with a list of all the sources cited in the text of the paper. Here are nine quick rules for this Reference list.

1. Start a new page for your Reference list. Centre the title, References, at the top of the page.
2. Double-space the list.
3. Start the first line of each reference at the left margin; indent each subsequent line five spaces (a hanging indent).
4. Put your list in alphabetical order. Alphabetize the list by the first word in the reference. In most cases, the first word will be the author’s last name. Where the author is unknown, alphabetize by the first word in the title, ignoring the words a, an, the.
5. For each author, give the last name followed by a comma and the first (and middle, if listed) initials followed by periods.
6. Italicize the titles of works: books, audiovisual material, internet documents and newspapers, and the title and volume number of journals and magazines.
7. Do not italicize titles of parts of works, such as: articles from newspapers, magazines, or journals / essays, poems, short stories or chapter titles from a book / chapters or sections of an Internet document.
8. In titles of non-periodicals (books, videotapes, websites, reports, poems, essays, chapters, etc), capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, and all proper nouns (names of people, places, organizations, nationalities).
9. If more than one place of publication is listed give the publisher's home office. If the home office is not given or known then choose the first location listed.

Finished your assignment? Use this checklist to be sure you haven't missed any information needed for APA style.