Writing an APA-Style Research Report

Getting Started

Resources• APA Publication Manual

– The 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual came out in 2010

– There have been some changes since the previous edition.

• See my Sample Papers .• See the APA’s Sample Paper .• See my Links to APA Style Resources .• Avoid these Common Errors .

Guarding the Gates

• Refereed journals• Original manuscript rarely accepted as is• Behavioral and Neural Biology

– Accept it as it stands– Reject it

• Journal of Mammalogy– Reject it– And steal the author’s ideas

Margins• Uniform, at least one inch

Line Spacing• Ctrl-A, Ctrl-2, or Home, Paragraph:

Font

• APA wants a serif font, 12 point• Preferably Times New Roman.• Ctrl-A, Home, Font • Times New Roman, Regular, 12• Or use font box on Home ribbon

• For me you may use Arial or Verdana if you prefer.

Header on Every Page

• Left-justified running head– An abbreviated title– Not more than 50 characters

• Right-justified page number• Double-click in the header area

– Near the top of the page.– This opens the header for editing.

• Type the running head in all caps.

Header 2

• Place a right tab on the right margin.

Header 3

• Word may have already put a center tab in the header. If so, grab it (point at it and hold the left mouse button down) and drag it off of the ruler.

• Put the cursor just to the right of the running head and hit the tab key.

• Insert, Page Number, Current Position, Simple, Plain Number

Header 4

NOT Different First Page

• You do want the page number to appear on the first page.

• While the header is open, be sure that option is not checked.