You should use as many levels as required in your paper to present the most organized structure. In addition to the above rules, headings and subheadings also should not be accompanied by letters or numbers. They should be formatted in boldface and the important words of the heading should be capitalized. Major levels (highest level) titles in your APA title are centered on your paper. The sections named above are considered major elements of your paper, so these sections should be treated as the highest level of headings. Indented, italicized, lowercase heading with a period. Indented, boldface, italicized, lowercase heading with a period. Indented, boldface, lowercase heading with a period. Left-aligned, Boldface, Uppercse, and Lowercse Heading SeriationĪPA also allows for seriation in the body text to help authors organize and present key ideas.Centered, Boldface, Uppercase, and Lowercase Headings

These labels should be positioned on their own line at the top of the page where the section starts, in bold and centered. Appendix A (and so on for subsequent appendices).Special headings called section labels are used for certain sections of a paper which always start on a new page. Regardless, always begin with level one headings and proceed to level two, etc. Levels of headings will depend upon the length and organization of your paper. For subsections in the beginning of a paper (introduction section), the first level of subsection will use Level 2 headings - the title of the paper counts as the Level 1 heading. In APA Style, the Introduction section never gets a heading and headings are not indicated by letters or numbers. Subsections of subsections receive level three format. Section headings receive level one format. Thus, if the article has four sections, some of which have subsections and some of which don’t, use headings depending on the level of subordination. Paragraph text continues on the same line as the same paragraph.

Indented, Boldface Italic, Title Case Heading Ending With a Period. Indented, Boldface Title Case Heading Ending With a Period. The format of each level is illustrated below:įlush Left, Boldface Italic, Title Case Heading Regardless of the number of levels, always use the headings in order, beginning with level 1. The levels are organized by levels of subordination, and each section of the paper should start with the highest level of heading. Headings are used to help guide the reader through a document. HeadingsĪPA Style uses a unique headings system to separate and classify paper sections. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style can be found here.

Note: This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019.

Apa format paper subheadings