Saudi Electronic University Academic Writing Standards and APA Style Guidelines: Formatting

A number of templates and a sample papers are available in order for you to see examples of APA formatting.  

Specific formatting requirements include:

• One inch margins on all sides of the document.
• Double-space entire document, including the reference page.
• Use Times New Roman, black font color, and size 12 font for the entire document, including the reference page.
• Include a separate title page with the following information. Centered in the top half of the page:
  (a) paper title, (b) student name, (c) course number and name of course, (d) name of institution, (e) name of instructor, (f) date submitted. All major words are capitalized and not bold. Insert the page numbers on the title page. Start with page 1.
• Insert running heads in the header of each page. The phrase “Running head:” (without quotation marks) should appear only on the title page with the first 50 characters (this includes spaces, but should not break up a word) of the paper’s title in all caps. All subsequent pages should only have the 50 characters of the paper’s title in all caps.

• The title of the paper is repeated at the beginning of the body of paper, centered, major words capitalized, and not bold. This is not considered a header.
• Use headings within the body of the document.  Headings establish the hierarchy of the sections of a paper.  All topics of equal importance have the same level of heading throughout the paper.  Use at least two subsection headings within any given section or use none. For further information refer to the APA Manual (p. 62) or Purdue OWL website.” Please refer to the APA manual (p. 62) or Purdue OWL website.
• Indent all paragraphs five spaces to the right or 1/2 inch with no extra line space between paragraphs.
• Refer to referenced authors by last name only throughout the body of document as APA believes believes using authors first names may lead to a gender bias.
• Spell out all phrases when first used in a document with the acronym in parenthesis after it.  Just the acronym can be used in subsequent uses. Example: The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Motorola stated...
• In-text citations should be used throughout body of document. 
• Directly quoted material should be cited to page number or paragraph number of where the quotation was found. Keep in mind that only 15-20% of your paper can be quoted (i.e., one quote per page).
• Block formatting is required for quotes of 40 words or more. For a block quote, indent entire quote 5 space to the right or 1/2 inch, do not use quotation marks, and place the period at the end of the quote, not the citation.
• Use a page break (common feature in word processing software) to create a new page for reference citations. The word “References” should be centered at the top, not bold, and should not have any punctuation. References are double spaced and in hanging indent format and in alphabetical order. 

Watch a vidcast from Purdue OWL on formatting APA papers.