Academic writing at Confederation College must always be formatted according to APA guidelines.
How to Format an APA Document
Font
Use one of the following APA fonts: 12 pt. font, Times New Roman or 11 pt. font, Calibri (Body).
How to Change the Font Size.
To change the font, click on the “Home” tab in Microsoft Word, and choose the style and font size in the dropdown menus (A and B), as pictured in Figure 1.
Page Margins
Your document must have 1” (one inch) page margins on the top, sides, and bottom of the document.
How to Check the Page Margin Size.
Click the “Layout” tab (A) in Microsoft Word, and click the “Margins” drop-down arrow (B). Click on the “Normal (2.54 cm)” margin selection (C), as pictured in Figure 2.
Paragraph Alignment
All assignment paragraphs (for essays, formal reports, or informal reports) must be ragged, left aligned. You should never manually adjust the word spacing or hyphenate any words to make the paragraph flush with both margins.
How to Make an Assignment Left Aligned.
Under the “Home” tab, click the left align button (A), as shown in Figure 3.
APA Assignments: How to Format Mandatory Components
There are mandatory components that, unless otherwise indicated by your Confederation College professor, must accompany all assignments that you submit. Every assignment must have an APA title page, and if you have taken any information from a secondary source, you must also include an APA References page. See the References section of this guide for the References page formatting instructions.
APA Title Page
Your APA title page is the first page of your assignment, and it must abide by APA guidelines. Follow the long instructions in Figure 6 or use the short instructions in Figure 5 to create an APA title page
If you have followed the directions to create an APA title page, the layout of your APA title page should look exactly like the title page in Figure 4. If it does not look identical, you have missed a step, and therefore, your APA title page is formatted incorrectly.
How to Create an APA Title Page
APA References Page
The References page contains a list of all of the sources that you paraphrased, quoted, or summarized in your paper. See the “Avoiding Plagiarism” section for more information about what sources you need to cite and reference. See the “References” section of this guide for more information about how to format the References page and how to create each reference entry.