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These guidelines are adapted from the student paper specifications from Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).
Always defer to your professor or instructor’s guidelines for an assignment – it's essential that you understand their expectations and ask questions about any guidelines that are unclear or confusing. This includes whether they would like you to use the student or professional paper format.
Note: Refer to the APA Publication Manual (7th ed) if your professor requires you to use the professional title page format. APA no longer requires elements such as the running head and author note for student papers.
The body of the paper "contains the authors' main contributions to the literature" (APA Publication Manual [7th ed], p. 39).
Components and structure of the paper vary depending on your assignment. For example, original research reports include the following sections: "Introduction," "Methods," "Results," and "Discussion."
Refer to the APA Publication Manual or your assignment instructions for the details about the type of information that is included in each section.
Most papers will use the following general guidelines:
Refer to the APA Publication Manual for guidelines related to formatting tables, figures, and appendices.