OWL at Purdue University: Printable Handouts

General Format

General format for papers written in APA style is covered in the first chapter of the Publication Manual, starting on page ten. What follows are some general guidelines for formatting. For more information about how to format a manuscript, see the many links in our additional resources section, available at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/APA/resources.html#formatgeneral.

What should my paper look like?

Your paper should be typed and double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5 X 11 inches).
The margins of your paper should be set to 1 inch on all sides.
Your paper should include a title page.
Your paper should include a running manuscript head in the upper right hand corner of each page that offers a short version of the title and a page number.
The pages of your paper should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page, as part of the manuscript header in the upper right corner of each page.
There should also only be one space after punctuation marks such as a period. This allows editors to conserve space in their journals.

What sections should I include in my paper?

There are standard sections that are used to organize your paper. Which sections you use will depend on your particular writing project. Your paper should include whatever sections are appropriate for that type of writing, each of which should begin on a separate page (except where noted).

Standard sections for some of the more common types of papers are discussed below. If your paper type is not included in this list, follow the general guidelines, consult your teacher, or consult the Publication Manual.

Literature Review

Generally, when you are asked to write a paper for a class, this is what your professor has in mind. A literature review is just your summary of what the scientific literature says about your specific topic or question. How long this should be and how many sources you will need will vary from course to course and instructor to instructor.

A literature review contains the following sections:

title page
introduction section
list of references

Some instructors may also want you to write an abstract for a literature review, so be sure to check. Annotated bibliography writers can visit APA Format for Annotated Bibliographies at http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/citation/apa_annotated.htmlfor information about writing annotated bibliographies in APA style.

Experimental Report

When you have designed and conducted an experiment, you need to write up your paper using a structure that is more complex than that used for just a literature review.

This structure follows the scientific method and makes your paper easier to follow. You need to tell the reader:

why the topic is important (covered in your introduction)
what the problem is (also covered in your introduction)
what you did to try to solve the problem (covered in your methods section)
what you found (covered in your results section)
what you think your findings mean (covered in your discussion section)

An experimental report includes the following sections:

title page
abstract
introduction
method
results
discussion.
references
tables and/or figures (if necessary)
Appendixes (if necessary)

Make sure to check the guidelines for your assignment or any guidelines that have been given to you by an editor.

Other Papers

If your paper is not a literature review nor an experimental report, make sure that you follow the guidelines for the assignment or the editorial guidelines given to you by the journal, and include as many sections as you think are applicable to presenting your material. Annotated bibliography writers might also want to visit APA Format for Annotated Bibliographies, available at http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/citation/apa_annotated.html.

More Resources

For more about formatting an APA style paper, consult the publication manual, visit APA Style Essentials (http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.cfm?doc_id=796), or view a Sample APA Report (http://www.thewritesource.com/APA/APARESEARCH.HTM)or a APA Simulated Journal Article (http://www-distance.syr.edu/apa5th.html). (Additional formatting resources, including Microsoft Word templates, are available in our additional resources section at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/APA//resources.html#formatemplates.)

Title Page

The title page needs to include 4 items:

The title of your paper. The title should concisely state the topic of the paper and the variables or theoretical issues that are being explored in relation to that topic. The title should be about 10-12 words long. The title should be centered in the middle of your page.
The author’s name and institutional affiliation. The institutional affiliation is just the name of the place (usually a college or university) where the research was conducted. The author's name and institutional affiliation should be centered and placed directly below the title.
A running head. This is just an abbreviated version of your title, and should include no more than 50 characters (including spaces and punctuation). The running head is what appears at the top of each page next to the page number throughout the paper. The running head designation should be left justified and appear at the top of hte page after the page number.
A page number. Page numbers should appear on the title page in the upper right hand corner, after the running head. Pages should then be numbered consecutively in the upper right hand corner throughout the paper.

Here is a sample title page in APA format. Note how it includes the running head and page number in the upper right hand corner, defines the running head that will title all manuscript pages, and centers the title and author information in the middle of the page.

sample APA title page. running head and page number in the upper right hand corner, defines the running head that will title all manuscript pages, and centers the title in the middle of the page.

For more about how the elements of a title page are organized on the page, visit the sample title pages in our literature review and experimental report.

Abstract

Sometimes you do not need to include an abstract in a paper; always check your assignment guidelines to make sure that you need to include one. In general, if you are submiting a manuscript for publication, or preparing a more formal report, you will need to include an abstract.

The abstract is a summary of your paper and is generally the first thing your reader will read after the title. It allows readers to get an idea of what you say in your paper, so they can decide if they want to read the entire paper. Therefore, this is a very important section because you want people to actually read what you spent so much time writing.

The abstract should contain a complete but concise summary of your paper and should not contain more than 120 words. You should not repeat your title in the abstract because this is redundant and takes up precious space.

For a literature review, the main things you should include in your abstract are the problem under investigation (the purpose of the paper) and your conclusions about the problem based on your review of the literature.

For an experimental report, the main things you should include in your abstract are the problem under investigation (the purpose of the paper), the participants or subjects (number, type, age, sex), the method used, the main findings, and the implications of these findings.

See the APA sample experimental report at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/APA/interact/exp/index.html for an example of an abstract.

Introduction

In addition to a title page and an abstract, the text of your paper should be broken into sections. For these sections, following sections should begin on the same page where the previous one left off, and not necessarily on a new page.

General guidelines

In this section, you are essentially providing background information on the topic. You should explain why the topic is important and give the reader an idea of where you are going in your paper (i.e., what aspects of the topic you will be focusing on). Then review the relevant literature. Please see the section on using sources in your paper for information on how to cite your sources and how to use quotations in your paper.

The introduction should be clearly organized and flow nicely. One way to do this is to use headings. Headings help the reader understand the paper’s organization and they show what topics are of equal importance. Look at the sample experimental report for an example of how headings can be used in the introduction. Headings can also be used in other sections of the paper.

Note: the introduction section should not be labeled "Introduction"; just use the title of your paper.

You should always assume that your reader is not an expert on the topic; however, you can assume that your reader has some basic knowledge of the topic. You should explain your ideas thoroughly and clearly. Avoid the use of jargon wherever possible.

Writing an introduction for a literature review

For the literature review, the "introduction" is the entire text of your paper. You should explain why the topic is important and give the reader an idea of where you are going in your paper (i.e., what aspects of the topic you will be focusing on). Then review the relevant literature, organizing it in a clear and easy to follow manner. For example, you could organize the review chronologically, in order of importance, or as it relates to different perspectives on an issue or to sides of a controversial problem.

You do not need to mention every study conducted on the topic; only the ones that are most important to what you want to say. You also do not need to provide a lot of detail about the procedures used in other studies. Most literature reviews only describe the main findings, relevant methodological issues, and/or major conclusions of other research.

After you have introduced your topic, reviewed the literature, and written a conclusion, you then need to include a reference list at the end of your paper, and you're finished with your literature review!

Writing an introduction for an experimental report

In the introduction to an experimental report, you do not need to mention every study conducted on the topic, only the ones that are most important to what you want to say. You also do not need to provide a lot of detail about the procedures used in other studies. Most introductions only describe the main findings, relevant methodological issues, and/or major conclusions of other research. Methodology is usually only described if you want to say that it is flawed or an inappropriate way to measure the phenomenon, or if you are using their methodology.

You should explainwhy the current information out there is not sufficient to explain the phenomenon and how you addressed the problem. State what your hypotheses were and what previous findings these hypotheses are based on, leading up to why the method you used is the best way to test these hypotheses. You should conclude this section by describing the goals of the study and a brief idea of the methods used. This allows your paper to flow nicely into the method section.

Method

The Method section is where you describe what you did and how you conducted your study. This is very important because other researchers may use this information to try to replicate your study and see if they come up with the same results. If your description of your methodology is incomplete or poorly written then others will not be able to accurately replicate your study. The description of your methodology also allows others to critique how well designed the study is.

There are three main subsections in the Method section: Participants or Subjects, Apparatus, and Procedure.

Participants

In the Participants subsection, describe who your participants or subjects were. You should give the total number of subjects and their basic demographic information (e.g., age, sex, location, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status). You should also describe how the participants were selected and assigned to groups (if applicable), and how many subjects were in each group. Do not give information that would enable others to identify the participants (e.g., names) because you need to maintain confidentiality.

Apparatus or Measures

This subsection is usually found in experimental studies that involve the use of specific equipment in order in order to execute the study. Such studies are typically conducted by subfields in psychology that use the experimental method frequently (e.g., cognitive, psychobiology, social psychology). The Apparatus section is generally only used when the researcher is using special equipment. If only questionnaires are used, the section is called Measures Sometimes this section is combined into a "Measures and Procedure" section, but not always.

In the Apparatus subsection, you should describe the apparatus or materials used in the experiment. If you used questionnaires, give the name of the questionnaire and describe its subscales. Be sure to supply some sample questions. List any equipment used. Basic items, such as stopwatches, do not need to be described in detail, but specialized equipment that not everyone will be familiar with should be described in detail. You need to provide enough information so that readers will understand how your experiment was conducted and how they could replicate it.

Procedure

In the Procedure subsection, you describe each step in how the research was conducted. You should summarize how participants were divided into groups, the instructions given to the participants, and essentially what the subject experienced while participating in your study.

For correlational studies or longitudinal studies, a separate subsection called "Measures" is added to the Procedure section of the paper. In this section, the authors list the names of the measures used to assess different variables (usually questionnaires) in the study. In describing the questionnaires, authors usually include information about the measure’s reliability and validity. The authors should cite the individual or individuals who created the measure. Also, a description of subscales and a few sample items are included to give the reader an idea about the measure’s content. For example: Depressive symptoms. Adolescent depressive symptoms were assessed by a 20-item questionnaire developed by Johnson (1980).

Many researchers combine the last two subsections into a Measures and Procedures subsection, especially if their measures or apparatus are not complicated. See the sample experimental report for an example of a Method section.

Results

The Results section is where you summarize the data you collected and present the main findings (even those that are counter to your hypotheses). You should also explain what analyses were used (e.g., one-way ANOVA, t-test). The results section should be organized in some fashion. It should represent the way you have conceptualized your project. A common way to report results is to:

Restate your hypothesis for the reader.
Summarize the results for each of the statistical tests you completed for that hypothesis.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each subsequent hypothesis.

When reporting the findings of an inferential test, you need to follow a certain format. This format includes stating the one-letter abbreviation of the type of test, the degrees of freedom, the value of the test, and the probability that the score is due to random chance. An example of this would be F (1, 149) = 107.31, p<.001. Any p-value less than or equal to .05 is considered significant and you should be sure to point out to your reader that there was an effect. P-values greater than .05 are not significant and are considered uninterpretable.Do not mention individual scores except as an example; instead report means and standard deviations.

If you need to present your findings using figures or tables, see our sections on figures and tables for more help.It is not appropriate to discuss in this section what you think these findings mean. Save that for the Discussion section. See the sample experimental report for an example of a Results section.

Discussion

The Discussion section is where you interpret and evaluate your findings. Your job here is to address the questions/issues raised in the introduction in light of the results. However, you should not be restating your results or points you have already made. You will want to organize your discussion section into three parts:

Part 1: Reviewing hypotheses and results
Part 2: Discussing the findings in the context of the existing literature and addressing the limitations of your study.
Part 3: Summarizing the study’s contribution to the literature and providing suggestions for future research.

Reviewing hypotheses and results and discussing findings

Start this section by stating whether or not the findings supported your hypothesis. You can also compare your findings to those of other researchers. If your findings do not support your hypothesis, provide a rationale for why you think this happened. This section also involves a return to literature to place your findings in context. Discuss how your study results fit in with other studies that have already been published. Are they similar or different? Discuss why you believe this to be the case and weave in relevant citations to bolster your case.

Addressing limitations

You should also acknowledge any limitations of your study that might prevent firm conclusions from being drawn from your results (e.g., flaws in design, or population studied), address alternative explanations for the findings, and provide suggestions for future research (especially suggestions to overcome any problems you had or limitations of your study).

Summarizing and providing suggestions

You should end this section by discussing why the findings are important and how your findings can be applied to actual settings. Also, discuss how your study adds to the existing literature and emphasize your study’s strengths to leave the reader with a strong impression of your work. This might also involve attention to the implications of the study in terms of the "big picture." In other words, what do your findings mean in the real world? What can you conclude about the meaning of your findings?

Some researchers will have a combined Results and Discussion section. This is primarily used when the author is describing multiple experiments or both sections are very short.

See the sample experimental report for an example of a Discussion section.

References

Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text. For some examples of reference lists, see our sample literature review and experimental report.

In your reference list, you provide information about:

the author(s) of each work or the institution or group that created the work
the date that the work was published
the title of each work
whether the work appears as part of a larger work (such as an article in a journal or newspaper, or a chapter in an essay collection)
where the work was published
who published the work
information that would help someone retrieve the work (such as a web page address or an access number for an electronic database)

If you don't have complete information for a reference, include as much information as you do have when you create your reference list. For example, it's common for web pages to not have authors. This just means that you don't include an author, and instead start with the title of the work.

The APA has guidelines for how you should format this information; these guidelines are different for different kinds of references. Our basic rules and forms will help you understand the general guidelines, and our reference list examples will show you some sample sources. If you have questions about a particular form for a particular source, it's best to consult the Publication Manual and follow their specific reference. If you can't find a specific reference or example for your source, take the basic form that most closely resembles your type of source and use that as your model, making sure to include all the information that a reader would need to retrieve your work.

Your references should begin on a separate page from the text of the essay under the label References (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), centered at the top of the page. It should be double-spaced, just like the rest of your essay. If you would like to see a sample reference list in a paper, see our sample literature review and experimental report, or these links to an Sample APA Report (http://www.thewritesource.com/APA/APARESEARCH.HTM) and a APA Simulated Journal Article (http://www-distance.syr.edu/apa5th.html). We also have a list of reference examples in the workshop.

Formatting your reference list is covered in chapter four of the Publication Manual, which starts on page 215. What follows are some general guidelines for formatting your reference list.

Basic Rules

Authors' names are inverted (last name first); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work.
Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work.

If you have more than one article by the same author(s), single-author references or multiple-author references with the exact same authors in the exact same order are listed in order by the year of publication, starting with the earliest.

For example:

Berndt, T. J. (1996). Exploring the effects of friendship quality on

   social development. In W. M. Bukowski, A. F. Newcomb, & W. W. Hartup,

    (Eds.), The company they keep: Friendship in childhood and adolescence.
    
    (pp. 346-365). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current

    Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 7-10.

Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across affective

    states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis. Journal of Personality &

    Social Psychology, 66, 1034-1048.

Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1995). Flexible correction processes in

    social judgment: The role of naive theories in corrections for perceived

    bias. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 68,  36-51.

When an author appears both as a sole author and, in another citation, as the first author of a group, list the one-author entries first.

For example:

Berndt, T. J. (1999). Friends' influence on students' adjustment to

    school. Educational Psychologist, 34, 15-28.


Berndt, T. J., & Keefe, K. (1995). Friends' influence on adolescents'

    adjustment to school. Child Development, 66, 1312-1329.

References that have the same first author and different second and/or third authors are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the second author, or the last name of the third if the first and second authors are the same.
For example:

Wegener, D. T., Kerr, N. L., Fleming, M. A., & Petty, R. E. (2000).

    Flexible corrections of juror judgments: Implications for jury

    instructions. Psychology, Public Policy, & Law, 6, 629-654.


Wegener, D. T., Petty, R. E., & Klein, D. J. (1994). Effects of mood on

    high elaboration attitude change: The mediating role of likelihood

    judgments. European Journal of Social Psychology, 24, 25-43.

If you are using more than one reference by the same author (or the same group of authors listed in the same order) published in the same year, organize them in the reference list alphabetically by the title of the article or chapter. Then assign letter suffixes to the year.

For example:

Berndt, T. J. (1981a).  Age changes and changes over time in prosocial

    intentions and behavior between friends. Developmental Psychology, 17,

    408-416.

Berndt, T. J. (1981b). Effects of friendship on prosocial intentions and

    behavior. Child Development, 52, 636-643.

When referring to these publications in your paper, use the letter suffixes with the year so that the reader knows which reference you are referring to. For example: "Several studies (Berndt, 1981a, 1981b) have shown that..."

Use "&" instead of "and" when listing multiple authors of a single work.
If no author is given for a particular source, begin with and alphabetize by using the title of the work, which will be listed in place of the author, and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.
Personal communications, such as e-mail messages to you, or private interviews that you conducted with another person, should not be cited in your reference list because they are not retrievable sources for anyone else. You should make reference to these sources in your in-text citations. (For more information, see page 214 of the Publication Manual.)
All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
When referring to any work that is NOT a journal, such as a book, article, or Web page, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do not capitalize the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word.
Capitalize all major words in journal titles.
Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.
Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles or essays in edited collections.

Basic Forms for Sources in Print

An article in a periodical (e.g., a journal, newspaper, or magazine)

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year).

    Title of article. Title of periodical, volume number, pages.

NOTE: For a magazine or newspaper article, you need to include specific publication dates (month and day, if applicable) as well as the year. For a journal article, you do not need to include the month or day of publication. See our examples below for more explanations.

NOTE:You need list only the volume number if the periodical uses continuous pagination throughout a particular volume. If each issue begins with page 1, then you should list the issue number as well: Title of Periodical, Volume number(Issue number), pages. Note that the issue number is not italicized. If the journal does not use volume numbers, use the month, season, or other designation within the year to designate the specific journal article.

A nonperiodical (e.g., book, report, brochure, or audiovisual media)

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter 

    also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

NOTE: For "Location," you should always list the city, but you should also include the state if the city is unfamiliar or if the city could be confused with one in another state.

Part of a nonperiodical (e.g., a book chapter or an article in a collection)

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. 

    In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of chapter). 

    Location: Publisher.

NOTE: When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use "pp." before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). This abbreviation, however, does not appear before the page numbers in periodical references.

Basic Forms for Electronic (Internet) Sources

Article in an Internet Periodical

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article.

    Title of journal, volume number(issue number if available). 

    Retrieved month day, year, from http://Web address.

Nonperiodical Internet Document (e.g., a Web page or report)

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. 

     Retrieved month date, year, from http://Web address.

NOTE: When an Internet document is more than one Web page, provide a URL that links to the home page or entry page for the document. Also, if there isn't a date available for the document use (n.d.) for no date.

Part of Nonperiodical Internet Document

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. 

    In Title of book or larger document (chapter or section number). 

    Retrieved from http://Web address.

For more about electronic sources, see the APA style web site's coverage of electronic references (http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html) or Frequently Asked Questions about APA Style (http://www.apastyle.org/faqs.html) from the APA web site, or visit the additional resources section of the workshop.

Basic Forms for Audiovisual Sources

A Motion Picture or Video Tape

Producer, P. P. (Producer), & Director, D.D. (Director). (Date of 

    publication). Title of motion picture  [Motion picture]. Country of 

    origin: Studio or distributor.

If a movie or video tape is not available in wide distribution, add the following to your citation after the country of origin: (Available from Distributor name, full address and zip code).

A Television Broadcast or Television Series

Producer, P. P. (Producer). (Date of broadcast or copyright). Title of 

    broadcast [Television broadcast or Television series]. City of origin: 

    Studio or distributor.

A Single Episode of a Television Series

Writer, W. W. (Writer), & Director, D.D. (Director). (Date of publication).
			
    Title of episode [Television series episode]. In P. Producer (Producer),
			
    Series Title. City of origin: Studio or distributor.

A music recording

Songwriter, W. W. (Date of copyright). Title of song [Recorded by artist if 
			
    different from song writer].  On Title of album [Medium of recording]. 
			
    Location: Label. (Recording date if different from copyright date)

For more about citing audiovisual media, see pages 266-269 of the Publication Manual.

Want to see some samples and examples? Visit our pages on citing sources in your text, using quotations, and our reference list, as well as our additional resources section.

Appendixes

When Appendixes might be necessary

Appendixes allow you to include detailed information in your paper that would be distracting in the main body of the paper. Examples of items you might have in an appendix include mathematical proofs, lists of words, the questionnaire used in the research, a detailed description of an apparatus used in the research, etc.

Format of Appendixes

Your paper may have more than one appendix. Usually, each distinct item has it’s own appendix. If your paper only has one appendix, label it "Appendix" (without quotes.) If there is more than one appendix, label them "Appendix A," "Appendix B," etc. (without quotes) in the order that each item appears in the paper. In the main text, you should refer to the Appendixes by their labels.

The actual format of the appendix will vary depending on the content; therefore, there is no single format. In general, the content of an appendix should conform to the appropriate APA style rules for formatting text.

Footnotes/endnotes

When footnotes/endnotes might be necessary

Because APA style uses parenthetical citations, you do not need to use footnotes or endnotes to cite your sources. The only reasons you need to use footnotes are for explanatory (content) notes or copyright permission. Content footnotes contain information that supplements the text, but would be distracting or inappropriate to include in the body of the paper. In other words, content footnotes provide important information that is a tangent to what you are discussing in your paper.

The footnote should only express one idea. If it is longer than a few sentences, then you should consider putting this information in an appendix. Most authors do not use footnotes because they tend to be distracting to the readers. If the information is important, authors find a way to incorporate it into the text itself or put it in an appendix.

If you are including a quote that is longer than 500 words or a table or figure in your paper that was originally published elsewhere, then you need to include a footnote that acknowledges that you have permission from the owner of the copyright to use the material.

Format of footnotes

In the text, place a superscript numeral immediately after the text about which you would like to include more information (e.g., Scientists examined the fossilized remains of the wooly-wooly yak.¹) Number the notes consecutively in the order they appear in your paper.

At the end of the paper, create a separate page labeled Notes (centered at the top of the page) and add the note text. Technically, you write these footnotes as endnotes, but they will appear as footnotes in the published paper.

Below are examples of content notes.

1. See Blackmur (1995), especially chapters three and four, for an insightful analysis of this extraordinary animal.

2. On the problems related to yaks, see Wollens (1989, pp. 120-135); for a contrasting view, see Pyle (1992).

3. In a recent interview, she (Weller, 1998) reiterated this point even more strongly: "I am an artist, not a yak!" (p. 124).

Tables

When to use tables

Tables enable you to show your data in an easy to read format. However, you do not need to present all of your data in tabular form. Tables are only necessary for large amounts of data that would be too complicated in the text. If you only need to present a few numbers, you should do so directly in the text, not in a table.

How to use tables

Each table should be identified by a number, in the order that they appear in the text (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, etc.). When using a table, you need to refer to the table in the text (e.g., "As shown in Table 1,…") and point out to the reader what they should be looking for in the table. Do not discuss every piece of data that is in the table or else there is no point in having the table. Only mention the most important pieces of information from the table.

The table should also make sense on its own. Be sure to explain all abbreviations except standard abbreviations such as M, SD, and df. Don’t forget to identify the unit of measurement.

APA style has a specific format for tables. Tables should appear at the end of your paper, after the reference list and after any Appendixes. Every table needs a unique title after its label. The title should be brief but clearly explain what is in the table.

See the sample experimental report for examples of tables.

Figures

A figure is any type of illustration that you include in your paper such as charts, graphs, pictures, diagrams, and drawings. Tables are not considered figures because a table is typeset by the publisher, not photographed. See the sample experimental report for examples of figures.

When to use figures

Many authors choose to use figures when they want to convey a pattern of results that would be difficult to see in a table. Figures are also used to supplement text. For example, if you are trying to describe the apparatus used in your experiment, including a picture of the apparatus will help the reader understand what you are trying to say.

How to use figures

Each figure should be identified by a number, in the order that they appear in the text (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). When using a figure, you need to refer to the figure in the text (e.g., "As shown in Figure 1,…") and point out to the reader what they should be looking for in the figure. You should only use a figure if it complements the text, but does not duplicate it. As with tables, you should not explain everything that is in the figure or else the figure is not necessary. Only mention the most important pieces of information from the figure.

Choose the type of figure (e.g., chart, graph, or illustration) that will best convey the point you are trying to get across. You do not have to draw the figure yourself. Feel free to let your computer generate it, especially if you want to include graphs and charts. Make sure that all elements of the figure are large enough to be legible.

Figures should appear at the end of your paper, after any tables. Each figure should have a caption. The caption will serve as the title of the figure and therefore should clearly and succinctly describe the figure. All figure captions should be typed together on a separate page (see [sample paper]). Each figure should appear on a separate piece of paper, but should not include a title or figure number. When ordering your figures, be sure to put the page(s) with the figure captions first and then make sure the figures are in numerical order.

Using Headings in APA Style

APA style uses headings to help the reader easily understand the organization of your paper. These headings are arranged in a hierarchy, with the same heading levels applying to topics of equal importance. As with an outline, you should have more than one subsection heading within a section.

The way your headings look depends on how many levels of headings you have. To figure out how to format these different levels, first find the section of your paper that has the most levels. Most papers will only use two or three levels of headings. Four and five levels are typically used for papers describing multiple experiments. Then format the entire paper as indicated below.