APA STYLE HEADINGS

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON WRITING CENTER

WHAT ARE HEADINGS?

You want to use headings in your papers to separate and classify paper sections.

There are five heading levels in APA format.

Regardless of the number of levels, you always use the headings in order, beginning with level 1.

SO WHAT ARE THE RULES FOR EACH LEVEL?

Level 1:

Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Headings

Level 2:

Left-aligned, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading

Level 3:

Indented, boldface, lowercase heading with a period.

Begin body text after the period.

Level 4:

Indented, boldface, italicize, lowercase heading with a period.

Begin body text after the period.

Level 5:

Indented, italicized, lowercase heading with a period.

Begin body text after the period.

CAN I SEE AN EXAMPLE?

Study 1

(Level 1)

Method

(Level 2)

Participants.

(Level 3)

Procedures.

(Level 3)

Measures.

(Level 3)

Depression Scale.

(Level 4)

Results

(Level 2)

Discussion

(Level 2)