APA 7th Edition: Formatting the APA Reference Page | Scribbr 🎓, by Scribbr on YouTube. 3 min 40 s.
- Video length
- 3 min 40 s
- Time to do it
- 15 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 8
What you need
Steps
Start the reference page on a new page at the end of your paper. Type the word References in bold and centre it at the top.
Set the font to Times New Roman 12 pt or another approved APA font, and set line spacing to double throughout the page.
Set all four margins to 1 inch (2.54 cm) and add a page number in the top right corner.
List your sources alphabetically by the author's last name. Use the format Author, A. A. (Year). Title. Source.
Include every source you cited in the text and nothing else. Each in-text citation needs a matching entry here.
Select all reference entries and apply a hanging indent of 0.5 inch (1.27 cm) so the first line sits flush left and later lines are indented.
Check each entry for a period after the author, the year in brackets, sentence case for article titles and italics for book and journal titles.
If your assignment asks for an annotated bibliography, add a short paragraph under each reference summarising and evaluating the source.
Tips and common mistakes
Use your word processor's hanging indent setting instead of pressing Tab, so the indent stays correct when you edit.
Double check that every in-text citation has a matching reference entry and remove any sources you did not cite.
Keep the References heading bold and centred, but do not make the entries themselves bold.
Copy author names and years exactly from the source to avoid small citation errors.
Questions
Does the reference page need a title?
Yes. Type References in bold and centre it at the top of the new page. Do not use a different heading such as Bibliography.
How do I make a hanging indent in Google Docs?
Select the entries, open Format, then Align and indent, then Indentation options. Choose Hanging from the Special indent menu and set it to 0.5 inch.
What is an annotated bibliography?
It is a reference list where each entry is followed by a short paragraph that summarises and evaluates the source. Follow your assignment instructions for the length.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
