LibGuides: APA Referencing: Formatting, Footnotes and Appendices

Font Size and Line Spacing

Papers or manuscripts being submitted for publication

Check the guidelines set out in the journal you are submitting to or the Whitireia/WelTec Master's theses guidelines. The APA Manual has these recommendations:

Font size is Calibri 11, Arial 11, Times New Roman 12, Georgia 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10 (see APA Manual p. 44 for more information)
Line spacing is usually double-spaced for the entire paper (for exceptions see the APA Manual p. 45)

Student assignments

Check with your tutor or in your programme handbook about what font size and spacing you should use for assignments.

Some options APA suggest for font size are:

Calibri 11
Arial 11
Times New Roman 12

Line spacing

For the body of your assignment it is usually 1.5
The reference list is double-spaced. Check out the APA Referencing Guide to Hanging Indentation to see how to do this)

Footnotes

APA does not use footnotes for references because it is an author-date citation style where it uses in-text citations to direct the reader to a source in the reference list. The footnote – bibliography method is used in other referencing styles such as MHRA or Chicago etc.

The only time you use footnotes with APA is to provide additional content or copyright attribution.

Content footnotes:

Additional content that supplements the text
Should be included only if they strengthen/enhance the discussion

Copyright attribution:

Numbering and Formatting

Number all footnotes consecutively in the order they appear, use superscript Arabic numerals within the text
They appear in the footer or on a separate page following references
If on a separate page - Label section "Footnotes" in bold, centred at the top of the page. Write footnotes as double-spaced indented paragraphs which begin with superscript footnote number.

Appendices

Sometimes you may want to include information that supplements your assignment or manuscript's content. Include an Appendix only if it helps your reader understand, evaluate or replicate the study or theoretical argument being made.

Begin each appendix on a separate page
Appendices are after any references, footnotes, tables and figures
If a paper has one appendix label it Appendix
If there is more than one appendix, label each with Appendix and a capital letter e.g., Appendix A Appendix B etc in the order in which they are mentioned in text
Each appendix should be mentioned at least once in the text by its label
The appendix title should describe its contents
Place the appendix labels and titles in bold and centred on separate lines at the top of the page on which the appendix begins
Use Title Case for the appendix label and appendix title i.e., Main words have a capital letter, minor words have a lower case