Course: Advanced Academic Writing

Lecturer: Umiati Jawas, M.Sc, Ph.D

Meeting 10: APA headings and subheadings

APA headings have five possible levels. Each heading level is formatted differently.

Note: Title case simply means that you should capitalize the first word, words with four or more letters,
and all “major words” (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns).

Additional guidelines for APA headings

As well as the heading styles, there are some other guidelines to keep in mind:

 Double-space all text, including the headings.

 Use the same font for headings and body text (e.g., Times New Roman 12pt.).
 Don’t label headings with numbers or letters.
 Don’t add extra “enters” above or below headings.

Note: In longer documents, such as dissertations, you might be required to number your headings.
Instructions from your supervisor or university always overrule the APA guidelines.

How many heading levels should you use?

Depending on the length and complexity of your paper, you may not use all five heading levels. In fact,
shorter student papers may have no headings at all.

It’s also perfectly fine for some sections in your paper to go as deep as five levels, where others use only
heading level 1.
When to use which APA heading level

1. Heading level 1 is used for main sections like “Methods”, “Results”, and “Discussion”. There is
no “Introduction” heading at the beginning of your paper because the first paragraphs are
understood to be introductory.
2. Heading level 2 is used for subsections under level 1. For example, under “Methods” (level 1)
you may have subsections for “Sampling Method” and “Data Analysis” (level 2). This continues
all the way down to heading level 5.

Always use at least two subheadings or none at all. If there is just one subheading, the top-level heading
is sufficient.

Section labels vs headings

In addition to regular headings, APA works with “section labels” for specific parts of the paper. They’re
similar to headings but are formatted differently. Section labels are placed on a separate line at the top
of a new page in bold and centered.

Use section labels for the following sections in an APA formatted paper:

 Author note
 Abstract
 Paper title
 Reference page
 Footnotes
 Appendices

Exercise:

Forum:

How many headings and subheadings will you use in your academic paper?

Tell to the class the progress of your academic writing paper

Assignment:

Make the brief outline of your conclusion paragraph of your paper and what summary and final
comment you will include into the conclusion.