HOW IS AN APA PAPER ORGANIZED AND WRITTEN?
by Kathy McLain, M.A.

A research paper in APA format consists of several sections that begin with a main heading, except the introduction, and are presented to the reader in this order--title page, abstract, introduction, method (The method section will likely also have three subheadings--participants, apparatus or material, and the procedure), results, discussion, multiple experiments, references, appendix, and author's notes.  Some of these sections like "Author's Notes"  may be optional depending on your research project and the requirements of the instructor.   For formatting of the overall paper, see WHAT IS CORRECT APA MANUSCRIPT FORM--PAGING, MARGINS, ETC.?  To get more information on writing and formatting individual sections, click on any section heading below.