Format for the Five Levels of Heading in APA Style
| Level | Format |
| 1 |
Centered, Bold, Title Case Heading Text begins as a new paragraph. |
| 2 |
Flush Left, Bold, Title Case Heading Text begins as a new paragraph. |
| 3 |
Flush Left, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading Text begins as a new paragraph. |
| 4 |
Indented, Bold, Title Case Heading, Ending With a Period. Text begins on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph. |
| 5 |
Indented, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading, Ending With a Period. Text begins on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph. |
Note that most of the basic in-text citation rules have not changed. The change comes in that the 7th edition does not differentiate a separate citation style for works by 3-5 authors and works by 6 or more authors. Now, the et al. phrase is used for all works with three or more authors in both the first in-text citation and for all subsequent in-text citations.
| Author Type | Parenthetical Citation | Narrative Citation |
| One author | (Mercer, 2020) | Mercer (2020) |
| Two authors | (Morgan & Mattace, 2020) | Morgan and Mattace (2020) |
| Three or more authors | (Ward et al., 2020) | Ward et al. (2020) |
|
Group author with abbreviation First citation Subsequent citations |
(Appalachian College Association [ACA], 2020) (ACA, 2020) |
Appalachian College Association (ACA, 2020) ACA (2020) |
| Group author without abbreviation | (Lee University, 2020) | Lee University (2020) |