Check Your APA Reference List Format

Once you paste your list of APA citations into your own document, correct these things if necessary:

  • The Reference List should be at the end of the document and should only include sources that someone else can also access. That means you will not include personal communication, such as letters, memoranda, and informal electronic communications. Instead, only cite personal communications in the body of your work.
  • In titles, only capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon or dash, and proper nouns.
  • Double space the list, both between citations and within them.
  • When a citation has more than one line, use a hanging indent. To do this, indent the second line, and every line thereafter, to the right five spaces.
  • Alphabetize the entire list by the first word of each citation. This may be the author's last name or the first word in a title.
  • Arrange works by different authors with the same last name alphabetically by the first initial.
  • If more than one citation is by the same author, arrange them by year of publication, the earliest first.
    • Citations with only one author come before citations with multiple authors.
    • Citations with the same first author and different second or third authors are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the second author, or if the second author is the same, the last name of the third author, and so on.
    • Citations with the same author(s) with the same publication date are arranged alphabetically by titles (excluding A or The).

Educator Content There is currently no educator content for this page.