APA 7 Headings

In the APA format, structure matters. That’s where headings come in.

Headings are labels you can add to your paper to help organize your content. They’re especially helpful in longer papers with multiple sections or supporting points.

Just to be clear – headings are not the same as the header at the top of each page. Headings live in the body of your paper and at the beginning of each section of your paper. They’re almost like mini-titles for the different parts of your paper and give your reader an idea of the content they’re about to read.

How Headings Work

APA gives us five levels of headings. They’re called – helpfully – Heading 1 through Heading 5. You’ll probably only use one or two of them in most papers, but here's what you need to know:

• Always start with Heading 1 for your main sections.
  
  
• You only move to Heading 2 if you need to divide the content inside a Heading 1 section into multiple smaller parts. Each heading level is a subdivision of the level above it.
  
  
• The same rule continues down – don’t use Heading 3 unless you’re dividing a Heading 2 section.
  
  
• Don’t use just one heading of any level. If you need a Heading 2, you should have at least two of them under the same Heading 1.
  
  
• Try to keep headings at the same level similarly phrased. For example, if one heading is “Types of Cryptids,” the others should follow a similar pattern. Similarly phrased headings may be “Characteristics of Bigfoot” or “History of Sightings.” Dissimilar headings would be “Bigfoot species” or “Sightings and History.”
  
  

How to Format Each Heading

Here’s how each level should look in the APA format:

Heading 1: Centered, bold, and uses Title Case (capitalize major words). It goes on its own line.

Heading 2: Bold, flush left-aligned (not indented), and in Title Case. Also on its own line.

Heading 3: Bold and italicized, flush left-aligned, and in Title Case. Also on its own line.

Heading 4: Bold, indented ½ inch, ends with a period, and uses Title Case. The paragraph text starts right after the heading on the same line.

Heading 5: Bold and italicized, indented ½ inch, ends with a period, and uses Title Case. The paragraph text starts right after the heading on the same line.

Unless you’re writing a thesis or a very complex research paper, you’ll probably only need Heading 1 and maybe Heading 2.

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