Headings

JIBC Headings Tip Sheet
Your guide to heading levels in APA style.

What are headings?

Headings in your paper help organize your argument and signal to your reader what type of information is in each section.

APA provides 5 levels of headings and sub-headings. Most student papers are not long enough to use all five levels.

Use the title of your paper in a Level-1 Heading at the top of the first page. Do not start your paper with the heading “Introduction”.
Do not add extra line spacing (blank lines) above or below headings.

Use the chart and image below to understand how to format headings.

Formatting headings:

Chart explaining the five APA headings with an explanation and demonstration of the format.
Level	Format
1	Centered, Bold, Title Case Heading Text begins as a new paragraph. Indent the first line of the new paragraph.
2	Flush Left, Bold, Title Case Heading Text begins as a new paragraph. Indent the first line of the new paragraph.
3	Flush Left, Bold & Italic, Title Case Heading Text begins as a new paragraph. Indent the first line of the 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.

Title Casing:

Headings, section labels, and titles in APA Style follow Title Casing.

See Mechanics of Style for more information.

Section Labels:

Labels separate the different parts of a paper. They are formatted the same as level-1 headings but are not headings. Each section of a paper begins on a new page. Start each new section with a label at the top of a new page. Common sections include:

The Title of Your Paper
Abstract
References
Appendix A (and so on for subsequent appendices)

See Additional Resources for more.