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APA Levels of Heading

APA Citation Style uses headings to help organize and structure papers. The headings indicate the subject of a section. Headings in your paper are dictated by the number of content levels found in the paper. Most academic papers only use one or two levels, but more complicated papers can use up to four levels. Books tend to use all five levels.

Here are some things to keep in mind when using headings:

• Use the same heading level for sections of importance
• Begin a new level only if you will two more headings in your paper
• Do not label the introduction section
• Do not label headings with numbers or letters
• Give your conclusion section a heading
• Maintain double-spacing before and after level 1 and 2 headings; this does not apply with level 3, 4 or 5 headings. (For these levels, the text continues on the same line with the heading)

Note: The best way to figure out how to format your paper using headings is to determine how many levels you will need and use the chart below.

Five Levels of Heading in APA Citation Style
Level	Format
1	Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading
2	Flush Left, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading
3	Indented, boldface, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.
4	Indented, boldface, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.
5	Indented, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.

 

 

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Last updated: April 14, 2010.