When compiling your thesis or dissertation, the APA Style guidelines specify certain types of pages, as well as formatting guidelines for those pages. I have included the primary pages you’ll need in your manuscript. Always start each of these sections on a new page. Most of them will only require one page.

Writing in APA Style can be an intimidating task, especially if you’ve never written a formal research paper previously. APA Style has many rules, guidelines, and formatting requirements for your paper that it can be overwhelming to think about all of the opportunities for mistakes.

When writing a dissertation or thesis, your instructor probably will require you to follow one of two popular style formats for your paper, APA Style or MLA Style. Although both formats are similar, they do have subtle differences that you’ll need to know.

Within the main text of your thesis or dissertation, you may need to organize the text and information beyond the standard blocks of text. You have a couple of options under APA Style. Footnotes give you the option of adding information about an idea in your text without detracting from the text. Headings allow you to organize the text into sections, similar to an outline.