Free Nursing Student Guidenursinghelpdesk.com/resources/free-guidesAPA & Writing
APA 7 Guide for Nursing Students
Most APA point losses come from a handful of repeat mistakes. This guide covers the rules that actually show up in nursing coursework.
Paper Format Essentials
Student papers have their own simpler format in APA 7.
- Title page: bold title, name, affiliation, course, instructor, date
- No running head or abstract unless required
- Double-spaced, accepted fonts include Times 12, Calibri 11, Arial 11
- Headings: level 1 centered bold, level 2 flush-left bold
In-Text Citations
Every claim from a source needs one.
- Three or more authors: first author et al. from the first citation
- Two authors: cite both every time
- Direct quotes need a page or paragraph number
- Match every citation to a reference entry
Reference List Rules
The reference list is checked first by many graders.
- Alphabetical, hanging indent, double-spaced
- Up to 20 authors before truncating
- No publisher locations for books
- DOIs as https://doi.org/ links, no "DOI:" label, no "Retrieved from"
The Errors Graders See Most
Fix these and your paper instantly reads current.
- Listing all authors in-text for 3+ author sources
- Publisher cities in references
- Labeled DOIs and "Retrieved from" before URLs
- Reference entries never cited in the text
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