Never Space Out on Line Spacing Again

by Chelsea Lee

Feeling spacey on how to line space your APA Style paper? Follow this handy guide to never have line spacing questions again.

 

 

Line Spacing Recommendations for APA Style

Element	Spacing	Note
Title page	Double
Abstract	Double
Text	Double
Footnotes (at bottom of page)	Single	Use the default settings for footnotes in your word-processing program (in Microsoft Word and APA Style CENTRAL this is single spacing)
References	Double	Double space within references and between references
Table body	Single, 1.5, or double	Spacing inside the cells of a table can be adjusted to best present your data
Table title, number, and note	Double	Double space the table number and title above the table body as well as any table note below the table
Figure (any text in the image)	Single, 1.5, or double	Spacing of any text in an image can be adjusted to best present your information
Figure caption	Double	Double space the figure caption below the figure image
Appendices	Double
Displayed equations (on their own line)	Triple or quadruple	This means to add one or two extra blank lines above or below the equation

When to Add Extra Lines

In general, it is not necessary to add extra blank lines to an APA Style paper (an exception is around displayed equations, where you can add one or two blank lines before and/or after the equation to make it more visible to the reader).

If your tables and figures are embedded within the text, rather than displayed on their own pages after the reference list, then you can also add an extra blank line above and/or below the table or figure to visually separate it from any text on the same page.  It is not usually necessary to add lines to avoid widowed or orphaned headings (meaning headings at the bottom of a page; though ask your professor to be sure if you are concerned about typesetting, such as with a dissertation).

Other Sections

The default line spacing recommendation for APA Style is to use double-spacing throughout a paper. If your paper requires a section not addressed in this post or in the Publication Manual, then we recommend you use double spacing unless you have been instructed otherwise. For example, if your dissertation or thesis requires a table of contents (including lists of tables and figures), then we recommend that you generate it using an automatic table of contents function (such as the one in Microsoft Word). The default spacing of the table of contents function is acceptable, as is changing the spacing of the table of contents to double if desired.