Writing a doctoral thesis is a hard work. However, you can save your time and effort if you learn how to format an APA document properly. Make sure to have all the requirements of your supervisor in hand and study the following six important rules to keep in mind:
Many students forget to prepare a cover page since they remember that the MLA style does not require it. However, the APA doctoral thesis should begin with a cover or title page. If your professor has not provided a template of this page to you, do not hesitate to go to the school writing center and ask an instructor to find a good sample.
The APA usually requires a 12pt font. Check if your school requirements include Times New Roman or Arial. Keep in mind that the entire document should be double-spaced with the same one-inch margins on the sides of the paper. If you have quotations or formulas in the text, it makes sense to get an APA style manual and learn how to format them.
Make sure that you have some time reserved for revision and editing of your paper. No matter what formatting style you should follow, it is recommended to get a doctoral thesis writing manual with examples of formatting. You can download an APA style manual or simple tips that will help you remember the most important details.
The APA style requires inserting in-text citations. You have to include the author, publication year, and page number. It is advisable to use special bibliographical software that will help you organize in-text citations and compose a reference list later. Ask other graduate students what software they use and try it.
The APA requires an abbreviated form and page number on every single page. Usually, this form consists of no more than 50 characters of the doctoral thesis title. This header should be left justified in the upper right corner. You should double-check the spelling and grammar of this header before using an automated header option of your word processor.
Ask your professor whether you should compose an alphabetical listing of the sources, an annotated list with a short description of each source, a list of all the sources that you looked at, including those that you did not use them, or an annotated bibliography. Either way, you will easily find a good template that will help you format this list.