Comments on: Creating an APA Style table of contents

By: Jack Caulfield

Jack Caulfield — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 07:00:09 +0000

In reply to Kat.

Hi Kat,

No, the introduction should be named “Introduction” in your table of contents. You may have to edit it manually if you auto-generated the table of contents, since that heading doesn’t actually appear in the text.

By: Kat

Kat — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 15:28:41 +0000

Hello! Thanks for this overview. I have one question, though. Since in APA 7 the “introduction” must be named the title of the paper, should that section in the table of contents also be the title of the paper instead of the word “introduction”? The title of my paper is rather long so it looks a bit weird in the table of contents.

By: Jack Caulfield

Jack Caulfield — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 13:26:25 +0000

In reply to Donis Edwards.

Hi Donis,

No, the table of contents itself shouldn’t be in bold font, but the heading “Contents” should be.

By: Donis Edwards

Donis Edwards — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 19:57:52 +0000

Thank you for this very helpful information. My question is should the generated table of contents be bold font?

By: Jack Caulfield

Jack Caulfield — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 08:52:34 +0000

In reply to Malik.

Hi Malik,

You’re right that the cover page and paper title shouldn’t be included in the table of contents. Other parts to omit from the table of contents are the acknowledgements and abstract, if your paper has these. These should come before the table of contents, so it’s not logical to include them. Additionally, make sure the table of contents itself isn’t listed; that’s obviously not much use to the reader! You can read more about this issue here.

By: Malik

Malik — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 21:29:12 +0000

Excellent overview and examples. The animated screens really helped too. Thank you!

One question: are there sections of the paper that should NOT be included in the Table of Contents? I noticed that when I first generated it, the Contents included my cover page and the title of the paper again from the first page of actual content. I went back and removed the heading formats from those and just reformatted them manually. Are there other sections that should apply to?

Thanks again!

By: Jack Caulfield

Jack Caulfield — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 13:32:03 +0000

In reply to Chaden Al Tawil.

Hi Chaden,

APA Style does not recommend numbering headings. Just use the recommended formatting for different levels of heading—shown here—without numbering, unless your university tells you otherwise.

By: Chaden Al Tawil

Chaden Al Tawil — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 22:48:06 +0000

Hello!
I would really like to know if the headings must be numbered or not. If yes, which kind of numbering must be used/

By: Jack Caulfield

Jack Caulfield — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:11:11 +0000

In reply to Ema.

Hi Ema,

You’re right that auto-generating the list won’t quite work in that instance. I’m afraid your best option in this case is probably to generate the list in that way and then add the titles manually by typing or copying them into the list. Doing this won’t affect the headings in the text.

By: Ema

Ema — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 10:27:31 +0000

Hello!

It is compulsory for my dissertation paper to have a ‘list of tables and figures’.

Though it is difficult to find the right format as the table of contents because there is a space between the ‘Figure 1’ and the ‘Title’. So, the list of tables and figures only automatically generates the ‘figure 1’ without the title. Can you help me to have the figure 1 & Title on the list of tables and figures? Would be appreciated.

Thanks! :)