Mastering the College Paper Header Format: A Comprehensive Guide

Crafting a well-formatted college paper is crucial for academic success. A key element of this is the header, which ensures proper identification and organization. This article provides a detailed guide to college paper header formats, covering essential aspects such as title pages, running heads, tables, figures, and appendices, with a focus on APA and AMA styles.

The Title Page: Your Paper's First Impression

The title page serves as the introduction to your work, providing essential information at a glance. There are generally two versions: student and professional. Unless instructed otherwise, students should use the student version.

Student Title Page

The student title page includes the following elements, each carefully formatted:

Title: Position the title three to four lines down from the top of the page. Center it and type it in bold font. Capitalize major words of the title. If your title has a main title and a subtitle, place them on separate double-spaced lines.
Author Name: Leave one double-spaced blank line between the paper title and the author name(s). Center the author name(s) on their own line(s). For example: Cecily J.
Affiliation: For a student paper, the affiliation is the institution where you attend school. Include both the name of any department and the name of the college, university, or other institution, separated by a comma.
Course Information: Provide the course number as shown on instructional materials, followed by a colon and the course name. For example: Provide the course number as shown on instructional materials, followed by a colon and the course name.
Instructor Name: Provide the name of the instructor for the course using the format shown on instructional materials. For example: Dr. Rowan J.
Due Date: Center the due date on the next double-spaced line after the instructor's name.
Page Number: Use the page number 1 on the title page.

Professional Title Page

The professional title page shares many elements with the student version but includes key differences:

Title: Position the title three to four lines down from the top of the page. Center it and type it in bold font. Capitalize major words of the title. If your title has a main title and a subtitle, place them on separate double-spaced lines.
Author Name(s) and Affiliations: Center author names on their own line. When different authors have different affiliations, use superscript numerals after author names to connect the names to the appropriate affiliation(s). For a professional paper, the affiliation is the institution at which the research was conducted. Include both the name of any department and the name of the college, university, or other institution, separated by a comma. When different authors have different affiliations, use superscript numerals before affiliations to connect the affiliations to the appropriate author(s).
Author Note: Place the author note in the bottom half of the title page. Center and bold the label “Author Note.” Align the paragraphs of the author note to the left.

Running Head: Maintaining Continuity

The running head is a shortened version of your paper's title that appears in the page header of every page, including the title page. It serves as a quick identifier for your work.

Read also: Mastering Assignment Headers

The running head appears in all-capital letters.
Align the running head to the left margin.
Use the page number 1 on the title page.

Tables and Figures: Presenting Data Effectively

Tables and figures are essential for presenting data in a clear and concise manner. Both are numbered based on their order of appearance in the article.

Tables

Each table is assigned a number based on the order it is used in the article. Footnotes are listed at the bottom of the table, each on its own line.

Figures

Similar to tables, each figure is assigned a number based on the order it is used in the article. Types of figures include, but are not limited to, graphs, charts, maps, drawings, and photographs.

Appendices: Including Supplementary Information

Appendices provide a space for supplementary information that is not essential to the main body of the paper but may be helpful to the reader.

AMA Style Considerations

Appendices are not regularly used in AMA. AMA formatting prefers that the information, if relevant to the article, be included in the body of the article as a table or figure. If the appendix is important, AMA favors publishing them online as online only, supplemental materials. The AMA Manual of Style does note that an appendix may be used "on rare occasions…for data that cannot easily be represented as a table or figure and are too central to the article to be deposited elsewhere".

Read also: Success with College Essay Headers

Formatting the Appendix

The appendix is included at the end of the paper but before the references. When an appendix is included in an article, it is cited in the text like a table or figure. Format an appendix the same way you would start a reference list, with "Appendix" at the top left of a new page. If there is more than one appendix, start each on a new page.

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