APA Style for teachers

Teachers, welcome to your very own space on the APA Style website! APA Style is the writing style that helps writers communicate clearly, precisely, and inclusively, and the resources on this page will help you teach your students how to write with clarity, precision, and inclusion.

You may want to begin by exploring our blog; our post about best practices for teaching APA Style is a great starting point. In addition, we have ample resources designed for teachers:

For free instructional aids, worksheets, classroom assignments, and guides, visit our handouts and guides page. Here are examples of what you’ll find there:

• Introductory guides: Perfect for providing a high-level overview of specific style topics. Start with the Student Paper Setup Guide, Anatomy of a Journal Article, the Avoiding Plagiarism Guide, and the Brief Guide to Bias-Free and Inclusive Language.  
• Practical checklists: Designed for students to use as they navigate the writing process. Start with the Student Paper Checklist (Beginner’s Version) and the In-Text Citation Checklist.
• Interactive activities: Hands-on tools to help students practice applying APA Style guidelines. Start with the APA Style Research Article Activity, the APA Style References Formatting Activity, and our APA Style basics crossword puzzle (PDF, 119KB)opens in new window and word search (PDF, 225KB)opens in new window.

By integrating these aids into your curriculum, you can provide students with tangible support as they master the nuances of scholarly writing.

Please feel free to distribute these aids to students in print or by sharing in your learning management system. However, if you want to use materials from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) or other APA-related published works, review the copyright and permissions page for details about the permissions process.

On our YouTube playlist APA Style for Teachersopens in new window, we have videos that address information literacy, setting students up for writing success, the importance of learning APA Style, and strategies for effectively teaching all things APA Style. We encourage sharing these videos with your colleagues, either in full or as shorter clips. Also, don’t miss our other playlistsopens in new window, including APA Style for Studentsopens in new window.

If you’re ready to get your “teach on” with APA Style, read the 10 lesson plans from our On the Go series, where we share tips for teaching APA Style guidance inside and outside the classroom. In this series of blog posts, we provide teachers with a roadmap to help students master foundational principles of APA Style. We offer strategies for teaching the “why” behind the “how”—from the technical precision of heading levels and active voice to the ethical importance of paraphrasing and avoiding self-plagiarism.

Educators will find these resources useful because they translate complex manual guidelines into actionable classroom activities, such as peer-review frameworks and source evaluation drills. Using these methods will allow you to give your students a structured, step-by-step approach to academic integrity and professional formatting, ensuring they build a solid foundation for scholarly success.

For those of you who are using (or thinking about using) APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (APA Style JARS) in your writing curriculum, check out the following blog posts:

• APA Style JARS: Resources for instructors and students
• APA Style JARS for high school students
• How does following APA Style JARS affect the length of a research paper?

If you have questions as you introduce your students to APA Style guidelines, please contact us on social media. We love hearing from teachers and students about what you’re working on. Please also share our accounts with your students. We share tips and answer APA Style questions on Blueskyopens in new window, Facebookopens in new window, Instagramopens in new window, LinkedInopens in new window, and Xopens in new window.

If you are new to APA Style or need a refresher before helping students, use our APA Style for beginners page. There, you’ll find resources for helping students understand the basics: What is APA Style? Why use it? How do writers get started?

For a more in-depth look at APA Style, as outlined in the Publication Manual, visit the style and grammar guidelines page.

The Mastering APA Style Student Workbook (7th ed.) is our all-digital workbook that includes interactive questions and graded quizzes to help students learn and apply the basic principles of APA Style and scholarly writing. Teachers will appreciate that the workbook includes (a) activities after each module to support student self-evaluation, (b) graded summative quizzes, and (c) a learning dashboard with rich data analytics.

The APA Style Manual is an online, full-text version of the Publication Manual available for institutional subscription. All students receive on- and off-campus cover-to-cover access to the manual and related lessons. Teachers can share lessons with students, share links to specific text or sections of the manual, and make highlights and notes in their own copy for ease of reference.

Academic Writer is a multidisciplinary, institution-wide writing platform designed to help students develop long-lasting writing skills. The platform features quick guides and tutorials for learning APA Style, a writing center for writing papers in APA Style, and a reference center where students can create and save APA Style references. Teachers can refer students to quick guides and tutorials; review student papers via the collaboration features; and create, import, or export APA Style references as well. Information about trials and free demonstrations is available.

These texts and platforms deliver an innovative educational experience for teachers, students, and others who use APA Style. For more, visit our products page.

The APA Style team is interested in developing additional resources appropriate for our APA Stylers. If you have resources you would like to share, or feedback for this page, please contact the APA Style team.