Answered By: Norma Drepaul
Last Updated: Dec 11, 2020     Views: 60226

Start the Document

Note* Google Docs works best when using Google Chrome as an internet browser.

  1. Go to Google.com: https://www.google.com/
  2. Sign in to your Google account (the same username and password that you use for Gmail)
  3. Click on the Google Apps button
  4. Scroll down and select Docs
  5. Click on Blank to start a document from scratch
  6. Click on Untitled Document to enter a title for this document.  This will make it easy for you to find it in the future.  

illustration of steps one and two

illustration of steps three and four

illustration of step five

illustration of step six

Margins

The default should already be set to one-inch all around, but it is always a good idea to double-check. 

  1. Go to the File menu
  2. Click on Page setup
  3. Make sure that all the margins are set up correctly to one inch from top, bottom, left, and right. 

illustration of steps one, two, and three

Line Spacing

Line Spacing needs to be set up to double, this means that there is a blank line between each line of text in your essay. 

  1. From the toolbar, click on the Line Spacing button: 
  2. Click on Double

illustration of line spacing steps

Font 

APA guidelines call for the font to be accessible to all users, so check with your professor for their preferences.   APA changed their recommendations and added additional font options: 11 point Calibri, Arial or Georgia, or 12 point Times New Roman

Font name should be set to "Times New Roman," and the font size should be "12" for most academic work unless your professor indicates anything different.

  1. From the toolbar, click on the Font menu and select Times New Roman.
  2. From the toolbar, click on the Font Size menu and select 12.

illustration of setting up the font and font size

 

Header and Page Numbering

Most academic work, unless your professor indicates anything different, requires you to add the page number onto the header of every page, and align it to the right.  Google Docs can configure the page numbers for you.

  1. From the Menu bar, click on the Insert tab.
  2. Click on Page numbers
  3. Select the button that shows all pages to be numbered, and aligned to the top right of the page.  
  4. Make sure that the font and font size are set properly in the header
    • If they are in a different font and font size:
      1. highlight and select the page number,
      2. then go to the Font and Font Size buttons to select the appropriate options
  5. Press the Esc key, or click outside of the header to go back to the body of your document

illustration of setting up page numbers steps one, two and three

illustration of step four

illustration of pressing the esc key


Occasionally, when students copy and paste an essay from another application (Microsoft Word, or others), the header margins are not what they are supposed to be, and Google Docs places the header either too high or too low.  To make the corrections:

  1. Go to the header of the page by double-clicking on the header area (by your last name and page number)
  2. Click on Options
  3. Click on Header format
  4. Under Margins, look for Header and set the inches from top to 0.5
  5. Click on Apply.

illustration of step one

illustration of step two and three

illustration of steps four and five

Title Page

The APA 7th edition now provides specific guidelines for the title page on a student paper.  A student paper title page should include the following elements: title of your essay, your name, course number and name, instructor name, and assignment due date. Students should follow the guidelines from their instructors or institution when determining which title page format is most appropriate to use. For more details on setting up the title page see: APA: Student title page.

No longer required for students papers, unless it is requested by the instructor:

  • no running head
  • no author note
  • no abstract

After you set the font, line spacing, page header, and press the sec key on your keyboard or click outside of the header to exit it and to set up your title page:   

  1. Press the Enter key on your keyboard three times to move the cursor down the page 
  2. From the toolbar, click on the Center align button
  3. From the toolbar, click on B for Bold button on the toolbar (to turn on the bold font tool)
  4. Type the title for your essay, capitalizing all the major words
    • Note* Titles should be no more than 12 words and must be clear, concise, and summarize the main idea of your paper.
  5. Press the enter key on your keyboard twice
  6. From the toolbar, click on B to un-bold the rest of the text from the title page
  7. In regular font (not in bold), enter the following elements:
    • Type your first and last name, press enter
    • Type the college name followed by any other requirements from your professor, these could be the professor’s name, course name, date, etc
  8. After you complete all the required elements for your title page, add a page break.

 

illustration of pressing the enter key three times

illustration of the second to fifth steps in setting up the title page

 

illustration of the rest of the steps for setting up the title page

 

Insert a Page Break

 

After the title page elements have been entered, add a page break to start on the second page.  

  1. From the Menu bar, click on the Insert tab
  2. Click on Break
  3. Click on Page break (or you can just use your keyboard and press the control and enter keys at the same time)

illustration on how to add a page break

 

Begin your Essay

After you have completed your title page and added a page break, you are ready to begin with page two.  

  1. On the first line on page two, make sure to activate the B for bold and the Center alignment
  2. Enter the title of your essay 
    • Make sure that the title is in bold, centered, and all major words are capitalized
  3. Press the enter key and then toggle off the Bold and the Center align buttons
  4. Press the tab key (on your keyboard) to indent your first paragraph, and start typing your essay

Follow your professor's instructions, and remember to indent each paragraph within your essay, unless indicated otherwise.  From here on, you just type your paper.  There is nothing different in the rest of the pages (unless you have to include headings and subheadings throughout your essay, check with your professor) until you get to the References page.  You do not have to worry about the right margin, Google Docs, like Microsoft Word, has a function called word-wrap that automatically moves your content to the next line when you reach the right margin.   

illustration of setting up the second page

 

References List and Hanging Indents

After you complete your essay, the last part is where you list all of your sources into a References page. 

Insert a Page Break

 

The References section needs to start on a separate page in the same document.  After you type the last paragraph, place a page break by pressing the control and enter keys on your keyboard at the same time, or by going to the Insert tab from the menu bar, click on Break, then click on Page break.  (Illustration on  how to insert a page break is listed above)

References Title on Sheet

 

After you have added a new page, as per instructions above, then you are going to title this page with the word: References

This needs to be centered, in bold, and you must use the same font and the same font size from your essay.  

  1. From the toolbar, press the Center align and the Bold buttons 
  2. Enter: References
  3. Then press the enter key to move the cursor to the next line
  4. Press the Left align button to move the cursor to the left menu, and click on the Bold button to toggle off the bold function (the rest of the text in the citations are not in bold)

illustration of setting up the references list

illustration of steps three and four

Create Your References List

 

After you have pressed the enter key, now is time to start listing all of the sources that you used according to APA style. 

Each entry needs to:

  • follow the guidelines from APA
  • be listed in alphabetical order
  • have a hanging indentation

To manually enter all of your citations, first set up the hanging indentation option: 

  1. From the Menu bar, click on the Format tab

  2. Click on Align & Indent menu

  3. Click on Indentation options

  4. Under Special indent, select Hanging from the drop-down menu, and make sure that it is set to 0.5

  5. Click on Apply

illustration of setting up hanging indents

illustration of steps four and five


Instead of manually entering your citations, you can use a citation generator to create the citation.

  • Once the generator has created the citation, you can copy it, then go to your Google Doc and paste the citations into your References page. 
  • Then make sure that there are no errors from the generated citation
    • make sure that all the formatting is correct like the font and font size
    • make sure that each citation has hanging indents. 
  • If you need to make any changes to the citations that you just pasted, then highlight them all, then use the tools from Google Docs to make the changes, such as changing the font to "Times New Roman" and the font size to "12", and add the hanging indentations by following the instructions above.  

Many times, when you copy a citation from a generator, it brings unnecessary formatting such as strange fonts, or backgrounds from different colors.  If you use the citation generator from EBSCO databases, many times a gray background also follows the citation. 

illustration of EBSCO gray background in generated citation

To remove the gray background:

  1. Highlight all the citations that need to be fixed by using the mouse 
  2. From the toolbar, click on the Highlight color button
  3. Click on None

 illustration on how to remove the gray background


If the links turn into active hyperlinks with blue font and become underlined, this is not a problem, but you can change the color back to black and remove the underline. 

While you still have the citations selected:

  1. Click on the U for Underline to remove the underline
  2. Click on the A for font Text color
  3. Select black

illustration of changing the hyperlinks to black font and removing the underline

Your References List 

illustration of references list

 

Tips

Explore some of the tools from Google Docs to help you create a better document, these can be found in the Tools bar:

  • Use the spelling and grammar tool to help you catch errors. 
  • Use the Word Count tool if you need to provide that information to your professor.
  • If you are using Google Docs with Google Chrome, you can also dictate text in addition to typing.

illustration featuring common tools

 

Sharing Your Document

  • You can create a link for your Google Doc to share with your professor or download it as different file types (Word, PDF, and more) to submit on Canvas.  
  • Check with your professor to see how they would like your essay to be submitted.
Download and Print Tools

Go to the File tab to see different download and print options:

illustration featuring printing and download options

 

Sharing a Link

 

  1. Click on the Share button
  2. To get a link that anybody can open in your class, under the "Get Link" section, click on the "Change with anyone with the link"
  3. Click on Copy link
  4. Then you can go to Canvas or send your professor or classmates the link to your essay.  Be sure to follow instructions from your professor.

illustration of share button

illustration of creating a shareable link

 

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