Found in the PERRLA ribbon tab, the Text & Heading Style icon allows you to choose the proper format for any text in your paper.
There are two ways to make use of the styles available:
- Select the style you wish to use and begin typing. Or ...
- Highlight text in your paper, click on the Text & Heading Style icon, and select the format you wish to use. The highlighted text will automatically be formatted in the style of your choice.
In all, there are nine styles available:
- Paragraph
- Headings 1 through 5
- Block Quote
- Reference
- Annotation
More about Heading Styles in APA & MLA
Headings can be used in your paper to show where each section of the paper starts. Think of them as labels within your paper. There can be multiple levels of headings for both APA and MLA papers.
A heading level is a style of heading. Heading 1 is the largest (for major sections), while Heading 5 is the smallest (for the smallest sub-sections of papers). Unless you’re writing a very long paper or dissertation, you will probably only ever use one or two heading levels.
Always start with Heading 1, then add other Heading levels for sub-sections of that section. For instance, if you use Heading 1 for your first point, you would only use Heading 2 for a sub-section of that section. You would use Heading 1 again when moving to the next major section of your paper.
APA Headings
There are five headings recommended by the APA. Here's the formatting for each:
- Heading Level 1: bold, centered, uppercase and lowercase
- Heading Level 2: bold, flush left aligned, uppercase and lowercase
- Heading level 3: bold, indented, sentence-case, ends with a period, the heading is part of the first line of the paragraph.
- Heading level 4: bold, indented, italicized, sentence-case, ends with a period, the heading is part of the first line of the paragraph.
- Heading Level 5: italics, indented, sentence-case, ends with a period, the heading is part of the first line of the paragraph.
APA headings should not be numbered in your text.
MLA Headings
There are also five headings recommended for MLA.
- Heading Level 1: bold, flush left aligned
- Heading Level 2: italics, flush left aligned
- Heading Level 3: bold, center aligned
- Heading Level 4: italics, center aligned
- Heading Level 5: underlined, flush left aligned
The MLA also recommends that headings are numbered with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3...) before the text (e.g., 1. The Search for Sasquatch). Sub-sections contain the larger heading number, a decimal, and their own number (e.g., 1.1 Sasquatch’s Historical Range).
Remember, headings should also always be on their own line within the text of your paper.