Hanging Indent Method 2: HTML and CSSĬSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, allow you to specify the styling of different categories of HTML tags, or classes of tags, in a single location, such that the styling is applied to every instance of those tags or classes.
The ability to modify multiple content items globally in one place is the basic problem that CSS solves regarding the styling of multiple content items in parallel, so let’s now look at an alternate method using a combination of HTML and CSS that gives you the future flexibility to modify the styling of multiple blocks of hanging indents in a single location. The disadvantage, however, is that each block of paragraphs or references that need hanging indents must be styled separately, which means that there is no way to modify them globally if the need to do so ever arises. The advantage of this HTML-only method for adding hanging indents is that you don’t need to know or adjust any CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to use this method. You can easily modify the degree of indenting by modifying the values of these two numbers. And the style attribute value “text-indent: -36px” shifts the first line of the paragraph to the left by 36 pixels (hence the negative value of -36px). The style attribute value “padding-left: 36px” indents the entire paragraph by 36 pixels. In this example, the beginning tag contains the following styling information as attributes: HTML for APA References with Hanging Indents An easy way to add hanging indents is to surround these paragraph tags in a single tag and add the styling information for hanging indents as attributes inside the beginning tag, as shown in the following example: Suppose you have some number of paragraphs or APA references, each of which resides in a typical HTML paragraph tag. The simplest method for adding hanging indents is to hard–code the styling right into the HTML for the content items in question. That said, let’s look at two ways of adding hanging indents.
#How to do a hanging indent apa how to#
Given the shift away from hanging indents for things like footnote references in an online environment, the real question may not be how to add hanging indents into your content, but whether they are really necessary for the purposes of your content in the first place. While, strictly speaking, hanging indents are a part of correct APA style for footnote references, it is worth noting that the use of hanging indents is often considered unnecessary for footnote references appearing online versus in print. Getting Over Stumbling Blocks (of Text): Creating Engaging Content Pages. As mentioned above, hanging indents are technically a part of correct APA style for footnote references, as shown here:Įxamples of APA References with Hanging IndentsĪrmbrecht, Tom. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.Īs you can see, in this example, the first line of text is not indented, but subsequent lines are indented. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. A hanging indent is the indentation of a paragraph (or other content item, such as a footnote reference) in which all lines except the first line are indented, as shown in the following example: However, it’s up to you to ensure the information they provide is reliable and accurate.Īlways make sure to properly cite your sources to avoid plagiarism.In this article, I will show you two different ways of adding hanging indents to your online content: an easy but less elegant way using only HTML, and a more elegant and powerful way using a combination of HTML and CSS.įirst, let’s define a hanging indent in general. Primary sources are often considered the most credible in terms of providing evidence for your argument, as they give you direct evidence of what you are researching. If you use one of these in your research, it is probably a primary source. Some types of source are nearly always primary: works of art and literature, raw statistical data, official documents and records, and personal communications (e.g. Are you directly analyzing the source itself (primary), or only using it for background information (secondary)?.Does the source provide original information (primary), or does it summarize information from other sources (secondary)?.Was the source created by someone directly involved in the events you’re studying (primary), or by another researcher (secondary)?.To determine if a source is primary or secondary, ask yourself: