Works cited pages in APA, MLA, and other citation styles require a special type of formatting known as hanging indents. Hanging indents format each citation so all lines except the first are indented, allowing readers to quickly find the beginning of individual citations.  

Example hanging indent:
Xu,J., & Raymond, K.N. (2000). Lord of the rings: an octameric lanthanum pyrazolone cluster. Angewandte
             Chemie International Edition39(15), 2745-2747. https://doi.org/10.1002/15213773(20000804)39:15<2                         745::AID-ANIE2745>3.0.CO;2-Q 

Instructions for creating hanging indents in Word, Google Docs, and Pages. 

  • Word: 
    1. Select your citation(s).  
    2. Right-clickthe selected citation and click Paragraph in the pop-up menu. 
    3. In the Indentation section, open the “Special” drop-down menu and select Hanging. 
    4. Click OK to exit the pop-up menu and implement your changes. 
  • Google Docs:  
    1. Select your citation(s).
    2. In the toolbar, go to Format ---> Align and Indent ---> Indentation options.  
    3. In the pop-up menu, open the Special Indent drop-down menu and select Hanging. 
    4. Click Apply to exit the pop-up menu and implement your changes. 
  • Pages: 
    1. Select your citation(s).
    2. Click Format in the top right of the toolbar.
    3. Go to Layout ---> Indents
    4. In the dropdown menu labeled Left, increase the length to 0.5 in.
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