The Full Guide on Writing an Appendix: Structure, Format & Examples

Including an appendix in a paper can help the reader gain a deeper understanding of the topic. When writing an appendix, one needs to follow specific writing styles. Your institution and your instructors/professors may have different requirements.

Appendices: What Are They?

Adding an appendix to an academic paper provides supplementary information to support the information provided in the main text. Adding this supplementary information to the main text of the paper would make it too bulky. Academic journals often have appendices. It is also possible to find them in any book published by an academic institution.

Generally, appendices at the end of papers are simply summaries of all the information that has been referred to in the paper. Throughout the paper, an overview of the subject is provided that is relevant to the reader, to increase the reader’s understanding of the topic presented in the paper by explaining everything in detail. Depending on the type of paper you’re writing, you may have references and stats from different sources.

Appendices: Why Are They Used?

The purpose of an appendix is to provide readers with additional information to support the material in an academic paper. An appendix serves to provide your audience with a comprehensive overview of a topic briefly mentioned in your academic paper. Adding this information to the appendix will prevent the text from becoming cluttered, broken up, or distracting, explains, Chicago, a writer at Essay Writing Services Australia.

The Structure of an Appendix

The following structure underpins each format. There are some differences, however. It is important to study the topic’s general structure before learning more about it. There is a slight difference in format between an APA appendix and an MLA appendix, even though both formats follow the same structure. This research is done by our online assignment helper, Eddie Broke.

There should be the following items in each appendix:

• Letter or number appended to the appendix.
• Make sure you have references in your body paragraphs.
• Multiple appendices with page numbers.
• Please put (#) after the sentence about your appendix.
• The title + the label (in the middle of the page, in normal font). The label must follow the title strictly.
• Crossover between appendices and body text.
• It’s best to double-space every paragraph.
• In the body text, cite your appendix’s reference number if it contains data.
• Appendices and the body text should cite any third-party references.

The General Format Of An Appendix

Learning how to format an appendix is crucial before reading any further. There isn’t a lot of complexity to the basic format. Having a solid understanding of the general format of an appendix is key to making studying APA and MLA formats a breeze. You’ll need to understand the basic format when writing appendices for your book or dissertation.

It goes like this:

• A number or letter may appear in the heading “Appendix #.”.
• A list of references.
• The index table. An appendix list follows.
• The page number.
• The footnotes.

A Guide to Writing Appendices in Different Styles

“An appendix can be written in two ways. Professors and instructors might request one or the other. A good idea is to know both of them, depending on your instructor’s guidelines. These guidelines and rules have been compiled by our professionals for APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago appendix formats. Despite some similarities, each one has its characteristics”, says, Psalm, an expert at Essay Writing Services in Sydney.

The two most commonly asked styles are APA and MLA, we’ll discuss these two below:

Appendix APA

It is standard for professors to require students to write an appendix for papers of this format. To ensure accuracy and consistency in this format, it is good to follow guidelines and rules.

According to the APA guidelines, appendices should:

• An appendix should begin with “Appendix” and then ABC.
• This should appear at the top of the appendix title.
• Abstracts
• A paper’s appendices must follow the same order as its information.
• References should be followed by the appendix.
• Every appendix should include page numbers.
• A separate page should be allocated to each appendix no matter its size.
• Add footnotes to your document.

Appendix MLA

It shares many similarities with the appendix APA but has several differences as well. An important difference between MLA and APA is that the appendix precedes the reference list.

According to the MLA guidelines, appendices should:

• Whenever there are several appendices, use ABC for the titles.
• The appendices should follow the same order as the body text.
• Every appendix should include page numbers.

The Bottom Line

Simply put, APA, and MLA formats are great choices. Using a general format will make it easy for you to write any style of appendices. As a result, you must memorize these formats so that you will be able to correctly compose appendices of every type! Read Also: How to Make a Cover Page for a University Assignment?