The student should find out whether (or in what respects) the university's or department's [or instructor's] requirements for theses, dissertations, and student papers take precedence over those of the Publication Manual. • Writers are reminded that they are preparing the "final" copy; because the manuscript will not be set in type, the manuscript must be as readable as possible. Many of APA's format requirements aid production for publication. Reasonable exceptions to APA style for theses and dissertations often make sense and are encouraged to better serve communication and improve the appearance of the final document. For example, tables may be more readable if single- spaced, and justified margins may substitute for ragged right margins (in this case, end-of-line hyphens are accep The APA encompasses strict guidelines for the formatting of documents. Formatting the reference list and headings are the most important aspects of these guidelines in academic writing. The general intent of the Publication Manual is to assist the editorial staff of APA journals in typesetting. If you are preparing a paper for a class assignment rather than a journal, you are in a sense publishing it yourself. Therefore, according to APA, you may relax the APA's rules in some cases:
The student should find out whether (or in what respects) the university's or department's [or instructor's] requirements for theses, dissertations, and student papers take