APA 7 Tables and Figures: Formatting, an Example Correlation Table and Notes

How to format tables and figures in APA 7 for a seminar paper or thesis - numbering and titles, lines, notes and significance marks, example means and correlation tables, figures and graphs, and referring to them in the text - instead of pasting SPSS output.

Part of the series: APA 7 checklist before you submit

Pasted SPSS output is one of the clearest signs of an unedited paper. A clean APA table shows the same numbers - but clear, compact and ready to read. This guide gives the rules and two example tables whose structure you can copy.

Anatomy of an APA table

1. Table number - bold, above the table: Table 1.
2. Title - on the next line, in italic title case. Descriptive and short.
3. Column headings - for every column.
4. Body - the numbers, aligned on the decimal point.
5. Note - below the table: Note. followed by explanations, abbreviations and significance marks.

Lines

Horizontal lines only: above the column headings, below them, and at the bottom of the table. No vertical lines and no grid around every cell. In Word: set borders manually, or use a plain table style.

Example: means, SDs and correlations

Table 1

Means, Standard Deviations and Pearson Correlations Among Study Variables (N = 182)

Note. Test anxiety and self-esteem were measured on a 1–4 scale. ** p < .01.

(Illustrative data.)

Note: lower triangle only, a dash on the diagonal, and means and SDs in the same table - saving a separate table. No leading zero for correlations.

Example: comparing groups

Table 2

Means and Standard Deviations of Test Scores by Group

Note. t(180) = 3.45, p < .001, d = 0.51.

Marking significance

• Asterisks in the body, explained in the note: * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.
• Or - better where possible - a column of exact p values.
• Consistency: the same method in every table in the paper.

Figures (graphs and charts)

• Same structure: Figure 1 in bold above, the title on the next line, Note. below.
• Legend inside the figure, axes labelled with names and units.
• Bar chart of means - with error bars (and say in the note whether they're SE or confidence intervals).
• Interaction - a line graph with two lines is clearer than any table. See Two-way ANOVA and interactions.
• No 3D, shadows or unnecessary colours - black, grey, white.

In the text

• Refer to every table and figure before it appears: "As Table 1 shows...".
• Don't repeat all the numbers - the text highlights the main point, the table holds the rest. See How to write a results chapter.
• Number consecutively in order of appearance: Table 1, 2, 3; Figure 1, 2.

Common mistakes

• A screenshot of SPSS output.
• Vertical lines and a full grid.
• Too many digits (p = .000312) - two or three are enough; below .001 write p < .001.
• A table never mentioned in the text.
• Abbreviations not explained in the note.

FAQ

How do I turn SPSS output into an APA table? Copy only the numbers you need into Word/Excel, build a new table following the structure here, and round to two decimals.

Where does a table go? After the paragraph that first refers to it, or at the end before the appendices - per your institution's guidelines.

Is the title italic in a Hebrew paper? In APA the title is italic; some Hebrew-language departments drop italics. Follow your guidelines and be consistent.

Want us to build the tables from your output? It's part of our statistics support. Send us your output.

Last updated: 2026-10-01