Do You Double-Space the Reference List?

The rule in both styles

Both style families give the same answer: double-space the list. APA 7 requires the reference list to be double-spaced, in the same font as the body, with a half-inch hanging indent on every entry and no extra blank lines between entries, a change from older habits students still import. MLA 9 requires the works-cited list double-spaced throughout with the same half-inch hanging indent, continuing the double-spacing that governs the whole file. The logic is manuscript consistency rather than typography for its own sake: both manuals treat the list as part of the document's uniform surface, and the what-does-double-spaced-mean page carries the mechanics of the setting. The hanging indent, not the spacing, is what does the visual work of separating entries. Five minutes buys the format grade on the page graders read first.

The hanging indent deserves its own sentence because it is the half of the rule students skip. Every entry's first line sits at the margin and every wrapped line indents half an inch, which makes each source's identity scannable down the left edge of the page; the what-is-a-hanging-indent page carries the setup in Word and Google Docs, and the fix is one paragraph-format dialog applied to the whole list. No extra spacing between entries is the other half students miss: pressing Enter twice in APA 7 produces a document the manual explicitly does not describe, and grader eyes catch the rhythm break immediately. Set hanging indent, set double, remove the extra returns, and the list is done in five minutes. The reference-alphabetizer handles the ordering in the same pass. The whole pass is one dialog.

The numbers at a glance

Spacing by element, APA 7 and MLA 9 — the range, and where each row actually shows up in coursework. Skim it first; the sections below explain why the range exists and which row applies to you.

The exceptions: tables, notes and annotations

The double-spacing rule has narrow exceptions, and they are all about density rather than taste. Inside tables and figures, APA 7 permits single, one-and-a-half or double spacing, whichever the table needs to stay readable, because a table is a display object rather than prose; its title and notes stay double-spaced. Footnotes follow the manual: APA 7 keeps footnotes double-spaced like the body, while Chicago notes are usually set single within each note with a blank line between notes, which is the convention the footnote-vs-endnote page's readers meet in history and philosophy courses. Annotations are the case students hit most: an APA 7 annotated bibliography keeps the double-spacing throughout, and the how-to-write-an-annotated-bibliography guide shows the format. When a style permits a choice, pick one setting and keep it. The syllabus settles unusual genres.

Chicago is the style where the rules genuinely diverge, and it is worth its own paragraph. The Chicago bibliography is double-spaced like its APA and MLA cousins, but the notes are usually single-spaced within each entry with a blank line between entries, and Chicago explicitly permits this for print economy. MLA 9 has no footnote exception students will meet: the works-cited list is double, and content footnotes follow the manuscript's double-spacing. The safe student default is the conservative one: double-space every list and every note unless the syllabus or the manual names the exception, because a uniformly double-spaced file is never wrong in APA 7 or MLA 9, and the grade risk of a single-spaced list is larger than the page count it saves. Uniformity is the whole spec. Unnamed exceptions do not exist.

What the spacing costs in pages, and what it does not touch

The list's spacing moves pages, never the count. At roughly three double-spaced lines per entry, a 25-entry reference list runs about 2.5-3 pages, and single-spacing it would save about a page and a half, which is the entire benefit and the entire problem: the space is where grader comments go, and a compressed list reads as one trying to hide its length. The word count is untouched either way, because a counter counts words, not lines, and the convention the does-the-reference-list-count-in-word-count page documents excludes the list from the count entirely. The body above the list stays governed by the 250-words-per-double-spaced-page canon, and the list's own pages are overhead the does-a-title-page-count-as-a-page table records as excluded from page totals too. The grader opening the list is measuring trust, so give the page its room.

Why the list stays double-spaced even though it is excluded from the count is the question behind the question, and the answer is that the two rules price different things. The word count prices the thinking; the format grade prices the manuscript's professionalism, and the reference list is the most-read page after the introduction, because graders open it to check quality, currency and the cite-what-you-read rule before they decide how much the argument can be trusted. A list that is single-spaced, extra-spaced or unindented signals the same thing every time: the format pass was skipped, and a skipped format pass predicts a skipped citation audit. The five minutes the correct spacing costs is the cheapest credibility purchase in the document. Cheap, visible, and graded before a single sentence is read.

The five-minute setup, and the audits around it

The setup is one dialog in both editors. Select the list, set line spacing to Double, set special indent to Hanging at 0.5 inches, and remove any manual extra returns between entries; the what-is-a-hanging-indent page carries the click-path for Word and Google Docs. Then run the audit the spacing exists to support: the reference-list-auditor checks a pasted list for duplicate entries, missing years, broken alphabetical runs and journal-shaped entries that lack DOIs or URLs, reporting each finding by line. Spacing is format, but the auditor's checks are substance, and both live on the same page a grader reads first. Fix the format in one pass and the substance in the next, and the list stops being the document's weak flank before the proofread even starts. Five minutes here is the cheapest fix there is.

One caution closes the page: the rule travels with the style, not with the element, so check which style the brief names before formatting. An APA 7 reference list, an MLA 9 works-cited list and a Chicago bibliography are all double-spaced in student work, but a Chicago notes-bibliography paper carries single-spaced notes, a journal's author guidelines may single-space references to save print, and a department's house style overrides all of them. The order of authority is the one the site repeats everywhere: the brief outranks the style manual, the manual outranks the habit, and the habit exists to make the ordinary case automatic. When nothing names an exception, double-space the list, hang the indents, skip the extra returns, and the format pass is finished before the revision pass even starts.

The format check graders run before reading

Graders check mechanics first and content second — a two-minute scan that decides the paper's first impression. The list: correct font and size, double spacing throughout (no stray single-spaced paragraphs), one-inch margins, page numbers in the right corner, the required title-page fields, heading levels used consistently, and references formatted with hanging indents. Each item is trivial; missing two costs measurable points in most rubrics.

Do this scan on the exported PDF, not the working document — export quirks (shifted margins, dropped page numbers, orphaned headings) only appear there. The style switcher below shows the same source formatted in APA 7, MLA 9 and Chicago side by side, which is the fastest way to catch the format you've been half-remembering from the wrong course.