How to Make a Table of Contents in AP Style

Gather Materials and Prepare

• 1

  Gather all of the materials you will be including in the overall work (which requires the table of contents). Know all of the necessary information for each item to be listed in the table of contents, including the title of the work, the author(s) and the page numbers (if you are doing your own indexing).

• 2

  Jot down a basic list of what you want to include in the table of contents, in the correct order. When you are finished, prepare a new document on your computer (or a blank sheet of paper, if you are writing by hand).

• 3

  Refer to the AP Stylebook's table of contents for an example of an appropriate format. The table of contents suggests specific rules regarding capitalization, alignment and font selection.

Use AP Rules to Create the Table of Contents

• 4

  Create the heading for the table of contents by using the word CONTENTS (bold, centered, all caps, H2 font formatting).

• 5

  Make the section headings left justified, bold and in caps (ARTICLES, BRIEFING, ABOUT THE AUTHOR).

• 6

  List specific items in the table of contents with a single-tab indent. Always use plain Roman font and follow AP-style headlines.

• 7

  Position the page numbers as right-justified.

• 8

  Label the page numbers of front matter (such as a foreword) in lower-case Roman numerals (iii, iv, v). Do not italicize them.