Paragraph headings may seem redundant, especially in small papers, but they are very useful. General APA Guidelines outlines the five levels of headings that you can use in a paper, including minor headings. Headings help to effectively organize the information in your paper.
A minor heading highlights your important ideas. If your paper is about apples, you may have headings such as Granny Smith, Red Delicious and Autumn Gold. You can use these minor headings for each paragraph. However, the Free Management Library suggests that the minor heading and the paragraph heading are two different levels.
If your paper is very large, you may need major, minor and paragraph headings to organize the information. To continue the example, if your major heading is Apples and your minor headings are Granny Smith, Red Delicious and Autumn Gold, your third-level (paragraph) headings for each section might be Health Benefits Climate Preferences and Favorite Uses.