apa writing style - felix g woodward librarylibrary.apsu.edu/apa/apa-basic.pdf3 apa writing style...

Basic Workshop

APA Writing Style

APA Writing Style2

Objectives

This workshop is intended to acquaint you

with the Publication Manual of the American

Psychological Association, 6th edition.

Following this workshop, you will be able to:

1) understand the most commonly used

rules and guidelines for writing set forth

by the American Psychological

Association (APA),

2) use the template provided to get started

on your paper requiring APA formatting,

and

3) retrieve information you may need from

the APA manual to complete your paper.

Page numbers for quick reference will be provided here.

= common

student error

APA Writing Style3

Disclaimers

The information provided in this workshop is not intended to be

a substitute for the Publication Manual of the American

Psychological Association, 6th edition. Refer to it for a definitive

guide to the APA writing style.

It is the student’s responsibility to learn the rules and guidelines

set forth by the APA for writing a paper.

It is also important to remember that professors, publishers, and

institutions have the prerogative to adapt and/or ignore certain

rules and guidelines to suit their own purposes. They have the

final word on the requirements for your paper. These

requirements take precedence over rules and guidelines in the

APA manual.

APA Writing Style4

Title Page

Your paper

should be

double-spaced

and in 12 pt.

Times New

Roman font,

with one inch

margins on all

sides.

Bookmark these pages in the APA manual for quick reference.

The running head is a shortened version of your paper’s title

(no more than 50 characters including spacing) and should be

flush left with the page number flush right at the top of the page.

APA Manual, pp. 23 - 5

The title should be centered in the upper half of the page. APA

recommends that your title be no more than 12 words in length

and not contain abbreviations or words that serve no purpose.

The author note appears here

as directed by the professor,

publisher, or institution.

APA Writing Style5

Abstract


Notice the words Running head: are no

longer included in the header. This is to be

the case for every page after the first page.

Center the word Abstract with no bold, formatting,

italics, underlining, or quotations marks. Notice the

abstract is not indented and is a single paragraph

typically between 150 and 250 words long.

You may need to list two to five

keywords after your abstract.

APA Writing Style6

Introduction


Do not use Introduction as a heading;

instead, center the title of the paper exactly

as it appears on the title page at the top of

this page. The remaining sections of the

paper, except for references, should follow

each other without a page break.

APA Writing Style7

Headings

Headings will

depend upon the

length and

organization of

your paper. For

each section,

always begin with

a Level 1 heading

and proceed to

Level 2, etc. After

headings for

Level 3 and

beyond, begin

text after the

period.


Heavily Used

APA Writing Style8

Writing Style

Scientific writing should be clear, concise, and in a scholarly

tone. Avoid wordiness, redundancy, informal word choice,

colloquialism, jargon, and anthropomorphism.

For example, to avoid... replace with

wordiness at the present time now

redundancy summarize briefly summarize

informal word choice feel think

colloquialism write up report

jargon monetary scarcity poverty

anthropomorphism the study compared we compared


APA Writing Style9

Strategies to Improve Writing Style

Three simple strategies that will improve your writing are:

1) writing from an outline,

2) putting aside the first draft, then rereading it later, and

3) asking a peer, the writing center, and/or faculty member to

review your draft.

When asking others to review your draft, it may help to ask them

to focus on only one facet of your writing.

APA Manual, p. 70

APA Writing Style10

Grammar and Usage: Verbs

Use active voice and not passive voice.

Preferred: We conducted the survey in a controlled setting.

Nonpreferred: The survey was conducted in a controlled setting.

Choose correct verb tense, as in discussing another researcher’s

findings or reporting your results.

Correct: Sanchez (2000) presented similar results.

Incorrect: Sanchez (2000) presents similar results.

Verbs must agree in number with their subjects.

Correct: The number of students is…. The data indicate….

Incorrect: The number of students are…. The data indicates….


APA Writing Style11

Grammar and Usage: Pronouns

Pronouns must agree in number with their antecedents.

Correct: The student submitted his or her results.

Incorrect: The student submitted their results.

Pronouns must agree in gender with their antecedents.

Correct: The student who failed was reprimanded.

Incorrect: The student that failed was reprimanded.

Know when to use who and whom.

Correct: To whom do I give the results?

Incorrect: Who do I give the results to?


APA Writing Style12

Grammar and Usage: Adjectives and Adverbs

Eliminate misplaced modifiers.

Correct: Using this procedure, the investigator tested the

participants.

Incorrect: The investigator tested the participants using this

procedure.

Eliminate dangling modifiers.

Correct: Using this procedure, I tested the participants.

Incorrect: The participants were tested using this procedure.

Only certain adverbs may be used as transitional words.

Correct: First, we hypothesized that….

Incorrect: Firstly, we hypothesized that….


APA Writing Style13

Mechanics: Spacing

Insert one space after:

• commas, colons, and semicolons;

• periods that separate parts of a reference citation; and

• periods of the initials in personal names, e.g., J. R. Smith.

Do not insert spaces after internal periods in abbreviations, e.g.,

U.S.

Spacing twice after punctuation marks is allowed.

APA Manual, p. 70APA Manual, pp. 87 - 8

APA Writing Style14

Mechanics: Periods

Use periods with:

• initials of names (J. R. Smith).

• abbreviations for United States when it is used as an

adjective (U.S. Navy).

• Latin abbreviations (i.e.).

• reference abbreviations (2nd ed.).

Do not use periods with:

• state abbreviations (TN).

• capital letter abbreviations and acronyms (APA).

• measurement abbreviations* (cm).

*The abbreviation for inch (in.) requires a period.

APA Manual, p. 70APA Manual, p. 88

APA Writing Style15

Mechanics: Commas

Use commas with:

• lists of three or more (apples, oranges, and bananas).

• nonessential or nonrestrictive clauses (Switch A, which was

on the panel, controlled the recording device).

• to separate two independent clauses joined by a conjunction

(I ran, and he walked).

• to set off the year in only exact dates (April 18, 1992, was the

correct date but April 1992 was the correct month).

• to set off the year in parenthetical reference citations (Smith,

1992).


APA Writing Style16

Mechanics: Slang vs. Key or Technical Term

Use quotation marks for slang, coined, or ironic terms.

The students felt “slammed” by the e-mail.

Italicize linguistic examples and key or technical terms.

The term school media specialist is defined in this study to

include only librarians with state certification.

The letter b was used to classify the students.


APA Writing Style17

Mechanics: Capitalization

Capitalize courses and proper names of school and university

departments but not trade names.

Capitalize Do not capitalize

Department of Education an education department

Psychology 101 a psychology course

In Week 3, the class… In the third week, the class…

In Chapter 1, read… In the first chapter, read…


APA Writing Style18

Mechanics: Abbreviations

A term to be abbreviated must, on its first appearance in

the main body of the paper, be written out completely and

followed immediately by its abbreviation in parentheses.

Thereafter, use only the abbreviation.

The results of studies of simple reaction time (RT) to a visual

target have shown a strong negative relation between RT and

luminance.


APA Writing Style19

Mechanics: Abbreviations (cont.)

In parenthetical material, use Latin abbreviations; in non-

parenthetical material, use the English equivalents.*

Parenthetical Non-parenthetical

(e.g., ) for example

(i.e., ) that is,

( , etc.) , and so forth

* The Latin abbreviation et al., which means and others, is to be

used in both instances.


APA Writing Style20

Mechanics: Numbers Expressed as Numerals

Use numerals for: Example

• numbers 10 and above. We tested 343 students in

26 classes.

• all times like years, months The teachers take 3 hours

days, hours, and minutes. to complete the work.

• numbers representing dates, April 16, 2007, 2 years old,

ages, or exact sums of money. $5

sums of money.

• numbers denoting a specific Row 3, Table 5

place in a series, book, or table. Grade 7, Session 3

• percentages, fractions, and ratios 76%, a ratio of 16:1


APA Writing Style21

Mechanics: Numbers Expressed as Words

Use words for: Example

• numbers less than 10. A total of six experiments

went awry.

• numbers at the beginning of a Twelve students passed,

sentence, title, or heading. but 12 students failed.


APA Writing Style22

Direct Quotations

Formatting for direct quotes in midsentence:

The principal stated, “Instructors may or may not want to

require an abstract for class assignments” (Tunon, 2006, p.

34), but she concluded that they always summarized the

essential content of the paper.

Formatting for direct quotes at the end of a sentence:

Tunon (2006) found that “instructors may or may not want to

require an abstract for class assignments” (p. 34).


Notice where there are and are

not commas.

APA Writing Style23

Direct Quotations (cont.)

Formatting for a block quote (containing 40 or more words):

When discussing the challenges, Tunon (2006) found the

following:

Use quotes around an article title or book chapter, but

italicize the title of a book, journal, or report when used

in the body of the paper. Use a shot [sic] title in the

parenthetical citation or complete title if the title is short.

Non-periodical titles like books have all the

important words capitalized in the text citations, but

these same book titles do not have all the important

words capitalized in the reference list. (p. 342)

Use block quotes sparingly, if at all. Entire quote is double-

spaced.


No indention

Indention

Do not correct errors in the

original quote. Use [sic].

APA Writing Style24

Paraphrasing

To avoid plagiarizing when paraphrasing, you must express

other people’s ideas, theories, and research in your own words.

You must still give credit to the author(s) by citing the source

using the author-date citation system. You must do this for your

own published work, as well.

Citations in text:

Quinlan, Jones, Byron, and Montgomery (2008) stated…

Quinlan et al. (2008) observed…

Parenthetical citations in text:

(Quinlan, Jones, Byron, & Montgomery, 2008)

(Quinlan et al., 2008)

One work by six or more authors:

Wienhorst et al. (2009)

(Wienhorst et al., 2009)APA Manual, p. 70APA Manual, pp. 174 - 9

Always use et al. when citing

six or more authors.

APA Writing Style25

Paraphrasing (cont.)

Here are the common types

of citations. For other types,

consult the APA manual, pp.

174 - 179. Pay close

attention to the use of

spacing, periods, and

commas in citations.

Alphabetize and separate

multiple sources in

parenthetical citations with

semicolons.

A couple of experiments

(Eifrig & Gehring, 1976;

Skinner, 1956) found that….


APA Writing Style26

References

Start the reference list on a new

page, with References centered

at the top of the page.

Alphabetize and double-space

references with hanging

indentions.

APA Manual, p. 70APA Manual, 180 - 224

The general reference form for periodicals is:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author C. C. (year). Title of article.

Title of Periodical, xx, pp-pp. doi:xx.xxxxx

If no DOI is assigned, use Retrieved from http://www.xxxxx

The general reference form for books is:

Author, A. A. (year). Title of book. doi:xxxxx or

Author, A. A. (year). Title of book. Retrieved from http://www.xxxxx or

Author, A. A. (year). Title of book. Location: Publisher.

APA Writing Style27

References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication

manual of the American Psychological Association. (6th

ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Download an APA formatted template:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3jSXLpwVlk4czV

HdkFDTzREVUE/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3jSXLpwVlk4czVHdkFDTzREVUE/view?usp=sharing

apa writing style - felix g woodward librarylibrary.apsu.edu/apa/apa-basic.pdf3 apa writing style...

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