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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
APA Manual, pp. 25 - 7
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
APA Manual, pp. 27 - 8
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.
APA Manual, pp. 62 - 3
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 Manual, pp. 65 - 70
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 Manual, pp. 77 - 9
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 Manual, pp. 79 - 80
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 Manual, pp. 81 - 3
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 Manual, p. 70APA Manual, pp. 88 - 9
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 Manual, p. 70APA Manual, p. 91
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 Manual, p. 70APA Manual, pp. 101 - 4
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 Manual, p. 70APA Manual, pp. 106 - 11
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 Manual, p. 70APA Manual, pp. 106 - 11
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 Manual, p. 70APA Manual, pp. 111 - 2
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 Manual, p. 70APA Manual, p. 112
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).
APA Manual, p. 70APA Manual, pp. 170 - 1
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.
APA Manual, p. 70APA Manual, p. 171
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 Manual, p. 70APA Manual, p. 177
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