Because APA style consists of a large number and variety of guidelines—the Publication Manualis nearly 300 pages long—it can be useful to think about it in terms of three basic levels. The first is the overall organization of an article (which is covered in Getting Started in Research of the Publication Manual). Empirical research reports, in particular, have several distinct sections that always appear in the same order:
- Titlepage. Presents the article title and author names and affiliations.
- Abstract. Summarizes the research.
- Introduction. Describes previous research and the rationale for the current study.
- Method. Describes how the study was conducted.
- Results. Describes the results of the study.
- Discussion. Summarizes the study and discusses its implications.
- References. Lists the references cited throughout the article.
The second level of APA style can be referred to as high-level style (covered in Research Ethics of the Publication Manual), which includes guidelines for the clear expression of ideas. There are two important themes here. One is that APA-style writing is formal rather than informal. It adopts a tone that is appropriate for communicating with professional colleagues—other researchers and practitioners— who share an interest in the topic. Beyond this shared interest, however, these colleagues are not necessarily similar to the writer or to each other. A graduate student in California might be writing an article that will be read by a young psychotherapist in New York City and a respected professor of psychology in Tokyo. Thus formal writing avoids slang, contractions, pop culture references, humor, and other elements that would be acceptable in talking with a friend or in writing informally.
The second theme of high-level APA style is that it is straightforward. This means that it communicates ideas as simply and clearly as possible, putting the focus on the ideas themselves and not on how they are communicated. Thus APA-style writing minimizes literary devices such as metaphor, imagery, irony, suspense, and so on. Again, humor is kept to a minimum. Sentences are short and direct. Technical terms must be used, but they are used to improve communication, not simply to make the writing sound more “scientific.” For example, if participants immersed their hands in a bucket of ice water, it is better just to write this than to write that they “were subjected to a pain-inducement apparatus.” At the same time, however, there is no better way to communicate that a between-subjects design was used than to use the term “between-subjects design.”
APA Style and the Values of Psychology
Robert Madigan and his colleagues have argued that APA style has a purpose that often goes unrecognized (Madigan, Johnson, & Linton, 1995). 1 Specifically, it promotes psychologists’ scientific values and assumptions. From this perspective, many features of APA style that at first seem arbitrary actually make good sense. Following are several features of APA-style writing and the scientific values or assumptions they reflect.
APAstylefeature |
Scientific value orassumption |
There are very few direct quotations of other researchers. |
The phenomena and theories of psychology are objective and do not depend on the specific words a particular researcher used to describe them. |
Criticisms are directed at other researchers’ work but not at them personally. |
The focus of scientific research is on drawing general conclusions about the world, not on the personalities of particular researchers. |
There are many references and reference citations. |
Scientific research is a large-scale collaboration among many researchers. |
Empirical research reports are organized with specific sections in a fixed order. |
There is an ideal approach to conducting empirical research in psychology (even if this ideal is not always achieved in actual research). |
Researchers tend to “hedge” their conclusions, e.g., “The results suggestthat…” |
Scientific knowledge is tentative and always subject to revision based on new empirical results. |
Another important element of high-level APA style is the avoidance of language that is biased against particular groups. This is not only to avoid offending people—why would you want to offend people who are interested in your work?—but also for the sake of scientific objectivity and accuracy. For example, the term sexual orientation should be used instead of sexual preference because people do not generally experience their orientation as a “preference,” nor is it as easily changeable as this term suggests (Committee on Lesbian and Gay Concerns, APA, 1991). 2
The general principles for avoiding biased language are fairly simple. First, be sensitive to labels by avoiding terms that are offensive or have negative connotations. This includes terms that identify people with a disorder or other problem they happen to have. For example, patients with schizophrenia is better than schizophrenics. Second, use more specific terms rather than more general ones. For example, Mexican Americans is better than Hispanics if everyone in the group is, in fact, Mexican American. Third, avoid objectifying research participants. Instead, acknowledge their active contribution to the research. For example, “The students completed the questionnaire” is better than “The subjects were administered the questionnaire.” Note that this principle also makes for clearer, more engaging writing. Table 11.1 shows several more examples that follow these general principles.
Instead of… |
Use… |
man, men |
men and women, people |
firemen |
firefighters |
homosexuals, gays, bisexuals |
lesbians, gay men, bisexual men, bisexual women |
minority |
specific group label (e.g., African American) |
neurotics |
people scoring high in neuroticism |
special children |
children with learning disabilities |
The previous edition of the Publication Manual strongly discouraged the use of the term subjects(except for nonhumans) and strongly encouraged the use of participants instead. The current edition, however, acknowledges that subjects can still be appropriate in referring to human participants in areas in which it has traditionally been used (e.g., basic memory research). But it also encourages the use of more specific terms when possible: college students, children, respondents, and so on.
The third level of APA style can be referred to as low-levelstyle (which is covered in Theory in Psychology through Nonexperimental Research of the Publication Manual.) Low-level style includes all the specific guidelines pertaining to spelling, grammar, references and reference citations, numbers and statistics, figures and tables, and so on. There are so many low-level guidelines that even experienced professionals need to consult the Publication Manual from time to time. Table 11.2 contains some of the most common types of APA style errors based on an analysis of manuscripts submitted to one professional journal over a 6-year period (Onwuegbuzie, Combs, Slate, & Frels, 2010). 3 These errors were committed by professional researchers but are probably similar to those that students commit the most too. See also Online APA Style Resources in this section and, of course, the Publication Manual itself.
Error type |
Example |
1. Use of numbers
|
Failing to use numerals for 10 and above |
2. Hyphenation
|
Failing to hyphenate compound adjectives that precede a noun (e.g., “role playing technique” should be “role-playing technique”) |
3. Use of etal. |
Failing to use it after a reference is cited for the first time |
4. Headings |
Not capitalizing headings correctly |
5. Use of since |
Using since to mean because |
6. Tables and figures |
Not formatting them in APA style; repeating information that is already given in the text |
7. Use of commas |
Failing to use a comma before and or orin a series of three or more elements |
8. Use of abbreviations |
Failing to spell out a term completely before introducing an abbreviation for it |
9. Spacing |
Not consistently double-spacing between lines |
10. Use of &in references |
Using &in the text or and in parentheses |
Online APA Style Resources
The best source of information on APA style is the PublicationManualitself. However, there are also many good websites on APA style, which do an excellent job of presenting the basics for beginning researchers. Here are a few of them.
APA Style
Doc Scribe’s APA Style Lite
http://www.docstyles.com/apalite.htm
Purdue Online Writing Lab
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01
Douglas Degelman’s APA Style Essentials
http://www.vanguard.edu/Home/AcademicResources/Faculty/DougDegelman/APAStyleEssentials.aspx
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