American Psychological Association

American Psychological Association

Writing Style or Fluency

The Prime Objective of APA reporting is clear communication. This can be achieved by presenting ideas in an orderly manner and by expressing yourself smoothly and precisely. Establishing a tone that conveys the essential points of your study (data, sources, and conclusions) in an interesting manner will engage readers and communicate your ideas more effectively.

Transitional Words

Plagiarism

Signal words help maintain the flow of thought through a reading.

• Time Links: (then, next, after, while, since)
• Cause-Effect: (therefore, consequently, as a result)
• Addition Links: (in addition, moreover, furthermore, similarly)
• Contrast Links: (but, conversely, nevertheless, however, although, whereas)

• Researchers do not claim the words and ideas of another as their own; they give credit to the original source.

• To help avoid this make sure you know from where your information came. Cite any information that is not common knowledge or originally your own.

3 Keys to Mastering Citation Types

Direct Quotations

Citation Types

Contractions

Paraphrasing

Verbs: Use the Active Voice when Writing

Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly.

• All parenthetical citations must include the source's publication year. There are no exceptions to this rule; it doesn’t matter if the source has been cited in the paper or the paragraph already. 

• The first in-text citation for a source in a paragraph includes the source's publication year. Subsequent in-text citations for the same source in the same paragraph do not. 

• The in-text citation rule starts over with each new paragraph.

• When quoting, always provide the author, year, and specific page citation or (n.p.) for non-paginated material.

• Non-paginated (n.p.) material can be from a website, a pamphlet, a poster, a build board, etc…

APA has two basic citation formats.

In one format, all of the citation information goes inside parentheses. As you might guess, these citations are called parenthetical citations.

In the other format, called an in-text citation—the source name is grammatically part of the sentence. 

• In APA, avoid using contractions when writing. Make sure you spell out the words unless you are using a direct quote.

Correct:

The survey did not address the issue completely.

Incorrect:

The survey didn’t address the issue completely.

Preferred

• The lab conducted the survey in a controlled setting.

Non-preferred

• The survey was conducted in a controlled setting.

Interpreting these results, Robbins et al. (2003) suggested that the “therapists in dropout cases may have inadvertently validated parental negativity about the adolescent without adequately responding to the adolescent’s needs or concerns” (p. 541), contributing to an overall climate of negativity.

• If the quotation comprises fewer than 40 words, incorporate it into the text and enclose the quotation with double quotation marks.

Confusing this issue is the overlapping nature of roles in palliative care, whereby “medical needs are met by those in the medical disciplines; nonmedical needs may be addressed by anyone on the team” (Csikai & Chaitin, 2006, p. 112).

• If the quotation appears at the end of a sentence, close the quoted passage with quotation marks, cite the source in parentheses immediately after the quotation marks, and end with a period or other punctuation outside the final parenthesis.

Block Quotes

Subject Verb Agreement

Verb Tenses

Three Ways to Use Data

Summarizing

Parenthetical Citation

• Many writers struggle with this tricky APA rule (Shiell, 2014). 

• Direct Quotation
• Paraphrase
• Summary

In-text Citation

Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.

Start a block quote on a new line and indent the block about a half inch from the left margin, (in the same position as a new paragraph). If there are additional paragraphs within the quotation, indent the first line of each and additional half inch. Double space the entire quotation. At the end of the block quotation, cite the quoted source and the page or paragraph number in parentheses after the final punctuation mark.

A verb must agree in number with its subject, regardless of intervening phrases that begin with such words as together with, including, plus, and as well as.

Correct:

The percentage of correct responses as well as the speed of the responses increases with practice.

Incorrect:

The percentage of correct responses as well as the speed of the responses increase with practice.

Use the past tense to express an action or a condition that occurred at a specific time (definite time in the past) as when discussing another researcher’s work and when reporting your results.

Correct:

Sanchez (2000) presented similar results.

Incorrect:

Sanchez (2000) presents similar results.

Verb Tenses Continued

• Shiell (2014) noted that many writers struggle with this tricky APA rule

Use the Present Perfect Tense to express a past action or condition that did not occur at a specific, definite time, or to describe an action beginning in the past and continuing to the present.

Correct:

Since that time, several investigators have used this method.

Incorrect:

Since that time, several investigators used this method.

Others have contradicted this view:

Co-presence does not ensure intimate interaction among all group members. Consider large-scale social gatherings in which hundreds or thousands of people gather in a location to perform a ritual or celebrate an event.

In these instances, participants are able

to see the visible manifestation of the group, the physical gathering, yet their ability to make direct, intimate connections with those around them is limited by the sheer magnitude of the assembly. (Purcell, 1997, pp. 111-112)

This contradiction suggests...