APA Style Simplified

Bernard C. (Barney) Beins, Ph.D., is professor and chair of psychology at Ithaca College. He is author of about 150 articles, chapters, books, and pedagogical material. He recently received the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award from the American Psychological Foundation. He is author with his daughter Agatha of Effective Writing in Psychology: Papers, Posters, and Presentations, 2nd Edition (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) and Research Methods: A Tool for Life (2008). He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Eastern Psychological Association.

Preface viii Acknowledgments xi

1 Writing Professionally 1

How Does Professional Writing Differ From Other Kinds of Writing? 2

Using APA Style 3

Making a Credible Argument 5

Different Types of Communication 6

Effective Communication 8

Establishing Good Writing Habits 9

Ethical Writing 10

2 Elements of Style 15

Recognizing the Importance of Good Grammar and Style 16

Choosing Effective Wording 17

Using Inclusive and Appropriate Language 19

Deciding on the Use of Technical Language 20

Avoiding Common Problems 21

Verb Forms 24

Spelling 25

Specific Word Use 25

3 The Introduction Section 32

Introducing the Topic 33

Different Approaches to Starting the Introduction 34

How to Begin 38

Reviewing the Literature 38

Introducing Your Research: Generating a Hypothesis 40

4 The Method Section 43

Participants and Subjects 44

Materials and Apparatus 52

Procedure 56

Design 58

5 Communicating Statistics 59

Why Do We Use Statistics? 60

What Point Are You Trying to Make? 61

Understanding Your Numbers 63

Helping Readers Understand Your Statistics 65

Differentiating Results and Interpretations 68

6 The Results Section 69

Your Hypothesis 70

Deciding What to Present 71

APA Style and Presentation of Your Results 74

Creating Tables 77

Creating Figures 82

The Connection Between the Text and the Tables and Figures 87

The Difference Between Results and Discussion Sections 87

Some Final Points About Presenting Results 88

7 The Discussion Section 91

Summarizing Your Results 92

Connecting Different Aspects of Your Results 94

Dealing With Nonsignificant Results 95

Comparing Your Results With Those of Others 96

Stating the Importance and Implications of Your Results 97

Acknowledging the Limitations of Your Study 98

8 References: Citations in the Text and the Reference List 100

Citing References in the Text 101

Order of Citations in the Reference List 105

Using Your Word-Processing Program to Create the Citation 105

Examples of How Different Types of References Should Be Laid Out 106

9 Final Touches: The Abstract and Formatting Details 114

The Abstract 115

Formatting Your Manuscript 116

10 Creating Poster Presentations 135

Differentiating Visual and Written Communication 135

Reducing the Amount of Information 136

Visual Style 137

Your Behavior: The Ethic of a Poster Session 142

Creating Your Poster Using PowerPoint® 144

11 Giving Oral Presentations 152

The Difference Between Oral and Written English 152

Adapting APA Style to Oral Presentations 156

Preparing for Your Talk 157

Creating Graphics for Your Presentation 159

Giving the Presentation 160

12 Sharing Your Work Electronically 163

New Capabilities in Electronic Sharing 164

Using a Word Processor to Create Manuscripts for the Internet 165

Advantages of Internet Publishing Software 167

Publishing Your Poster on the Web 169

Uploading Your Manuscript to the Internet 169

Revisiting the Concept of Plagiarism 170

Appendix A: Example of APA-Style Manuscript with

Common Errors 171

Appendix B: Corrected APA-Style Manuscript 179

References 188

Name Index 195

Subject Index 198