Mastering APA Editorial Style: Key Components for Your Manuscript

1. APA Editorial Style Continued & The Main Parts of a Manuscript PSYC 200Week #6

2. Agenda • Roll call • Collect and discuss graded assignments • APA Editorial Style (continued) • Manuscript components • Plan for next week / Announcements

3. Assignments • Gramlichch 9 rewriting assignment • Extra Credit – dual article summary • Single Article Summary assignment • Missing 6…please consult

4. APA Editorial Style (continued)

5. What is editorial style? • The collection of rules and methods for presenting written information that go beyond the typical rules of written English. • Punctuation • Spelling • Capitalization • Italics • Abbreviations • Numbers • Metrication • Statistical & Math

6. Spelling – Preferred Spelling • Use the dictionary!! • Use the APA Dictionary of Psychology (VandenBos, 2007) for psychological terms. • Watch your plurals! • Possessives • Add 's to make singular possessive (Walk’s, student’s) • Add ' after s on plurals (the Walks’ house, the students’ grades)

7. Spelling – Hyphenation • For standard compound words, use the dictionary as a guide • For temporary compounds: • If the word precedes the word it modifies, it may need hyphenation • The first-year students needed extra support. • If the word comes after the word it modifies, it usually doesn’t need hyphenation. • The students were in their first year.

8. Spelling – Hyphenation (2) • General Principle 1: If the compound can be misread, use a hyphen. • General Principle 2: If a temporary compound is used as adjective before noun, use hyphen if the term expresses a single thought (all words modify the noun) • Heavy-truck traffic • Heavy truck traffic • t-test results

9. Spelling – Hyphenation (3) • General Principle 3: If the compound FOLLOWS the term is describes or modifies, do not need hyphen (usually) • The traffic had a lot of heavy trucks. • The results from the t test • General Principle 4: Write most words formed with prefixes as one word (see p 100 for exceptions, e.g., self-) • General Principle 5: When 2 or more compounds have same base, drop base and keep hyphen until last compound given • The 2-, 5-, and 7-year-olds were…

10. Capitalization – Complete Sentence • Always capitalize the 1st word in a complete sentence. • Capitalize the 1st word after a colon that begins a complete sentence. • There is one thing to remember in this class: Always revise your papers before turning them in.

11. Capitalization – Titles • Major words of titles in the body • References to section names in the same paper • Headings in your paper (levels 1 & 2 are Title Caps; 3-5 are sentence caps)

12. Capitalization – Names • Proper nouns and adjectives • University department and class names (not generic names) • Psychology 200 • psychology classes • DO NOT CAPITALIZE laws, theories, models, statistical procedures, or hypotheses.

13. Capitalization – More Rules • Nouns followed by numerals or letters that denote a specific place in a numbered series. (e.g., Table 2, Chapter 3, Experiment 1) • Titles of Psychological Tests • Variable, Factor, and Effect Names: • Only caps variables and effects when appear with multiplication signs (interactions)

14. Italics • Titles of book, periodicals, etc. (not article/chapter titles) • Introduction of new, key term (1st time only) • Linguistic examples (e.g., the word word) • Misread words (e.g., the small group) • Scale anchors • NOT USED FOR EMPHASIS

15. Abbreviations - General • Use sparingly • For non-commonplace abbreviations: • Introduce full term 1st • Then include abbreviation • Continue to use abbreviation thereafter • Use abbreviations only if: • The reader is more familiar with the abbreviation than the word • Considerable space can be saved and cumbersome repetition avoided

16. Abbreviations - Scientific • Units of measurement (see p 109) • Use abbreviations if accompanied by numeric values (e.g., 3 cm… measured in centimeters) • Units of time • Do not abbreviate day, week, month, year • Do: hr, min, ms, ns, s • Do not add s to make plural

17. Numbers – when to use numerals • Numbers 10 and above • Numbers in abstract • Numbers immediately before unit of measurement (5 cm) • Numbers that represent stats or math functions, ratios, percentages, etc. • Times, dates, ages, scores and points on scales, exact sums of money • HOWEVER, approximations should be words • Numbers that denote specific place in numbered series

18. Numbers – when to use words • Numbers at beginning of sentence, title, heading, etc. • Common fractions (one-half) • Any number less than 10 (unless other rules for numeral use apply)

19. Numbers – when to use both numerals and words • Back-to-back numbers • 24 twelfth-graders • Ten 7-point scales

20. Numbers – decimals • Use 0 before decimal (e.g., 0.4) only when value of number can exceed 1 • What kind of numbers cannot exceed 1? • When reporting probability values, use exact value to 2-3 decimal places (e.g., p = .023)… • NO LONGER USE p < .05, p < .01, etc. except for p < .001

21. Numbers – using commas • Use commas to separate groups of 3 digits in number > 1,000. • Exceptions: • Pages • Binary • Serial numbers • Temperatures • Frequency (acoustics) • Degrees of Freedom, F(2, 2003) = 2.39

22. Statistics, etc. • Be aware, but not memorize that there are specific rules for presenting statistical analyses beginning p. 116 • Use this section when you’re writing your own papers!!

23. A note about tables • Chapter 5 is ALL about tables and figures • When writing own reports, read carefully

24. Parts of APA Manuscript

25. The parts of an APA manuscript • Title Page • Abstract • Body • Literature review • Method • Results • Discussion • References • Appendices • Tables • Figures

26. The Title Page - Review • Title • Purpose: • Quickly identify the purpose/content of your article • Formatting: • Centered in upper half of page • Title Caps • Line break at logical point if > 1 line long • Content: • 10-12 words • Stand alone: major variables/issues and their relationships

27. Abstract • Purpose: • Quickly summarize the contents / findings of the article • Formatting: • Next page after title page • Center word “Abstract” at top of page • Double-space and begin typing abstract (no indent) • Content: • Cover all major sections of article • 150 words • Stand alone

28. Body • Purpose: • The “meat” of your article. You want to share your experiences, knowledge, opinions with the world. • Formatting: • Title centered at top of first page • Double space, indent, and begin your text • Content: • Discuss all necessary aspects of your topic • {see next slide}

29. Body – Experimental / Research Paper • Introduction • Purpose: • Identify previous work in the field relating to your topic / study • Formatting: • NO heading (e.g., “Introduction”) to start • May use headings to separate sections

30. Body – Experimental / Research Paper • Introduction (cont’d) • Content • Lit review • Cite previous scientific work related to your article • Logical (usually not chronological) order • Purpose of study • What are you trying to accomplish / investigate?

31. Body – Experimental / Research Paper • Introduction (cont’d) • Content (cont’d) • Theoretical issues • How does your article impact the field? • How has previous work in the field influenced your article? • Definitions of variables • What do you mean by, “depression” or “efficient time use”? • Statement of hypotheses • What do you expect to find, given the previous work in the field and your own personal twist?

32. Body – Literature Review Paper • Introduction • Content • Theoretical issues • What previous work has been done in this topic? • Is there any controversy / disagreement about this topic? • What are the opposing view points? • Definitions of variables • What do you mean by, “depression” or “efficient time use”?

33. Body – Experimental / Research Paper • Other Components of the Body • Method Section • Results Section • Discussion Section

34. Body – Method Section • Purpose: • To relate the procedures conducted and used to gather that data for the current study • Allows for replication of your work • Content • Participants / Subjects • Materials, Appartus, and Measures • Procedures

35. Body – Results Section • Purpose • To relate the findings of your research • Be succinct, concise, no imagination • Guidelines • Report results of hypotheses tests in order • Describe size and direction of significant results • Include all necessary stats to support conclusions (no RAW data) • Report any ad-hoc tests as such

36. Body – Discussion Section • Purpose • To summarize findings and discuss hypotheses (both supported and unsupported) • Place your findings in the larger context of the field. • Content • Assessment of hypotheses results • Compare / contrast, connect with theory, acknowledge alternative interpretations, applications, future research • Limitations of study

37. APA Style Practice Test #2

38. In Conclusion… • Next week: • APA Style Mastery Test (yes, we will also have class content) • Open manual, open notes • Worth 50 points • Readings: Stan, ch 1 – 6 … READ IT!!!