Writing an APA-Style Research Report

1. Writing an APA-Style Research Report Title, Abstract, Introduction

2. The Title Page • Running Head in Header with Page Number •  50 characters, flush left, all upper case • Title • centered, upper and lower case • Authors and Institutional Affiliations • centered, upper and lower case • ordered by relative contribution • Author Notes

3. The Abstract • Ctrl, Enter to create hard page break. • This will be page 2 of the manuscript. • “Abstract” centered on first line. • Do not indent next line. • One paragraph, ≤ 120 words. • Highlight abstract text, look lower left to see word count.

4. > 120 Words • I usually cheat and provide more than 120 words, and get away with it. • Here there were 142 words in the abstract, 4,740 in the entire document.

5. Writing Style • Try to avoid passive voice (This has been found to be difficult). • First person is OK, but not too often. • Avoid quotations, paraphrase instead. • Avoid footnotes. • Avoid dehumanizing language, but “subjects” is now OK.

6. Introduction Section • Start on a new page, after the abstract • On the first line, type the title • upper and lower case • centered • On next line, start the text • Indented • left-aligned.

7. Introduce Your Research • Why did you conduct this research? • How is your research different from previous research? • Start out broad and then narrow the focus. • Review the most relevant literature. • Finish with a statement of purpose. • What results were expected? • Why were these results expected?

8. Expected Results • Research hypotheses may be formally stated in the Introduction. • but don’t present “null” hypotheses. • I prefer a less formal presentation. • Pre-diction versus post-diction • Predicting course performance in freshman and sophomore physics courses: Women are more predictable than men.

9. Citations • Acknowledge the work of others, do not plagiarize. • Consult the Writer’s Handbook. • Look in APA style journals for examples. • One-to-one correspondence between citations in text and those in reference list.

10. Example Citations in Text • ….. female jurors are more likely than male jurors to find a male defendant guilty of sexual harassment of a female plaintiff (Egbert, Moore, Wuensch, & Castellow, 1992; Moore et al., 1994; Wuensch, Campbell, Kesler, & Moore, 2002). • Calhoun and Townsley (1991, p. 66) noted that …….

11. Example Reference List References Calhoun, K. S., & Townsley, R. M. (1991). Attributions of responsibility for acquaintance rape. In A. Parrot, & L. Bechhofer (Eds.), Acquaintance rape: The hidden crime (pp. 57 - 69). New York, NY: Wiley. Castellow, W. A., Wuensch, K. L., & Moore, C. H. (1990). Effects of physical attractiveness of plaintiff and defendant in sexual harassment judgments. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 16, 39 - 50.

12. Headings • Can have 1-5 levels of headings. • Two should be enough for your paper. • Ignore the information in Martin, the APA has changed their rules recently. • See APA-Style Headings • See the Writer’s Handbook.