Intermediate APA Style Refresher(Top 10)With Heidi Marshall, MFAWith Heidi Marshall, MFA

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Session Overview

1. Numbers and Percentages

2. Commas

3. Abbreviations

4. Spelling

5. Italics & Quotation Marks

6. Seriation

7. Tables & Figures

8. Headings

9. Spacing

10. Everything else

1. Numbers & Percentages (APA 3.42-3.45)

APA 5th: 3.42-3.45APA 6th: 4.31-4.38

According to APA (2001), “The general rule governing APA style on the use of numbers is to use figures to express numbers 10 and above and words to express numbers below 10” (p. 122).

BUT, there are many exceptions to this rule!

Express numbers as figures when they:

“are grouped for comparison with numbers 10 and above” (p. 123).5 out of the 12 plates shattered

“immediately precede a unit of measurement” (p. 123).2 mg

“represent statistical or mathematical functions, fractional or decimal quantities, percentages, ratios, and percentiles and quartiles” (p. 124)

6.5%“represent time; dates; ages; sample, subsample, or population size; specific

numbers of subjects or participants in an experiment; scores and points on a scale; exact sums of money; and numerals as numerals” (p. 124).

For the past 3 years…“denote a specific place in a numbered series, parts of books and tables, and

each number in a list of four or more numbers” (p. 125).chapter 2; Trial 4

Numbers & Percentages: 5th edition APA

Numbers & Percentages: 5th edition APA

For example:

All 23 of his shelves were filled with books on APA style; unfortunately, the two things he feared were citation styles and acronyms.

The 8 children in the psychologist’s study didn’t stop moving around the room during her 6 hours of close observation.

The teacher found he only used five of Gardner’s seven basic multiple intelligences.

*Eighteen of the participants failed to respond to the survey.

Numbers & Percentages: 6th edition APA

6th edition: Use figures to represent statistical or mathematical functions, percentages, time, dates, age, population size, scores, points on a scale, money

No longer need to express number of subjects/participants as figure if there are fewer than nine (six students participated)

Now will express approximate numbers of days, months, and years as a words if they are less than nine (about three years old)

Now will express numbers nine and lower as words even when compared to numbers 10 and higher (seven of the 23 students)

Numbers & PercentagesAPA 5th: 3.42d

APA 6th: 4.31

Use a numeral and percentage sign unless at the start of a sentence or if you’re quoting directly from a source that used a different style manual.• Forty percent of people polled hate polls. •Another 15% can’t stand the people who poll them.

2. Commas

APA 5th: 3.02

APA 6th: 4.03Serial Commas (APA 3.02)According to APA (2001), “use a comma between elements (including before and and or) in a series of three or more items” (p. 78).

But what does that mean?It means just that, put a comma before the and or or in a series of three or more nouns or noun phrases.

Commas

• In the forest, there are lions, tigers, and bears.

• You can make the pie with apples, pears, or bananas.

• At practice today, the players will work on catching the ball, shooting with accuracy, and defending set plays.

Commas

In addition to the serial comma, use commas:

To set off nonessential information (the girl, who was a red head, took my parking space in the grocery store lot)

To separate two independent clauses joined by a conjunction (Jamie went to the grocery store, and she bought dinner)

Before a nonessential clause that begins with which (Jamie went to the grocery store, which was three blocks away)

And that's about it!

3. Abbreviations

APA 5th: 3.20-3.29

APA 6th: 4.22-4.30

According to APA (2001), “APA prefers that authors use abbreviations sparingly. Although abbreviations are sometimes useful for long, technical terms in scientific writing, communication is usually garbled rather than clarified if, for example, an abbreviation is unfamiliar to the reader” (p. 103).

But what does that mean?

Know your audience.

Use abbreviations for long, familiar terms.

AbbreviationsCommon abbreviation usage:

Italicize statistical abbreviations: N, n, etc.Use etc., e.g., and i.e. only inside parentheses

e.g., means: for example,i.e., means: that is, , etc. means: , and so forth

Another common abbreviation:

et al. The period comes after the “al.”

Write out the full name the first time it appears in your paper, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses:

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were….The CDC went on to say….

Abbreviations

Per the 6th edition APA manual, once you define an abbreviation you must use it consistently throughout the paper.

In other words, do not revert back to using the full term.

4. Spelling & Word Choice (APA 3.10)

APA 5th: 3.10APA 6th: 4.12-4.13

Check the tables in chapter 3 for rules on hyphenation. In general, words with prefixes such as non, semi, pre, post, anti, multi, and inter are not hyphenated: pretest, posttest, antibiotic, antisocial, nonprofit, semipro, multiphased, subsample. But self-esteem, self-concept.

Spelling

Possessives of proper nouns ending in s get ’s added:

Rogers’s love of APA, Jones’s hatred of APA

Do not use an apostrophe to make a year plural:

In the 1960s

Word ChoiceThat Restrictive clauses. Essential to the meaningThat defines one in a bunch.The dip that Sally brought was the best.

WhichNonrestrictive clauses.Add more informationSet off with commasFurther describes a lone object.The dip, which sally bought, was the best.

That That for things.The book that was found was valuable.

Who Who for people.The student who found the book got a reward.

Word ChoiceWhile While links events occurring simultaneouslyHeidi took a nap while Jamie talked about grammar.

Although Use although, whereas, and, or but in place of while.Although the argument seemed solid, there were holes in his reasoning.

Because Since is used to indicate time. Because should be used in all other instances.You left because I wasn’t breathing.

SinceSince=time. Meaning: after that.Since you’ve been gone I can breathe for the first time.

Word ChoiceFartherUse farther for physical distances.I ran farther than him.

FurtherUse further for figurative distances.She couldn’t have been further from the truth.

EverydayA routine occurrence, common, usualThat’s an everyday shoe she’s wearing.Other than the monkeys escaping their cages, it was a normal everyday scene at the zoo.

Every dayEach dayShe gets coffee every day.He missed her every day she was gone.

Word Choice

May May=permissionMay I go to the bathroom?

Might Might=possibilityI might go to the bathroom before we go.

Can Can=abilityCan I go to the bathroom?

Word ChoiceLaySomething I do to something (or someone) else.I will lay the book on the table.

LieTo lie: something I do to myself.I’m going to go lie down.

LessFor things you can’t count.I had less confidence after I fell on my face.

FewerFor things you can count.He went to the 10 items or fewer lane at the grocery store.

APA 5th: 3.19APA 6th: 4.21

No underlines, bold font, or quotation marks without citing allowed.

5. Italics & Quotation Marks

Italics• “titles of books, periodicals, and microfilm publications”

(p. 100).• “genera, species, and varieties” (p. 100).• “introduction of new, technical, or key term or label (after

a terms has been used once, do not italicize it” (p. 100).• “letter, word, or phrase cited as a linguistic example” (p.

100).• “words that could be misread” (p. 101).• “letters used as statistical symbols or algebraic

variables…some test scales…periodical volume numbers in reference lists…anchors of a scale” (p. 101).

Italics

The Great Gatsby

We are homo sapiens

I will label these students super-fantastic scholars. The super-fantastic scholars are also those students who…

The students pronounced the letters a and o

Quotation Marks• “for material quoted directly from a source”

(p. 82).• “to introduce a word or phrase used as an

ironic comment, slang, or as an invented or coined expression” (p. 82).

• “to set off the title of an article or chapter” (p. 82) when mentioned in the text.

• “to reproduce material from a test item or verbatim instructions to participants” (p. 82).

Quotation Marks

• That is it!

• Do not use quotation marks for any other reason!

• Not even if you think it would be “right” to do so.

6. Seriation

• According to APA (2001), “Enumerate elements in a series to prevent misreading or to clarify the sequence or relationship between elements, particularly when they are lengthy or complex” (pp. 115-116).

Seriation: 5th ed: APA 5.12

Vertical lists, go

1.

2.

3.

4.

In the paragraph, use (a), (b), (c). . .

Seriation: 5th ed.Coach Rivers (2006) found that:

1. High school girls like to talk.

2. Players work hard when they are provided positive feedback.

3. Men should most definitely not coach high school girls in sports about

which they know nothing.

*USE LISTS ONLY FOR ITEMIZED CONCLUSIONS OR SUCCESSIVE STEPS

Within a Paragraph (APA 5.12)

Coach Rivers decided that players will make the varsity team if

they can (a) pass and catch without dropping the ball, (b) run a mile in 7 minutes

or less, and (c) maintain a positive, hardworking attitude throughout the season.

*USE A SEMICOLON TO SEPARATE COMPOUND PHRASES

Seriation: 6th ed: APA 3.04

Follow the same guidelines as in the 5th edition manual except

• you should use bullet points when the order of elements is not important,

• all lines need to be indented,

• you can use bullets within a sentence.

SeriationBUT!!! You want to turn your lists in to narrative text when there is no chance the

list could be misread, or there is no particular sequence to your list. In general, lists of questions do not need letter or number identifiers. Neither do short lists of nouns or noun phrases that have no particular order. Also, if the punctuation doesn’t make any sense, then don’t force it! If the sentence makes more sense without seriation, then kick your letters and numbers to the curb!

This: Jamie liked to make pies with apples, cherries, or peaches.

Does NOT need to be this: Jamie liked to make pies with (a) apples, (b) cherries, or (c) peaches.

Unless it is this: Jamie liked to make her pies in this order: (a) apple, (b) cherry, and then (c) peach.

7. Tables and Figures

APA 5th: 3.62-3.86

APA 6th: 5.07-5.30

Number tables and figures consecutively, that is, Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2.

Table 4

Comparison of Boys and Girls by Height and Weight

Variable Height Weight

Boys (n=61) 5 ft 1 in 104 lb

Girls (n=60) 5 ft 2 in 98 lb

Note. From “Analysis of Seventh Graders’ Hormones,” by W. Steeves, 2008, Journal of Despair, 98, p. 11. Copyright 2008 from the American Psychological Association.

Tables

Figure 13. Causes of stress and its effects among graduate students. Adapted from…

. .

Pressure fromPressure from

HomeHome

Pressure from Pressure from

WorkWork

Dangerous Levels of MedicationsDangerous Levels of Medications

Figures

8. Headings

APA 5th: 3.30-3.32

APA 6th: 3.02-3.03

According to APA (2001), “Levels of heading establish via format or appearance the hierarchy of sections to orient the reader. All topics of equal importance have the same level of heading throughout a manuscript” and “Regardless of the number of levels of subheading within a section, the heading structure for all sections follows the same top-down progression” (pp. 111-112).

Headings APA 5thLevels of Heading:

Level 5 (CENTERED, UPPER CASE)Level 1 (Centered, Title Case)

Level 2 (Centered, Italics, Title Case)Level 3 (Flush Left, Italics, Title Case)

Level 4 (Indented, italics, sentence case) Most Walden course papers use 3 Levels of Heading:Level 1 (title and major section headings)Level 3 (subsections)Level 4 (subsections)

Title, Centered, No Italics [L1]First Major Heading, Centered, No Italics [L1]

Flush Left, Italicized [L3]Tabbed in, italicized, sentence case. [L4]

Headings APA 6th

Title

Next Level [L1]

Next Level [L2]

Next level. [L3]

Next level. [L4]

Next level. [L5]

The concept is the same; the cosmetics are different

Headings APA 6th

Oranges as Indicators for Progress [Title of Paper]

History of the Florida Citrus Industry [L1]

Herr Sunkist’s Arrival [L2]

Why apples didn’t work. [L3]

Dependable cheap labor. [L4]

Union busting in sunny Florida. [L5]

9. Spacing

APA 5th: 5.11

APA 6th: 4.01, 4.40

• Double space after the end of sentence

• But, use just one space after each punctuation mark in the reference list.

10. Everything Else

• Data and media are plural.

• Use respectful and inclusive language.

• First person is allowed at Walden, but use it with caution.

• American not British English at Walden.

• Avoid contractions.

Direct quotes 40 words or more.

• Indent five spaces on the left; same margin on the right. Double space.

• Usually no need for opening or closing ellipses.

• Final punctuation comes before the parenthetical element.

. . . and unpatriotic. (p. 285)

Everything Else

Questions?