Scientific research is a public venture. Therefore, one of the essential skills of the scientist is to be able to communicate ideas and research results effectively. This guide is an attempt to make the style of writing used in the field of psychology clear to you. It summarizes a lot of the material available in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4-th edition) (1995) and is oriented toward undergraduate students. For example, it includes numerous hints to avoid common mistakes students make. Note the examples appear in a teletype font to distinguish them from the normal text. Finally, the document is organized in an outline format for at least two reasons. First, it should make it easier for students to quickly locate the information they seek. Second, it should make it easier for an instructor to grade student’s papers. In most cases, the student can simply be referred to the outline item that addresses the problem rather than writing the comment repeatedly on multiple papers.

  1. General Topics

 

    1. Typing
      1. Your papers must be typed.
      2. Set the typewriter or word processor to double space and keep it there throughout the entire manuscript.
      3. Use one-inch margins on the left, right, top, and bottom of the page. These margins are wide in order to leave room for reviewer's comments.
      4. Use normal paragraphs in which the first line is indented five characters for all paragraphs in the manuscript except the abstract, block quotes, titles and headings, subheadings, table titles, notes, and figure captions.
      5. Use a 12-point font (Times New Roman). Single space after sentence terminators (i.e., '.', '?', '!').
      6. Capitalize the first letter following a colon if the clause following the colon is a complete sentence.
      7. If you are using a word processor, make sure the text is left aligned and not justified. With left aligned text, the left margin forms a straight line and the right margin is ragged. With justified text both the left and right margins form a straight line.
      8. Do not hyphenate (split) words at the end of a line.
      9. Finally, just staple or clip the finished product (do not bother with fancy folders, etc.).

 

    1. Writing in General

 

      1. You must use complete sentences.
      2. The first sentence of a paragraph must be independent (able to stand on its own). For example consider While these studies are important, there is... This sentence would be correct in the middle of a paragraph, but as the first sentence, it should more appropriately read, While studies of the effects of whatever on whatever else are important, there is...
      3. Try not to use slang (e.g., ...put a damper on...).
      4. Do not use contractions. That is, instead of it's, use it is.
      5. If you are doubtful about the spelling of a word, do not guess.
      6. Proofread the copy that you submit.

 

    1. Style Details in General

 

      1. Study this handout. When in doubt about a detail, checks with the APA Links provided on this cite.
      2. Assume you are writing the paper for submission to a scientific journal.
      3. A lot of the formatting details can be learned by carefully modeling another APA journal article. It would be a good idea to acquire a few fairly recent articles, because the format was revised in 1995. Try the Psychological Record or The Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society. Both of these journals publish relatively short articles that are not too complicated.
      4. Avoid excessive use of the terms I, me, and my, as well as the phrase personally speaking...
      5. Avoid the use of sexist language. For example, consistently referring to a person as a him or he when it is just as likely for the person to be a she or a her, is sexist. However, using (s)he or him/her all of the time can also be awkward. If you phrase it right, you can often use the word person instead.
      6. Avoid using 'empty words' or words that serve no purpose. For example, In the Smith (1990) study it was found that... should read more like Smith (1990) found that...
      7. Generally speaking, use past tense in the abstract, introduction, and method. Results and discussion sections can be in the present tense.
      8. Get friends to read it. If they cannot understand it, then it needs work. If you cannot get a friend to read it, then try to read it yourself making believe that you are naive.
    1. Abbreviations
      1. When abbreviating any terms, spell them out the first time (in both the abstract and again in the body of the manuscript, if need be). For example, The Sexual Opinion Survey (SOS) was used to...
      2. Do not use too many abbreviations. Whereas one, two, or three can be helpful, four or five can be confusing.
      3. You will often see the following Latin abbreviations used:

cf.

compare

 

etc.

and so forth

e.g.,

for example

 

i.e.,

that is

et al.

and others

 

vs.

versus, against
      1. Note that (except for et al.) these abbreviations are only used in parenthetic material. In non parenthetic material, use the English translation.
      2. Do not use E and S as abbreviations for experimenter and subject. This was done in articles written many years ago.
      3. Note the following common abbreviations and note also that you do not use periods with them.

cm

centimeter

 

s

seconds

mg

milligrams

 

min

minutes

g

grams

 

hr

hours

M

mean

 

IQ

intelligence
      1. For example, the bar was 2.5 cm wide and 1.0 cm high.
    1. Numbers
      1. All measurement reporting is done in metric units. In other words, use centimeters and meters rather than inches and feet.
      2. The numbers zero through nine are spelled out (except when it is a table or figure number, or a metric measurement, etc.). The numbers 10 and above are written as numbers.
      3. Capitalize nouns followed by numerals or letters that denote a specific place in a numbered series. For example, As can be seen in Figure 3, during Block 4 of Session 2 such and such occurred... Note also that this example demonstrates one of the exceptions to the rule noted in I.E.2.
      4. Spell out any number when it is the first thing in a sentence. For example, the sentence 34 students were used., is not appropriate and should read Thirty-four students were used.
      5. Try to be consistent with number formats. That is, if you are reporting a series of related numbers, they should all be presented with the same number of decimal places. For an example, see I.D.5 above.
    2. Citations in the Text
      1. If you use someone's words or ideas, you must give them credit with a citation. This is particularly important, since the penalties for plagiarism are severe.
      2. There are numerous ways to formally cite a reference in the text. Examples include Some fact (last name, year)., Last name (year) noted that..., or In <year>, <last name> reported that... For more ideas, pay close attention to the articles you read.
      3. The first time the reference is cited in the text, spell out all of the authors last names. For example, Miller, Rosellini, and Seligman (1975) suggested that... With articles that have three or more authors use the Latin abbreviation for "and others" when the reference is cited a second (or third) time. For example, Miller et al. (1975) suggested that... or ... some fact (Miller et al., 1975).
      4. If the citation is in parentheses and you need to use the word "and", use the ampersand ('&') instead. For example, Some (e.g., Estes & Skinner, 1940) have suggested that..., as compared to Estes and Skinner (1940) have suggested... Note also that the opposite applies as well, that is, if the citation is not in parentheses, you must use the word "and".
      5. Multiple citations in parentheses are placed alphabetically and are separated by a semicolon and a space. For example, Some fact (Carlson, 1972; Moon, 1968; Partin, 1980).
      6. If you cite something second hand, you must make it clear (e.g., Some fact (Smith, as cited in Jones, Year)). Note that in this example, only the Jones reference would be placed in the reference section.
    3. Quotations
      1. You must give page numbers for direct quotes. For example, Smith (1978) noted that "the world is round" (p. 1).
      2. Three or four quotes in a 10 page paper is about the upper limit.
      3. Display a quotation of more than 40 words as free-standing block of text indented 5 spaces from the left margin (single spaced). Omit the quotation marks and include the page number in parentheses after the last period. Also, if the quotation is more than one paragraph, indent the first line of the second and any additional paragraphs 5 spaces.
      4. Copied text that is verbatim to a reference must be enclosed in quotations. Simply rearranging a few words does not constitute paraphrasing. Be careful of plagiarism!

 

  1. Research Reports

    1. Title Page
      1. See an example title page on this site.
      2. Choosing a title. The title should summarize the main idea of the paper in 10-12 words. A good recipe to work with when reporting the results of an experiment is (Dependent Variable) as a Function of (Independent Variable) or The Effects of (Independent Variable) on (Dependent Variable). With other types of research you should try to include the variables of interest in the title (and be careful not to imply causality). Also, it is a good idea to include the species if you're working with animals or some details about the type of population if you're working with humans. Never try to capture the reader’s attention with “cleaver or cute titles”.

 

    1. Introduction
      1. Begins on page 2 (after the title page).
      2. Start this page by retyping your title (centered), then begin typing the section (on the next double spaced line) using normal (5 space indented) paragraphs. Do not type the word Introduction.
      3. The introduction should clearly define the problem or issue.
      4. It starts out broad and becomes more and more specific.
      5. It is often useful to use headings (and perhaps subheadings) in the body of the research report to help communicate the outline and organization of the paper to the reader. It is a good idea to precede the headings with a paragraph informing the reader of the logical organization (i.e., other headings that will be employed). This paragraph should appear at the end of the introduction just before the actual body of the paper and is important because it lets the reader know the directions that the paper will take.

 

    1. Body
      1. If you use headings, the primary main heading levels should be treated like the main heading of a research report, that is, type the main heading using upper and lower case, and center it horizontally on the page. Second level headings are flush left and underlined. Third level headings (if necessary) are indented like the normal paragraphs that they start off. Thus, the words of the third level heading lead off the paragraph, are separated from it by a period, and are underlined (including the period). The rest of the paragraph follows the period.
      2. This section should present the relevant literature and ideas.
      3. Often the instructor will set a minimum number of references that are required. These references will be listed in the reference section and are cited using a particular style which you can see most clearly in the literature you are reading for your review.
      4. A common mistake that students often make is to organize the paper around the specific references they are using (even using the reference titles as the main headings of the manuscript). The paper should be organized around the relevant phenomenon or theory and not by the specific references that one uses in the paper.
      5. This section can be lengthy (depending upon how much material is presented).
      6. You might try to identify relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the literature.
      7. You might suggest possible solutions to any problem(s) identified.
      8. You might suggest future directions for research to take.

 

    1. Conclusions
      1. Finally, you need an ending section, in which, you summarize the main points you have made.

 

    1. References
      1. Start on a new page. Center the word References at the top. As usual, double space.
      2. Any citations made in the manuscript must be presented in this section and vice versa. That is, if something is not cited in the text, then it should not appear in this section. In still other words, this is not a bibliography.
      3. This section is alphabetized by last name (of the first author involved in the study).
      4. Normal paragraphs (i.e., five-space indented) are employed for each reference.
      5. For each author, give the last name followed by a comma and the first (and middle) initials followed by periods.
      6. Separate multiple authors with commas and the last author with the ampersand ('&') rather than the word "and".
      7. After the author(s) comes the year (in parentheses and followed by a period).
      8. For a journal reference, underline the title of the journal, volume number and adjacent punctuation marks with a single unbroken line. Note that issue numbers are typically not included. Also, capitalize the important words of the journal title.
      9. For a book reference, just underline the title. Only capitalize the first word of the title. Do include the city, state (as a two-letter abbreviation without periods), and the publisher's name.

 

    1. Other Sections
      1. After the above sections come any tables, the page(s) with the figure captions, and finally any figures, respectively. Each belongs on a separate page (multiple figure captions can appear on one page however).
      2. Tables and the figure captions page have a manuscript page header and page number just like all the other typed pages. Note that figures are not typed, and so do not have a manuscript page header and page number.
      3. Tables and figures should be able to stand alone (i.e., you should not have to read the manuscript to be able to understand a table or figure). A big help in this regard is the table title or the figure caption. Use these wisely to explain what is going on in the table or figure. In other words, do not be afraid to be a little bit verbose in your table titles and figure captions.
      4. Tables and figures should not duplicate the same information. Likewise, you should not repeat the data point values in a table or figure in the text of the manuscript.
      5. Tables and figures are more expensive to include in the manuscript than text. Therefore, if you include one, it should include a reasonable number of data points (unless it illustrates a particularly complex result). In other words, if you only have a few data points to present, do it in the text of the manuscript rather than in a table or figure.
      6. Tables and figures are most often used to present results, but may also be used to present other information, such as the design or a theoretical schema.
      7. If you include a table or figure, you must introduce it in the text of the results section (e.g., Table 1 displays the...) and describe to the reader what should be seen in it.

Tables

      1. Note that APA style tables do not contain any vertical lines, so do not draw them in or use your word processor to generate them.
      2. Type the table number and then (on the next double spaced line) type the table title flush left and underlined. Note that there are no periods used after the table number or title.
      3. When using columns with decimal numbers, make the decimal points line up.

Figure Captions

      1. Start on a new page. Center the phrase Figure Captions at the top.
      2. Each figure caption is typed flush left in block format.
      3. The word 'figure', the number, and the adjacent period are underlined, for example, Figure 1. The effects of...

Figures

      1. 'Figures' is the technical term for graphs, charts, drawings and pictures.
      2. Figures (other than pictures) may be drawn in black and white only (using a ruler and preferably on graph paper) or they may be generated with a computer graphics program (keeping it in two dimensions).
      3. Center each figure on the page vertically as well as horizontally and arrange for the figure to use the bulk of the page.
      4. If the figure is a chart or graph, verbally label the axes (do not use "X" and "Y") and provide a key if necessary (e.g., explaining what open vs. filled circles are).
      5. On the back of each figure (with a pencil), put the manuscript page header, the figure number, and the word TOP to indicate how the figure should appear on the page.
      6. Do not put the figure caption on the figure, since that is what the figure captions page is for.