Langston, Research Methods Laboratory, Notes 3 -- Writing APA Style
Papers
This set of notes covers the parts of an APA paper not covered in the method and
results sections notes and the introduction
and discussion sections notes. For formatting, see the APA
formatted paper example (a downloadable pdf file).
Here are all of the parts of a paper (in the order in which they
appear):
Title page
*
Abstract
*
Introduction
Method
Results
Discussion
*
References
*
Footnotes
*
Tables
*
Figures
* = Page break.
A. Title page:
- Format:
- The heading for every page is "Running head: <RUNNING
HEAD> <#>" where <RUNNING HEAD> is a summary of the
paper title and <#> is
the page number. The title page is page 1. The title page
and
all subsequent pages should have the heading.
- Type the title.
- Type your name.
- Type your institution.
B. Abstract: This is a brief
summary of your paper. When
you look at PsycINFO and read the article summaries, those are
abstracts.
- Format:
- Put it on its own page.
- Once you set up the header, the running head and page number
will be on all pages. The abstract will be page 2.
- Center the word "Abstract" at the top of the page. The word
"Abstract" will be in bold.
- Do not indent the first line (or any line).
- Content:
- No more than 120 words.
- Summarize each of the parts of the manuscript. I would
choose
the hypothesis from the introduction, a brief bit of participants,
materials,
and procedure from the method, the main results, and the conclusion
from
the discussion. The goal is to say in as few words as possible
exactly
what you did in your experiment. This is an important exercise in
getting
right to the main point.
Usually, you write the whole paper and then the abstract.
C. Introduction (for content, see
the introduction
and discussion section notes):
- Format:
- Center the title at the top of the page. It will not be bold.
- Indent the first line of each paragraph.
- It's usually in the past tense. The parts that are
already done (like literature citations) are definitely past.
- <>Content: For citation format, follow these examples:>
- Single author:
- "Carroll (1994) described the use of tachistoscopes to
present visual
information
rapidly."
- "Visual information can be presented rapidly using a
tachistoscope
(Carroll,
1994)."
- Two authors:
- "Gernsbacher and Hargreaves (1988) claimed that
first-mentioned actors
provide..."
- "First mentioned actors provide foundations for
structure-building
(Gernsbacher
& Hargreaves, 1988)."
- More than two authors:
- "Langston, Ohnesorge, Kruley, and Haase (1994) showed that
experimental..."
- "Experimental participants do not differ across the semester
(Langston, Ohnesorge, Kruley, & Haase, 1994)."
- "Experimental participants do not differ across the semester
(Langston
et
al., 1994)." (Note, for more than two authors, it's the first
name
plus "et al." for all citations after the first one.)
- Try not to quote exact words. If you have to quote,
follow
this example:
- "A tachistoscope is a device that permits the rapid visual
presentation
of
a stimulus" (Carroll, 1994, p. 95). You put the quotation and
then
a regular citation plus the page number where the quotation appeared.
D. References: This is where you
list the specific
information required to locate the articles in the library. I'm
going to give you
examples of the most common types. See the Publication Manual for
additional
types.
- Format:
- Start them on a new page.
- Center the word "References" on the top of the page. The word
"References" will be bold.
- List references in alphabetical order by the first author's
last
name.
- Indent the second and all subsequent lines of each reference
(e.g.,
a hanging indent, the first line is flush then indent the rest).
- Content:
- A journal article:
- List all authors in the order listed on the article. Put
their
last name, first initial (and additional initials if there are
any). Separate authors with commas, and put "&" before the last
author, space.
- Put the publication year in parentheses.
- Put a period after that and space.
- Put the title of the article. Only capitalize the first
word
of the title, first words after colons, and words that require
capitalization (e.g., proper names).
- Put a period after that and space.
- Put the journal name (italic, capitalize as for any title),
put
a comma, put the volume number (still italic), put a comma, stop
italic. If the journal restarts page numbering with each issue, put the
issue number in parentheses. Space.
- Put the page numbers (start page number-end page number). Put
a period.
- Put "doi: " and the doi. The doi can be found by looking up
the record in PsycInfo or at crossref.org. If an article does not have
a doi you can leave it off. Do not put a period after the doi.
Glenberg, A. M., & Langston, W. E.
(1992). Comprehension of illustrated text: Pictures help to build
mental models. Journal of Memory and Language, 31, 129-151.
doi: 10.1016/0749-596X(92)90008-L
- An entire book:
- List all authors in the order listed on the book. Put
their
last name, first initial (and additional initials if there are
any). Separate authors with commas, and put "&" before the
last author. Space.
- Put the publication year in parentheses.
- Put a period after that and space.
- Put the title of the book (italic, capitalize as for a
journal article),
stop italic. If this is later than the first edition, put the
edition
in parentheses, like "(2nd ed.)".
- Put a period after that and space.
- Put the place of publication, a colon, space, and the
publisher. End with a period.
Langston, W. (2005). Research methods laboratory manual for
psychology (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
- A chapter in an edited book:
Glenberg, A. M., Kruley, P., &
Langston, W. E. (1994). Analogical processes in comprehension:
Simulation of
a mental model. In M. A. Gernsbacher (Ed.), Handbook of
psycholinguistics
(pp. 609-640). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
- An
online source:
Hyman, R. (1999). How
people are fooled by ideomotor action. Retrieved
from http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/ideomotor.html.
E. Footnotes: In psychology we try to avoid the use of
footnotes
unless there's no other way to present the information. If you
absolutely
can't work it into the text, then:
- Format:
- In the text:
- Superscript the footnote number (they're numbered in order
throughout
the
paper) at the end of the place where it's needed. For example:
We used a stairstep procedure to
determine reading speed.1
- On the Footnotes page:
- Footnotes go on a new page, after the references. Center the
word "Footnotes" at the top of the page. The word "Footnotes" is not
bold.
- Indent the first line of each footnote.
- Superscript the footnote number before the text of the
footnote.
1The stairstep procedure is
a standard psychophysical technique for presenting trials to
participants.
F. Tables: Tables are used to
present statistical
information, samples of materials, etc.
- Format:
- In the text:
- When you refer to information in a table you say something
like:
"The means are presented in Table 1."
- The table itself:
- Each table goes on its own page, the first one goes
immediately after
the references (or footnotes, if you have them).
- The header appears on the page.
- Type "Table x" flush left, where "x" is the table number.
- Below that, type the title of the table (italic). This should
be
short
and to the point.
- Type the table. Some elements might be separated by
lines
that go across the page, some might be underlined. Table
construction is more art than science. See the Publication Manual for
details.
G. Figures: Figures are used to
convey information that cannot be presented as text (e.g., graphs).
- Format:
- Each figure goes on its own page.
- The header appears on the page.
- Put the figure above the figure caption.
- The figure caption is a description of what is being presented
in the figure. Start with the figure number in italic (e.g., Figure 1). Then a period, then the
figure caption.
Research Methods Lab Notes 3
Will Langston
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