WRITING STYLE
Verb tense. APA style papers should be written in past or present perfect tense:
Avoid: Mojit and Novian's (2013) experiment shows that...
Allowed: Mojit and Novian's (2013) experiment showed that...
Allowed: Mojit and Novian's (2013) experiment has shown that...
Be concise and clear
Style matters
AVOIDING BIAS
Be sensitive to labels
Gender pronouns
The 7th edition of Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association was created by the American Psychological Assocation (APA), and contains the complete guidelines on how to format material for publication and cite your research. It is a set of style rules that codifies the components of scientific writing in order to deliver concise and bias free information to the reader.
This guide provides some of the basics to keep in mind, but it doesn't replace owning or borrowing the actual Publication Manual itself. It should be on your desk by your side throughout your writing process.
APA style, 7th edition requires specific heading formatting.
For Levels 1-3, the paragraph text begins on a new line. For Levels 4-5, the paragraph text begins on the same line and continues as a paragraph.
Level of heading |
Format |
1 |
Centered, Boldface, Uppercase |
2 |
Flush Left, Boldface, Uppercase and |
3 |
Flush Left, Bold Italic, Uppercase and |
4 |
Indented, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase, Ending With a Period. |
5 |
Indented, Bold Italic, Uppercase and Lowercase, Ending With a Period.
|
In Section 4.2 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), APA (2020) states that you should use verb tenses consistently throughout your work. See a chart of when and how to use past tense (Rodriguez found) and present perfect tense (Researchers have shown) at the APA Style website.
Author/Date Citation Method
APA publications use the author/date in text citation system to briefly identify sources to readers. Each in-text citation is listed alphabetically in the reference list. All in-text citations referenced in the body of work musr appear in the reference list and vice versa.
Variations of author/date within a sentence
Here are some examples of how the author/date citation method are formatted within different parts of a sentence. Please note the author, publication date, and study are entirely fictional.
Citing works with more than one author
Journal articles
Sharifian, N., & Grühn, D. (2019). The differential impact of social participation and social support on psychological well-being: Evidence from the Wisconsin longitudinal study. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 88(2), 107-126. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091415018757213
Book
Shiraev, E. (2017). Personality theories: A global view. SAGE.
Chapter from a book
Ochs, E., & Schieffelin , B. B. (1984). Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories and their implications. In R. A. Shweder & R. A. LeVine (Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion (pp. 276 320). Cambridge University Press.
Webpage from a website
World Health Organization. (2020, June 15). Elder abuse. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/elder-abuse
View many more examples in the APA Style Manual or on the APA Style website.