APA Style Simplified (eBook)

Writing in Psychology, Education, Nursing, and Sociology

Bernard C. Beins (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2012
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
9781118289082 (ISBN)

Infos

This is a compact but comprehensive guide to writing clearly and effectively in APA style.

• Demonstrates how to write objective scientific research papers using interesting prose
• Incorporates guidelines from the 6^th edition of the APA publication manual
• Explores how to develop ideas, connect them to what others have written, and express them clearly
• Discusses the differences between written, oral, and poster presentations and offers instructions for applying APA style to each

Bernard C. (Barney) Beins, Ph.D., is professor and chair of psychology at Ithaca College. He is author of about 150 articles, chapters, books, and pedagogical material. He recently received the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award from the American Psychological Foundation. He is author with his daughter Agatha of Effective Writing in Psychology: Papers, Posters, and Presentations, 2nd Edition (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) and Research Methods: A Tool for Life (2008). He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Eastern Psychological Association.

Inhalt

Preface viii

Acknowledgments xi

1 Writing Professionally 1

How Does Professional Writing Differ From Other Kinds of Writing? 2

Using APA Style 3

Making a Credible Argument 5

Different Types of Communication 6

Effective Communication 8

Establishing Good Writing Habits 9

Ethical Writing 10

2 Elements of Style 15

Recognizing the Importance of Good Grammar and Style 16

Choosing Effective Wording 17

Using Inclusive and Appropriate Language 19

Deciding on the Use of Technical Language 20

Avoiding Common Problems 21

Verb Forms 24

Spelling 25

Specific Word Use 25

3 The Introduction Section 32

Introducing the Topic 33

Different Approaches to Starting the Introduction 34

How to Begin 38

Reviewing the Literature 38

Introducing Your Research: Generating a Hypothesis 40

4 The Method Section 43

Participants and Subjects 44

Materials and Apparatus 52

Procedure 56

Design 58

5 Communicating Statistics 59

Why Do We Use Statistics? 60

What Point Are You Trying to Make? 61

Understanding Your Numbers 63

Helping Readers Understand Your Statistics 65

Differentiating Results and Interpretations 68

6 The Results Section 69

Your Hypothesis 70

Deciding What to Present 71

APA Style and Presentation of Your Results 74

Creating Tables 77

Creating Figures 82

The Connection Between the Text and the Tables and Figures 87

The Difference Between Results and Discussion Sections 87

Some Final Points About Presenting Results 88

7 The Discussion Section 91

Summarizing Your Results 92

Connecting Different Aspects of Your Results 94

Dealing With Nonsignificant Results 95

Comparing Your Results With Those of Others 96

Stating the Importance and Implications of Your Results 97

Acknowledging the Limitations of Your Study 98

8 References: Citations in the Text and the Reference List 100

Citing References in the Text 101

Order of Citations in the Reference List 105

Using Your Word-Processing Program to Create the Citation 105

Examples of How Different Types of References Should Be Laid Out 106

9 Final Touches: The Abstract and Formatting Details 114

The Abstract 115

Formatting Your Manuscript 116

10 Creating Poster Presentations 135

Differentiating Visual and Written Communication 135

Reducing the Amount of Information 136

Visual Style 137

Your Behavior: The Ethic of a Poster Session 142

Creating Your Poster Using PowerPoint® 144

11 Giving Oral Presentations 152

The Difference Between Oral and Written English 152

Adapting APA Style to Oral Presentations 156

Preparing for Your Talk 157

Creating Graphics for Your Presentation 159

Giving the Presentation 160

12 Sharing Your Work Electronically 163

New Capabilities in Electronic Sharing 164

Using a Word Processor to Create Manuscripts for the Internet 165

Advantages of Internet Publishing Software 167

Publishing Your Poster on the Web 169

Uploading Your Manuscript to the Internet 169

Revisiting the Concept of Plagiarism 170

Appendix A: Example of APA-Style Manuscript with

Common Errors 171

Appendix B: Corrected APA-Style Manuscript 179

References 188

Name Index 195

Subject Index 198

Rezensionen

''As with previous editions Browne et al have provided a
comprehensive, contemporary and focussed A2 textbook which directly
applies to the AQA specification. Via attention to the demands of
the specification and reference to exam style questions the book is
thoroughly usable and gives the reader clarity of purpose
concerning the material. A balance is achieved between classic
Sociology and up to date material, giving students the opportunity
to recognise the relevance and importance of sociological
investigations in today's society.''

David Morton, King Edward VI College, Stourbridge and examiner
for AQA

''This is an magnificent text. It won't just be another
text on A2 Sociology for students but will serve as the leader in
the area. It has key concepts but with inspirational examples.
It's the best textbook I have ever read for AQA A2 for
Sociology.''

Jason L. Powell, Coventry University

''This is an outstanding addition to the range of resources now
available to sociology students. Ken Brown and his colleagues
represent the very best in sociology teaching and this text, now in
its long-awaited second edition, should be on the shelves of all
aspiring sociology students and their teachers.''

Dr Gerry Czerniawski, University of East London, A-level
examiner and National Teaching Fellow

Provides valuable guidance...Beins is an outstanding teacher,
researcher, author, and editor. Following his suggestions will
improve your clarity, conciseness, and felicity of
expression.

- Charles Brewer, Furman University

Not only does Beins explain how one should write, more importantly,
he explains why one should write. This book will be a great
resource for both new and experienced writers alike.

- Bryan K. Saville, James Madison University

The author presents APA style in ways that are accessible to
students and that address the various struggles they encounter in
learning how to write for professional audiences.

- M. Elise Radina, Miami University

Textauszug

2

Elements of Style

Agatha M. Beins

Social criticism begins with grammar and the re-establishing of meanings.

Octavio Paz

Easy reading is damned hard writing.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to shoot through the ceiling.

   “Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

   “Well, I’m a panda,” he says at the door. “Look it up.”

   The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. “Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

As this joke shows us, just one extra comma changes the entire meaning of a sentence. Consider the difference between Eats, shoots and leaves and Eats shoots and leaves. Most likely, a misplaced punctuation mark in your paper will not result in the firing of any guns; however, a number of misplaced punctuation marks or stylistic errors may result in a B+ rather than an A. This is because grammar is not just a series of unfortunate rules that you are supposed to learn. Rather, grammar is what enables us to communicate effectively.

In this chapter you will read about good grammar and elements of style. If grammar symbolizes the tools of construction, then style symbolizes the way you decorate that construction.

Recognizing the Importance of Good Grammar and Style

Generally, grammar and style do not seem to be exciting topics. They involve rules that don’t make sense (e.g., why is it considered improper to end a sentence with a preposition?) and seemingly obscure terms that confuse more than they clarify. Furthermore, knowing the difference between a subordinating and a correlative conjunction does not necessarily mean that a writer is able to use them correctly (the latter connects two independent clauses in a particular way and the former joins an independent clause with a dependent one).

Communication, however, does not occur only at the level of grammar. Through your style of writing, your words also convey a specific tone that carries beyond the denotative meaning. Consider that the way you describe your research paper to a friend and to your psychology professor would probably be different. Academic tone tends to be more formal than that of daily conversation. To write in a way that conveys such a tone avoid the following:

• contractions (use do not rather than don’t);
• colloquial expressions, such as you know and got to;
• vague expressions, such as practically all, most of them, a lot, some;
• shortcuts used for instant messaging or text messaging such as lol or omg;
• hyperbolic language, such as stupid, dumb, awesome, shocking;
• ridiculing another person’s work.

Another facet of grammar and style relates to APA guidelines. APA has a citation style that differs from what scholars in the English department would use; and APA style has specific rules, such as those relating to the use of acronyms and formatting a paper.

As you can see, grammar and style are shaped by both the requirements for basic meaningful communication and the specific expectations of your readers. In other words, your writing should be stylistically fluent and technically proficient. Errors in grammar can make your reader expend a lot of effort trying to understand the meaning of a sentence, and deviations from the conventional style can weaken your credibility as a writer.

Choosing Effective Wording

Although writing in the sciences might seem dry and uncreative, there are subtle gestures you can make to increase the power and readability of your writing. For example, in addition to employing good grammar and active verbs, you can vary the kind and length of your sentences. It is not grammatically incorrect to write with a series of sentences that are the same length or with sentences that begin in the same way, but this style of writing can be tedious to read. Furthermore, if you present your information in an unvarying manner, it can be easy for your reader to overlook important information. Therefore, changing sentence length is a tool to guide your reader. Following a long sentence with a brief sentence will draw attention to the information in the brief sentence.

The way you construct a sentence also enables you to emphasize different pieces of information. Hyde (2005) wrote, “In an important experiment, Lightdale and Prentice (1994) demonstrated the importance of gender roles and social context in creating or erasing the purportedly robust gender differences in aggression” (p. 588). The examples below are phrased differently, and, as a result, highlight different information.

1. Surprisingly, the purportedly robust gender differences in aggression can be created or erased in different social contexts, according to an important experiment by Lightdale and Prentice (1994).

2. Social context is an important factor in determining levels of aggression for both men and women (Lightdale and Prentice 1994).

3. The purportedly robust gender differences in aggression need to be analyzed within their social context, as shown by Lightdale and Prentice (1994).

4. Although one may believe that gender differences are innate, Lightdale and Prentice’s (1994) research demonstrates the importance of gender roles and social context in creating or erasing the purportedly robust gender differences in aggression.

5. Research by Lightdale and Prentice (1994) has shown that levels of aggression, generally thought to be higher in males, are affected by social context as well as biology.

The way you start a sentence can give your reader clues about how to read the sentence and to connect it to other ideas. Words like surprisingly and although signal a relation between ideas that may be one of contrast (examples 1 and 4). Also, note that example 2 mentions the researchers only in a citation, whereas the original sentence and examples 1 and 5 emphasize the role of the researchers. Lastly, compare the tone of sentences 2 and 3. Sentence 2 offers information in a relatively neutral tone, whereas sentence 3 expresses a more persuasive tone with the word purportedly and the phrase need to be.

Another aspect of effective wording involves the skillful use of transitions that show a relation among ideas or concepts in your writing. Transitions bridge ideas, signaling the kind of statement you are making. Table 2.1 offers a series of situations in which you might use transitions as well as a list of transition words or phrases you can use to illustrate a relation. Transitional words and phrases in each row can take on slightly different meanings. Thus, it is important that you use transitions deliberately.

Table 2.1 Transitions and Their Uses

Purpose

Transition words

To add

accordingly, in addition, both … and, equally important, further, furthermore, moreover, not only … but also

To show contrast

although, but, in contrast, conversely, despite, meanwhile, on the other hand, notwithstanding, otherwise, rather, whereas, yet

To show similarity

in the same way, likewise, similarly

To show exception

despite, however, in spite of, nevertheless, still, yet

To show that you are elaborating on a point

that is, in fact, to illustrate, in other words

To show a result

because, as a consequence, consequently, hence, for this (these) reason(s), as a result, therefore, thus

To show the passage of time or sequence

after, afterward, at this point, before, concurrently, earlier, finally, following, formerly, immediately, meanwhile, next, previously, prior to, simultaneously, subsequently, then, thereafter, thus, while, since

To give an example

to demonstrate, for example, for instance, in another case, to illustrate, in particular, in this case, in this situation, specifically, such as

To emphasize

actually, certainly, extremely, emphatically, in fact, indeed, most importantly, unquestionably, without a doubt, without reservation

To summarize or conclude

as I have shown, in brief, to conclude, in conclusion, hence, on the whole

Using Inclusive and Appropriate Language

Inclusive language means language that does not unnecessarily exclude or single out groups of people. We emphasize inclusive language because of concerns about precision and ethics.

Regarding precision, good research requires accuracy. Accuracy is critical not only to the validity of your results, but also to your credibility as a researcher. If your pool of participants includes men and women, using masculine pronouns (him, his, or he) to refer to an average participant is a form of exclusive language and does not accurately reflect your...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 22.3.2012
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: Bildungswesen • Education • Educational Research & Statistics • Pädagogik / wissenschaftliche Studien u. Statistik • Pädagogik / wissenschaftliche Studien u. Statistik • Psychologie • Psychology • Research Methodologies • scientific, research papers, dissertations, poster presentations, APA sixth edition • Sociology • Soziologie • Soziologische Forschungsmethoden
• ISBN-13: 9781118289082 / 9781118289082