Research Methods Laboratory

 

Lammers' Writing Tips

General Writing Tips

• Use active voice instead of passive voice.
• Begin paragraphs with a good topic sentence.
• Space once after all punctuation (includes period at end of sentence) unless it is an abbreviation.
• Use "men", "women", "boys", "girls" instead of "males", "females".
• Spell out numbers less than 10.
• Only spell out numbers greater than 10 if they begin a sentence.
• "Gender" is used when referring to men and women as social groups. "Sex" is used when referring to men and women as biologically different.
• Use "&" instead of "and" when citing in parentheses.
• Remove all unnecessary uses of the word "the".
• A paragraph should have more than one sentence.

General APA Format Tips

• All margins should be one inch.
• Double-space all lines of text.
• Number all pages in the following order: title page, abstract, text, references, appendixes, tables, figure captions, figures.
• Page headers and page numbers should be in the upper-right corner of each page (excluding figures).
• Page headers should be the first two or three words from the title of the paper.
• Use "et al." beginning with the second time that you cite a reference, unless there are more than five authors (in which case you can use "et al." the first time).

Specific Tips for Each Section

Title Page

• Use a lowercase "h" in "Running head:".
• The running head should be an abbreviated title, less than 50 characters, and typed in all capital letters.
• The running head and the page header are usually not the same phrase.
• The title should summarize the main idea of the paper.

Abstract

• The first line should be flush to the left margin.
• Limit the length to less than 120 words.
• Include a summary of the purpose, methods, results, and discussion.

Introduction

• Center the title at the top of the page.
• The first paragraph should be a broad introduction to the topic of your paper.
• Subsequent paragraphs should review relevant findings/ideas in the literature.
• Use past tense when discussing findings in the literature.
• Organize your paragraphs around ideas/concepts, not individual studies.
• Know what plagiarism is! Use quotation marks for direct quotes and include the page number in the citation.
• Limit the number of direct quotes. Most introductions need none.
• The last paragraph should summarize the literature and present the rationale for your specific hypotheses.

Method

• The heading for this section is "Method", not "Methods".
• Divide this section with italicized side-headings of "Participants", "Apparatus/Materials", and "Procedure".
• Use the term "participants" instead of "subjects".
• Write this section so that someone else could replicate your study.
• Avoid description of procedures in the first two sections.
• Write in future tense if the paper is a proposal. Write in past tense if the paper is a report.
• Be sure that the independent and dependent variables are clear to the reader.
• If there was assignment to groups, be sure to describe how this was done.

Results

• Describe how the data were scored.
• Note in the above sentence that "data" is plural.
• Re-state the hypothesis.
• Present descriptive statistics and use tables and figures to aid the description.
• Explain tables and figures instead of simply referring to them.
• Present inferential statistics to determine significance.
• Italicize the test statistic (e.g., "F", "t") and the "p" when reporting inferential statistics.

Discussion

• First paragraph should summarize the results and should state whether your hypotheses were supported.
• Relate your findings to any relevant theory and to other studies in the literature.
• Relate your findings to any theoretical viewpoints that may be relevant.
• Comment on any shortcomings/limitations of your study.
• Discuss the practical applications (if appropriate) of your findings.
• Present ideas for future research.

References

• Be sure that all citations in the text are included in the reference section.
• Use author initials instead of first names.
• Italicize the journal name and volume number for article references.
• References should be in alphabetical order.
• Use the APA guide to check the format for various types of references.

Tables

• All lines of text should be double-spaced.
• Use horizontal lines but not vertical lines to separate parts of the table.
• Be sure that your table has a descriptive title and that it is italicized.
• Line-up decimal points within columns of numbers.

Figures

• Figure captions (titles) should be on a separate "Figure Captions" page.
• Use descriptive labels along figure axes.
• Adjust the scale on the y-axis so that apparent differences on the graph reflect statistically significant differences.
• Print the figure number, a short article title, and "TOP" on the back of each figure.

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