APA Style Grammar

Verbs  Use active rather than passive voice, select tense and mood carefully  Poor: The survey was conducted in a controlled setting.  Better: We conducted the survey in a controlled setting.  Poor: The experiment was designed by Simpson (2001).  Better: Simpson (2001) designed the experiment.

Verbs  Passive voice is acceptable in expository writing and when you want to focus on the recipient of the action.  Use past tense to express action that occurred in the past (e.g. another researcher’s work, reporting results)  Use present perfect tense (has + verb) to express a past action that did not occur in a specific time in the past or that is still continuing to the present.  “Since that time, investigators from several studies have used this method.”

Verbs  Use subjunctive tense to describe conditions that are contrary to fact or improbable  Incorrect: If the experiment was not designed this way, the participants’ performances would suffer.  Correct: If the experiment were not designed this way, the participants’ performances would suffer.  Use would with care. Do not use would to hedge. Example: it would appear that vs. it appears that

Agreement of Subject and Verb  Verb must agree in number (singular vs. plural) with its subject  The plural form of some nouns of foreign origin (e.g. data, phenomena) may appear to be singular when they are plural.  Collective nouns can be singular or plural. If action is on a group as a whole, it is singular. If action is on the members of a group, it is plural.  None can be singular or plural. When the noun following is single, use singular; when the noun following is plural, use plural. If you mean “not one”, use not one.

Agreement of Subject and Verb  When subject is composed of singular and plural noun joined by or or nor, the verb agrees with the noun that is closer.  If the number of the subject changes, retain the verb in each clause.  Example: The positions in the sequence were changed, and the test was rerun.

Pronouns  Pronouns replace nouns. Should refer clearly to antecedent and agree with antecedent in number and gender.  Use neuter pronouns to refer to animals unless animals have been named.  Pronouns can be subjects or objects of verbs or prepositions. Use who as the subject of a verb and whom as an object of a verb or preposition.  If you can use he or she, who is correct. If you can use him or her, whom is correct.

Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers and Use of Adverbs  An adjective or adverb must clearly refer to the word it modifies  Misplaced modifiers illogically modify a word. Place adjective or adverb as close as possible to the word it modifies.  Unclear: The investigator tested the participants using this procedure.  Clear: The investigator tested the participants who were using this procedure.  Clear: Using this procedure, the investigator tested the participants.

Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers and Use of Adverbs  Place the word only next to the word or phrase it modifies.  Dangling modifiers have no referent in the sentence. Can be avoided by using active tense.  Adverbs can be introductory or transitional words. Try to avoid importantly and interestingly. It is more appropriate to use important and interesting instead.  Hopefully means “in a hopeful manner” or “full of hope.” It does not mean “I hope” or “it is hoped.”

Relative Pronouns and Subordinate Conjunctions  Relative pronouns: who, whom, that, which  Subordinate conjunctions: since, while, although  Introduce an element that is subordinate to the main clause of the sentence and reflect the relationship of the subordinate element into the main clause.

Relative Pronouns  That vs. which  That clauses are essential to the meaning of the sentence. Which merely adds further information.  Which clauses are set off with commas  The animals that performed well in the first experiment were used in the second experiment.  The animals, which performed well in the first experiment, were not proficient in the second experiment.

Subordinate Conjunctions  While and since – both of these words have temporal and non-temporal meanings. APA suggests using them only when their temporal meanings are implied.  While and although – Use while to link events occurring simultaneously; otherwise, use although, whereas, and, or but  Since and because – Since is more precise when referring to time, otherwise use because

Parallel Construction  Present parallel ideas in parallel form  With coordinating conjunctions used in pairs, place the first conjunction immediately before the first part of the parallelism