Writing an APA-Style Research Report Title, Abstract, Introduction

The Title Page Running Head in Header with Page Number –  50 characters, flush left, all upper case Title – centered, upper and lower case Authors and Institutional Affiliations – centered, upper and lower case – ordered by relative contribution Author Notes

The Abstract Ctrl, Enter to create hard page break. This will be page 2 of the manuscript. “Abstract” centered on first line. Do not indent next line. One paragraph, ≤ 120 words. Highlight abstract text, look lower left to see word count.

> 120 Words I usually cheat and provide more than 120 words, and get away with it. Here there were 142 words in the abstract, 4,740 in the entire document.

Writing Style Try to avoid passive voice (This has been found to be difficult).passive voice First person is OK, but not too often. Avoid quotations, paraphrase instead. Avoid footnotes. Avoid dehumanizing language, but “subjects” is now OK.dehumanizing language

Introduction Section Start on a new page, after the abstract On the first line, type the title –upper and lower case –centered On next line, start the text –Indented –left-aligned.

Introduce Your Research Why did you conduct this research? How is your research different from previous research? Start out broad and then narrow the focus. Review the most relevant literature. Finish with a statement of purpose. –What results were expected? –Why were these results expected?

Expected Results Research hypotheses may be formally stated in the Introduction. –but don’t present “null” hypotheses. – I prefer a less formal presentation. Pre-diction versus post-diction –Predicting course performance in freshman and sophomore physics courses: Women are more predictable than men.

Citations Acknowledge the work of others, do not plagiarize. Consult the Writer’s Handbook.Writer’s Handbook Look in APA style journals for examples. One-to-one correspondence between citations in text and those in reference list.

Example Citations in Text ….. female jurors are more likely than male jurors to find a male defendant guilty of sexual harassment of a female plaintiff (Egbert, Moore, Wuensch, & Castellow, 1992; Moore et al., 1994; Wuensch, Campbell, Kesler, & Moore, 2002). Calhoun and Townsley (1991, p. 66) noted that …….

Example Reference List References Calhoun, K. S., & Townsley, R. M. (1991). Attributions of responsibility for acquaintance rape. In A. Parrot, & L. Bechhofer (Eds.), Acquaintance rape: The hidden crime (pp ). New York, NY: Wiley. Castellow, W. A., Wuensch, K. L., & Moore, C. H. (1990). Effects of physical attractiveness of plaintiff and defendant in sexual harassment judgments. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 16,

Headings Can have 1-5 levels of headings. Two should be enough for your paper. Ignore the information in Martin, the APA has changed their rules recently. See APA-Style HeadingsAPA-Style Headings See the Writer’s Handbook.Writer’s Handbook