APA Style Simplified

Bernard C. Beins, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at Ithaca College, New York. He is the recipient of the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award from the American Psychological Foundation. He has served as president of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, the Eastern Psychological Association, and the New England Psychological Association. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, Eastern Psychological Association, and New England Psychological Association.

• Writing in APA StyleChapter 1—Writing Professionally How does Professional Writing Differ from Other Kinds of Writing?Using APA StyleMaking a Credible ArgumentDifferent Types of CommunicationEffective CommunicationEstablishing Good Writing HabitsEthical WritingChapter 2—Elements of Style Recognizing the importance of good grammar and styleChoosing Effective Wording Using Inclusive and Appropriate Language Deciding on the Use of Technical LanguageAvoiding Common ProblemsChapter 3—The Introduction Section Introducing the TopicDifferent Approaches to Starting the IntroductionHow to BeginReviewing What Others Have Already DoneReasons for Reviewing the LiteratureClarifying Terms in ResearchIntroducing your Research: Generating a HypothesisChapter 4—The Method Section Participants and SubjectsMaterials and ApparatusProcedureDesignChapter 5—Communicating Statistics Why do we use statistics?What point are you trying to make?Understanding your numbersHelping Readers Understand Your StatisticsDifferentiating Results and InterpretationsChapter 6—The Results Your HypothesesDeciding What to PresentReporting Significant and Nonsignificant ResultsAPA Style and Presentation of Your ResultsCreating TablesCreating FiguresThe Connection Between the Text and the Tables and FiguresThe Difference Between Results and Discussion SectionsSome Final Points About Presenting ResultsChapter 7—The Discussion Section Summarizing your ResultsConnecting Different Aspects of your ResultsDealing with Nonsignificant ResultsComparing your Results with Those of OthersStating the Importance and Implications of your ResultsAcknowledging the Limitations of your StudyChapter 8—References: Citations in the Text and the Reference List Citing References in the TextOrder of Citations in the Reference ListUsing Your Word Processing Program to Create the CitationChapter 9—Final Touches: The Abstract and Formatting Details The AbstractFormatting DetailsChapter 10—Creating Poster Presentations Differentiating Visual and Written CommunicationReducing the Amount of InformationVisual StyleYour Behavior: The Ethic of a Poster SessionCreating Your Poster Using PowerPoint©Chapter 11—Giving Oral Presentations The Difference Between Oral and Written EnglishAdapting APA Style to Oral PresentationsPreparing for Your PresentationCreating Graphics for Your PresentationGiving the PresentationChapter 12—Presenting your Work on the Internet Capabilities with Internet PublicationUsing a Word Processor to Create Manuscripts for the InternetAdvantages of Internet Publishing SoftwarePublishing Your Poster on the WebUploading your manuscript to the Internet Appendix A—Sample Paper with Common ErrorsAppendix B—Corrected Sample PaperReferences