APA Mechanics of Style - (7th Edition APA Manual)

1
APA Style
Mechanics of Style
K.THIYAGU, Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod
(Research Article / Dissertation / Thesis)
K. Thiyagu

Style refers to guidelines for
ensuring clear, consistent communication and presentation
in written works.
K. Thiyagu 2

In this presentation, talks about the APA Mechanics of style
(7th Edition) guidelines for scholarly writing, including
• punctuation,
• spelling,
• capitalization,
• italics,
• abbreviations,
• numbers,
• statistical and mathematical copy, and
• lists
3K. Thiyagu

Mechanics
of Style
Punctuation
Spelling
Capitalization
Italics
AbbreviationsNumbers
Statistics
Copy
Presentation
of Equation
List
4K. Thiyagu

Pause
• Comma
• Semicolon
• Colon
Stop
• Period
• Question mark
Take a detour
• Dash
• Parentheses
• Square brackets
Punctuation establishes the cadence of a sentence, telling readers where to
Punctuation
6K. Thiyagu

Space
Do
Insert one Space after the following:
Periods or other punctuation
marks at the end of the sentence.
Commas, Colons, and Semicolons
Periods following initials in
names
(M. P. Clark., K. Thiyagu )
Don’t
Insert one Space after the following:
After internal periods in
abbreviations
(e.g., a.m., i.e., U.S.)
Around colons in ratios (1:3)
7K. Thiyagu

Period / Full Stop (.)
Do
End a complete Sentence
With Initials in names (Suriya, K. T.)
Latin abbreviations (a.m., i.e., p.m., vs.)
Abbreviations used as adjectives
(U.S. Navy)
Era Designation (B.C., A.D., B.C.E.)
End each elements within a reference
(except DOIs and URLs)
Don’t
In abbreviations of state, province or
territory names (NY; CA; Washington)
In capital letter abbreviations and
acronyms (APA, NDA, NIMH, IQ)
Abbreviations for academic degree (PhD,
PsyD, EdD, MD, MA, RN, MSW, MEd)
Metric and nonmetric measurement
abbreviations (cm, hr, kg, min, ml, s)
After DOIs or URLs in the reference list.
8K. Thiyagu

Comma (,)
Do
Between elements in a series of three or more
items
(Correct: height, weight, and depth
Incorrect: height, weight and depth)
After an introductory phrase
(In this section, we discuss)
Set off statistics in the text
R(2,71) = 3.38, p <0.4.
Set off the year in the exact dates
(Retrieved April 23, 2020, from )
Set off the year in parenthetical in text
citations (Thiyagu, 2020)
Three digits in most numbers of 1,000 or more
Don’t
Between the two pars of a compound
predicate
Correct: Participants rated the items and
completed a demographic questionnaire.
To separate parts of measurement
(7 years 4 months
2 min 35 s)
9K. Thiyagu

Semicolon (;)
• Students received course credit for participation;
community members received Rs. 10.
Separate two independent clauses that are not joined
by a conjunction
• The children studied the vocabulary words;
however, they had difficulties with recall.
Separate two independent clauses joined by a
conjunctive adverb such as “however,” “therefore,” or
“nevertheless”
• The colour groups were red, yellow, and blue;
orange, green, and purple; or black, gray, and
brown.
Separate items in a list that already contains commas
• (Thiyagu, 2019; Lai et al., 2016; Williams & Peng, 2019)
Separate multiple parenthetical
citations
• (age, M = 34.5 years, 95% Cl [29.4, 39.6]; Years of education, M =
10.4 [8.7, 12.1]; and weekly income, M = 612 [522, 702])
Separate sets of statistics that already
contains commas
• (n = 33; Fu & Ginsburg, 2020)
Separate different types of
information in the same set of
parentheses, to avoid back-to-back
parentheses 10K. Thiyagu

Colon (:)
Between a grammatically complete introductory clause
Final phrase or clause that illustrates,
extends, or amplifies the preceding thought
In ratios and proportions
Example:
• The proportion of salt to water was 1:8.
• Suri et al. (2019) confirmed the finding: Test performance depended on preparation
11K. Thiyagu

Dash
• Long Dash
• To set off an element added to
amplify or digress from the main
clause.
• Do not use a space before or after
an em dash.
• Eg:
Social adjustment—butnot
academic adjustment—was
associated with extraversion
Em
Dash
• Midsized dash
• Between words of equal weight in
compound adjective and to indicate
a numerical range, such as a page
or date range.
• Do not insert a space before or
after an en dash.
• Eg:
Author-date citation
Sydney-Los Angeles flight
pp. 4-7; 50%-60%
En
Dash
These dashes are different from
hyphens and minus signs.
12K. Thiyagu

Quotation Marks (Use double quotation marks) (“ ”)
• The letter “m”
• The singular “they”
• Answered “yes” or “no”
Refer to a letter, word, phrase, or sentence as a
linguistic example or as itself
• The stimulus words were “garden”, “laundry”Present stimuli in the text
• Considered “normal” behaviour
• Called a “friendly link”
• Subsequent occurrence: normal behaviour, a
friendly link
Introduce a word or phrase used as an ironic
comment, as slang, or as an invented or coined
expression; do not use quotation marks for
subsequent occurrence
• The image label changed from “spiderweb” to
“dartboard.” The spiderweb and dartboard labels
…….
Introduced a label; after the label has been used
once, do not use quotation marks for
subsequent occurrence.
• Reference format
Title of a periodical article or book chapter
when the title is used in the text
13K. Thiyagu

Parentheses ( )
• The patters were statistically significant (see Figure 5).
To set off structurally
independent elements
• Barns and Suriya (2019) described
• (Proctor & Hoffmann, 2016)
To set off in-text citations
• Galvanic skin response (GSR)
• Child Report of Parental Behaviour Inventory (CRPBI; Schaefer, 1965)
To introduce an abbreviation in
the text
• (k-1)/(g-2)
To group of mathematics
expression
• Was statistically significant (p = .031)
To enclose statistical values
that do not already contains
parentheses
• t(75) = 2.19
• F(2,116) = 3.71
To enclose degrees of freedom
14K. Thiyagu

Square Brackets [ ]
• (The results for the control group [n = 8]
are also presented in Figure 2.)
To enclose parenthetical
material that is already in
parentheses
• (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory-2 [MMPI-2]; Butcher et al.,
2001)
To enclose abbreviations when
the abbreviated term appears in
parentheses.
• 95% Cls [-7.2, 4.3], [9.2. 12.4], and
[-1.2,-0.5]
To enclose values that are the
limits of a confidence interval
15K. Thiyagu

Slash (also called a “virgule.” “solidus.” or “shill”)
• and/or
• Latin o/a
To specify either of two
possibilities
• X/Y
To separate a numerator from
denominator
• /o/To set off phonemes
• Freud (1923/1961)
In citations of translated,
reprinted, reissued, or
republished works in the text
16K. Thiyagu

Spelling
Spelling in
APA Style Papers
Merriam-Webster.com
Dictionary
(https://www.merriam-
webster.com)
Spelling of
Psychological terms
APA Dictionary of
Psychology
(https://dictionary.apa.org)
18K. Thiyagu

Spelling
Singular Plural
Appendix Appendices
Criterion Criteria
Curriculum Curricula
Datum Data
Phenomenon Phenomena
Common technology words in
APA style papers
email ebook
ereader database
data set smartphone
internet intranet
Wi-Fi website
webpage the web
home page username
login page emoji
19K. Thiyagu

Hyphenation
20
Source:7thEdition-PublicationManualoftheAmericanPsychologicalAssociation
K. Thiyagu

Hyphenation
21
K. Thiyagu

Hyphenation
22
K. Thiyagu

Hyphenation
23
K. Thiyagu

APA style is a
“down” style,
meaning that
words are
lowercase unless
there is specific
guidance to
capitalise them.
25K. Thiyagu

Words Beginning a Sentence
Capitalise the following:
The first word in a complete
sentence
The first word after a colon if
what follows the colon is a
complete sentence
Example: The statement was
emphatic: Further research is
needed
Don’t Capitalize
Proper noun (other than
a personal name)
(e.g. iPad, eBay)
Lowercase statistics
terms
(e.g. t test, p value)
26K. Thiyagu

27
Proper Nouns and Trade Name
Name of Specific university department, academic institutions and
academic courses
Capitalize
Department of Psychology
Psychology 101
Science of Nursing Practice
Do not Capitalize
a psychology department,
a psychology course
a nursing course
K. Thiyagu

Capitalization
K. Thiyagu 28

Job Title and Positions
Capitalize Do not capitalize
Job title or position when the title precedes
a name
Job title or position when the title follows
the name or refers to a position
President Lincoln was elected in 1860 Abraham Lincoln was president of the United
States
Executive Director of Marketing Carolina
Espinoz led meeting,
Dr. Aisha Singh, Dr. Singh
Registered Nurse Paul T. Lo, Nurse Lo
Carolina Espinoza, executive director of
marketing, led the meeting,
President, vice president, chief executive
officer, executive director, manager, professor,
instructor, faculty, dean, psychologist,
psychiatrist, counsellor, social worker,
physicians, doctor, nurse
29K. Thiyagu

Diseases, Disorders, Therapies, Theories, and related terms
Diseases or disorders
autism spectrum
disorder
diabetes
major depression
leukemia
Therapies and
treatments
cognitive behavior
therapy
applied behaviour
analysis
immunotherapy
cataract surgery
Theories, concept,
hypotheses, principles,
models, and statistics
procedures
object performance
theory of mind
law of effect
associative learning
model
psychoanalytic theory
two-group t test
Do not capitalise
30K. Thiyagu

Titles of Tests and Measures
Capitalize
Published and unpublished test and
measure
Thematic Apperception Test
MMPI-2 Depression scale
Stroop Color-world Interference Test
SF-36 Physical Functioning scale
Do not Capitalize
Do not capitalize words such as
“test” and “scale” unless they are
part of the test or subscale title.
Stroop-like color test
31K. Thiyagu

Nouns followed by Numbers or Letters
Capitalize
Noun followed by Numerals or letters
Figure 3
Appendix B
Footnote 2
Trials 5 and 6
Table 1
Row 2
Days 7-9
Part 5
Chapter 8
Do not
Capitalize
Do not capitalise the words “page” or
“paragraph” before a numeral,
page 2
paragraph 5
The words “numeral” or “letter” when
referring to a numeral or letter as itself
because the numeral or letter does not
denote a place in a series beyond
integers or the alphabet
the numeral 7
the letter “a”
32K. Thiyagu

Names of
conditions or
Groups in an
Experiment
33
Do not capitalize names of
conditions or group in an
experiment.
the experimental and control groups
Participants were assigned to
information and no-information
condition
Condition A and B
K. Thiyagu

34
Names of Factors, Variables, and Effects
• Do not: small age effect
• Do not: sex, age, and weight variables
• Capitalise: Sex X Age X Weight interaction
• Capitalise: 3 X 3 X 2 (Groups X Trials X
Response) design
Do not capitalise effect or
variables unless they
appear with
multiplication signs.
• Big Five personality factors of Extraversion,
Agreeableness, Openness to Experience,
Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism
• Mealtime Behaviour (Factor 4)
Capitalize names of
dirtied variables within a
factor or principal
components analysis
K. Thiyagu

Use of Italics
Key terms or
Phrases
Mindfulness is
defined as “…….”
Title
Books,
Periodicals,
Reports, webpage
and other stand-
alone works
Eg: Concise Guide
to APA Style
Letters &
Numbers
Letters used as
statistical symbols
or algebraic
variables. Eg:
Cohen’s d = 0.084
Periodical Volume
numbers in
reference list. Eg.
Neuropsychology,
30(5), 525-531.
Anchors of
Scale
Eg: ranged from1
(poor) to 5
(excellent)
36K. Thiyagu

37
Don’t Use Italics
• The Harry Potter SeriesTitle of Book Series
• NaCl, LSDChemical terms
• Sin, cos, tan, logTrigonometric Terms
• , Greek Letters
• Reaction time (RT)Letters used as
Abbreviations
K. Thiyagu

Format of
Abbreviations
39
Singular Plural
IQ IQs
DOI DOIs
URL URLs
Ed Eds.
Vol Vols.
M Ms
ES Ess
p (page) pp (pages)
K. Thiyagu

Unit of
Measurement
Abbreviations
40
K. Thiyagu

Unit of
Measurement
Abbreviations
K. Thiyagu 41

Time Abbreviations
Terms
hour
minute
second
millisecond
nanosecond
Abbreviation
hr
min
s
ms
ns
Example
6 hr
30 min
5 s
2.65 ms
90 ms
42
K. Thiyagu

Latin Abbreviations
Latin
abbreviations
cf.
e.g.,
, etc.
i.e.,
viz.,
vs,
Translation
compare
for example
, and so forth
that is
namely,
versus or against
43
K. Thiyagu

Numbers
• To express number 10 and aboveUse Numerals
• To express numbers below 10Use words
45K. Thiyagu

Numbers Expressed in Numerals
•15th trial, 13 lists, 12 models
•200 participants, 10th-grade students
Numbers 10 and Above (Paper & abstract)
•a 5-mg dose
•with 10.5 cm of
Numbers that immediately precede a unit
of measurement
•multiplied by 5
•0.33 of the sample
•a ratio of 16:
Numbers that represent statistical or
mathematical functions, fractional or
decimal quantities, percentages, ratios
and percentiles and quartiles
•Year 1
•Grade 4
•Question 2
Numbers that denotes a specific place in a
numbered series and parts of books and
tables
•5 days; 5 decades; 12:30 a.m.; 1 hr 34 min; 2-year-
olds; aged 65-70 years
Numbers that represent time, dates, age,
scores, and points on a scale, exact sums
of money, and numerals as numerals.
46K. Thiyagu

Numbers Expressed in Words
• The fourth grade
• The third and fifth items
• The second questions
Numbers zero through
nine (text including the
abstract)
• One fifth of the class
• Two-thirds majority
Common fractions
• Twelve Apostles
• Five Pillars of Islam
Universally accepted
usage
• Forty-eight percent of the sample showed an increases; 2%
showed no change.
• Twelve Students improved, and 12 students did not
improve.
Any number that begin a
sentence, title, or
heading
47K. Thiyagu

K. Thiyagu 48

49
Combining numerals and words to express numbers
Combination of numerals and words to
express back-to-back numerical modifiers.
• 2 two-way interactions
• Ten 7-point scales
K. Thiyagu

Ordinal Numbers
(Treat ordinal numbers as you would cardinal numbers)
Ordinal Cardinal base
second-order factor two orders
fourth grad, 10th grade four grades, 10 grades
first item of the 75th trial one item, 75 trials
first and third groups one group, three groups
3rd year 3 Years
50K. Thiyagu

Decimal Fractions
Use Zero
use zero before the decimal point in
numbers that are less than 1 when
the statistic can exceed 1
t(20) = 0.86
F(1,27) = 0.57
Cohen’s d = 0.70
0.48 cm
Do not use Zero
Do not use a zero before a decimal
fraction when the statistic cannot be
greater than
r(24) = - .43
p = .028
Example: correlation, probability
value
51K. Thiyagu

Roman Numerals
If roman numerals are part of an
established terminology, do not change
them to Arabic numerals.
Example:
Type II error
Not “Type 2 error.”
52K. Thiyagu

Commas in Numbers
Category Example of exception
page numbers page 1029
binary digits 00110010
serial numbers 2904669560
degrees of temperature 3414* c
acoustic frequency designations 2000 Hz
degree of freedom F(24, 1000)
Use commas between groups of three digits in most figures of
1,000 or more.
Some exceptions are as follows:
53K. Thiyagu

Plurals of Numbers
To form the plurals of numbers, whether expressed as
numerals or as words, add “s” or “es” along, without
an apostrophe.
Example
• Twos and sixes
• The 1960s
• 30s and 40s
54K. Thiyagu

Statistical and
Mathematical
Copy
55K. Thiyagu

Statistical and Mathematical Copy
• Do not provide a reference for a statistic in common use (e.g., Cohen’s d)
• Provide a reference when (a) less common statistics are used, (b) a statistic
is used in an unconventional or controversial way , or (c) the statistic itsle if
the focus of the paper
Reference for
Statistics
• Do not provide a formula for statistic in common use.
• Provide a formula when the static or mathematical expression is new, rare
or essential to the paper
Formulas
• When reporting inferential statistics (e.g. t tests, F tests, chi-square tests)
including sufficient information to allow readers to fully understand the
analyses conducted.
Statistics in Text
• Symbols and abbreviations are often used for statistics.
• e.g., “mean” is abbreviated “M”
Statistics symbols
and abbreviations
56K. Thiyagu

Statistics text – Sufficient information needed
F ratios:
For immediate recognition, the omnibus test of the main effect of sentence
format was significant, F(2, 177) = 6.30, p = .002, est 2 = .07.
t values:
The one-degree-of-freedom contrast of primary interest was significant at
the specified p < .05 level, t(177) = 3.51, p < .001, d = 0.65, 95% Cl [0.35,
0.95]
Hierarchical and other sequential regression statistics
High school GPA predicted college mathematical performance, R2 = .12, F(1,
148) = 20.18, p < .001, 95% Cl [.02, .22]
57K. Thiyagu

Statistical
Abbreviations
and Symbols
K. Thiyagu 58

Statistical
Abbreviations
and Symbols
K. Thiyagu 59

Statistical
Abbreviations
and Symbols
K. Thiyagu 60

Statistical
Abbreviations
and Symbols
K. Thiyagu 61

Greek
Character set
K. Thiyagu 62

Greek
Character set
K. Thiyagu 63

Presentation of
Equations
64K. Thiyagu

Presentation of Equations
Equations in Text
Place short and simple
equations
To present fractions in the line
of text, use a slash (/).
Parentheses:
first (), then [()], and finally
{[()]}
Displayed
Equation
Display simple equation if
they must be numbered for
later reference
Display all complex equations.
When referring to numbered
equations, include the full
word ‘equation’ (e.g.,
“Equation 3” or “the third
equation”, not “Eq, 3”)
Preparing
statistical and
Mathematica copy
for publication
Display all mathematical signs
and symbols in typed form,
when possible.
If a character cannot be
produced by your word-
processing program, insert it
as an image.
65K. Thiyagu

67
Lists
•Heading structure alerts readers to the order of ideas in a paper, seriation
•When a list within a sentence contains three or more items, use a serial
comma before the final item (eg., Participants were similar with respect to
age, gender, and ethnicity)
List Guidelines
•Within a sentence or paragraph narrative, identify elements in a series with
lowercase letters in parentheses when doing so will help readers
understand the separate, parallel items in a complex list.
•Eg., Our sample organisation used a rainfall model that features the
following sequential stages: (a) requirement analysis, (b) specification, (c)
architecture, (d) design, and (e) deployment.
Lettered Lists
•Use numbered list to display complete sentences or paragraphs in a series
•Use a lettered or bulleted list rather than a numbered list if the items are
phrases.
Numbered Lists
•If bulleted list items are complete sentences, begin each sentence with a
capital letter and finish it with a period or other end of punctuation.Bulleted Lists
K. Thiyagu

APA Mechanics of Style - (7th Edition APA Manual)

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