Using Digital Tools to Teach APA Style

Using Digital Tools to Teach
APA Style
David L. Painter, Ph.D., NMJMA and PRMA
Wednesday, March 26, 14

Agenda
Professional and Academic Writing Style
Customize Word Settings
Manuscript Structure
Citation Mechanics
Digital Tools

Academic Style Guides
Professional Standards for Writing and Using Text

APA Style
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
(6th ed.). (2009). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological
Association
Since 1929, APA has codified writing procedures for behavioral
and social scientists
Primary or original research articles are published in academic
journals
1. Not previously published (first disclosure)
2. Peer reviewed
3. Archival

APA Style, Sixth Edition Outline
1. Writing for Behavioral and Social Sciences
2. Manuscript Structure and Content
3. Writing Clearly and Concisely
4. The Mechanics of Style
5. Displaying Results
6. Crediting Sources
7. Reference Examples
8. The Publication Process

Scholarly Research & Writing
The prime objective of academic and professional writing is
accurate, clear, concise, literal, and considerate communication
Style involves no inherent right or wrong
Style is a conventional way of presenting information that facilitates
clear communication through uniformity
Different disciplines have different publication styles
Basic ethical and legal principles underlie all:
To ensure the accuracy of scientific knowledge
To protect rights and welfare of research participants
To protect intellectual property rights

Academic and Professional
Writing
College graduates are expected to produce text and documents
using professional writing style guides
Academic and professional writing is formal:
It is accurate, clear, concise, literal and considerate
It presents information in a transparent fashion
All claims are substantiated with evidence
All research procedures are clearly and uniformly described
All conclusions are warranted

Tone
An academic paper is written in a literal, formal manner:
Minimize rhetorical and linguistic devices - no figurative or
lyrical language
NO clichés, slang, jargon, jokes, colloquial expressions, or
inappropriate material.
Do NOT use contractions, abbreviations, or exclamation points.
Do not overuse dashes or parentheses (except citations).
Write as though you were communicating with non-native
English speaker

Tone
"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain
no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary
sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should
have no unnecessary lines and a machine no
unnecessary parts." (Strunk & White, 2000, p. xv).
Less is More
“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the
time” (Pascal, 1656).

Grammar Affects Tone
Be careful to write precisely and pay attention to style issues:
Avoid Prefacing or Stream-of-Consciousness Remarks
Omit Placeholder and Content
Overgeneralizations: get rid of vague and meaningless beauty
pageant language
Wordiness and redundancy pull the reader's attention from the
structure of the sentence and the idea gets lost
Weak and vague language disrupt the reader's ability to grasp
important ideas
Progress from abstract to specific and always provide examples

Examples

Grammar Affects Tone
Watch sentence structure:
Avoid run-on sentences running more than 3 lines or requiring
another breath to read out loud = run-on
Use a variety of sentence structures, but focus on short declarative
statements of a single thought
Using double negatives and qualifiers weakens statements
“there is no lack, not inattentive, seems that it may appear”
Address punctuation issues with accuracy, clarity, and consistency
Be careful with placement of modifying phrases and clauses
“Swimming happily, the corpse floated by his head.”

Pronoun Reference
It is important to remember the rules for pronoun agreement
with its antecedent in number, person, and gender.
APA requires that pronouns address the gender issues without a bias.
Therefore, use the masculine or feminine in direct agreement with
the referent.
Do not use the universal masculine. Do not switch person in your
pronoun usage.
Hint: use plural form to avoid confusion/gender issues
Your child = your children = they
He or she = they
Use who for humans and that or which for nonhumans

Active vs. Passive Voice
Active verbs are vigorous, direct communicators
In an active sentence, the subject is doing the action.
"Steve loves Amy." Steve is the subject, and he is doing the
action: he loves Amy, the object of the sentence.
In passive voice, "Amy is loved by Steve."
“I Heard It Through the Grapevine”
Voice changes focus of sentence

Active Voice
Not all “helping verbs” or forms of “to be” are passive
I am burning-up with the fever
Presence of “by” indicates passive voice
My colleagues were concerned by my dancing fever
Passive voice is not “wrong,” but is a poor way to present your thoughts
because it is wordy, vague and/or awkward
Prominence Exception: President Obama was bitten by Bo.
When revising your writing, search for “by” and all forms of the verb “to
be” (are, is, am, etc), and rewrite the sentence with a different, active verb.

Subject – Verb Agreement
“A verb must agree in number (singular or plural) with its
subject, regardless of intervening phrases
The percentage of correct responses as well as the speed of the
responses increases with practice.”
“The use of cell phones and pagers are prohibited.”
Be careful with nouns of foreign origin ending in “a” that may
appear singular
Data indicate, phenomenon occurs, media broadcast
Datum indicates, phenomena occur, medium broadcasts,
mediums channel the dead

Point of View
Traditionally, style guides urged writers to avoid first person and
substitute “this writer” or “this author” for “I”
Today, “this writer” construction sounds pompous
But most use of first-person is unnecessary
Only use plural if there is more than one author, do NOT use the
royal “We” and do NOT use “We” to refer to mankind in general
Just because you can use the first person in scholarly writing does not
mean you should overuse it.
Only use when referring to your actions in executing your final
project, analyzing results AND in the Reflections section

Wordiness
Sometimes the problem isn't choosing exactly the right word to
express an idea—it's being "wordy," or using words that your reader
may regard as "extra" or inefficient.
Examples
I came to the realization that = I realized
She is of the opinion that = She thinks
Concerning the matter of = About
During the course of = During
In the event that = If
In the process of = During or while
Due to the fact that = Because
At that point in time = Then

Wordiness
Delete words that are essentially meaningless:
Basically, really, generally, kind of, virtually, actually, practically,
literally
Eliminate redundancies
Final outcome
Past history
Future plans
Consensus of opinion
Continue on
Each individual
Circle around

Avoid Clichés
Do Not use clichés.
Clichés are catchy little phrases so frequently used that they
have become trite, corny, or annoying.
Their overuse has diminished their impact and they require
several words where just one would do.
Examples:
At the end of the day
Shine a light on this issue
Outside the box
Up in the air

Digital Tools
Pro Writing Aid
After the Deadline
Citation Generators
Son of Citation Machine
SourceAid
Turnitin
ID Videos
Bitly Bundle
Spelling & Grammar
Settings inWord
Customizing Microsoft Word Settings for Formal Writing

23
Open Word and click “Word” on upper left menu.
Then click “Preferences...”

24
The Word Preferences option box appears on screen.
Click “Spelling and Grammar.”

25
Click “Settings”

26
Click the “Writing Style” menu and check “Formal.”

27
Scroll down the “Grammar and style options” list and
check all boxes.

28
Again, make sure ALL boxes are checked.
Scroll down all the way to make sure.

30
Finally, click “OK.”
You’re done!

Types of Manuscripts
1. Term Papers: “a record of intelligent reading in several sources on a particular subject.”
2. Research Reports and Empirical Studies: Original research presented in sections
1. Introduction: background, problem, use literature to make argument supporting research
questions and hypos
2. Method: description of investigation participants, procedures instruments, and variables
3. Results: findings and data analysis
4. Discussion: interpretation and implications, summary
3. Literature Reviews are secondary, critical evaluations such as research syntheses and meta-analyses.
Sections are content dependent, but there are four categories of these articles:
1. Define and clarify the problem
2. Organizing, integrating, evaluating and summarizing research
3. Identify relations, contradictions, gaps and inconsistencies
4. Suggest next steps to take in solving a problem

Types of Manuscripts
5. Theoretical Articles: trace development of theory
5. To expand and refine constructs
6. To present new theory
7. Analyze and compare existing theories
6. Methodological Articles: new approaches, modifications or
quantitative and data analysis methods
7. Case Studies of individual, group, community or organization:
illustrate problem, indicate solution, shed light on needed
research, practices, theories
8. Others: essays, book reviews, comments, etc.

Manuscript Structure
1. Title Page
2. Abstract
3. Introduction (Literature Review)
4. Method
5. Discussion
6. References
7. Appendices

Manuscript Format
When preparing manuscript for submission, use:
Serif typeface, such as Times New Roman, 12-pt text
Sans serif typeface, such as Arial, for figure labels and tables
Double-space entire manuscript:
Between lines of body text and titles, heading, and block quotations
Reference list and figure captions
Indent first line of every paragraph one-half inch
Align text to left-hand margin, leaving “ragged” right margin
Number pages consecutively starting with title page

Headings

Title Page
Title: summarize main idea simply and with style
Concisely state main topic, identify variables and relationships
“Collateral Damage: Involvement and the Effects of Negative
Super Pac Advertising”
Uppercase and lowercase, centered in upper half of page
Author’s Name (Byline) and Institutional Affiliation
David Lynn Painter David Lynn Painter
Full Sail University Orlando, Florida

Abstract
Abstracts are short (@150-250 words or less), self-contained
(complete paragraph), and powerful (active, information-rich)
summaries of the elements of the manuscript
Accurate: correctly reflects the thesis statement and content of
manuscript – outline of headings
Nonevaluative: not a review, but objective statements
Coherent and readable: clear, concise, and active
Includes key words and phrases for indexing, but is original, not
excerpted passage
Concise: include only 4 or 5 most important concepts, findings,
implications

Introduction
Presents specific problem or question under study and describes
research strategy
In a few pages, Introductions identify:
Why the problem is important (significance)
How the study relates to previous research (context)
The hypotheses, research questions, objectives of study and
theoretical underpinnings (arguments based on evidence)
The relationship between hypotheses and research design
The potential theoretical and practical implications of the study

Citations
In text citations:
Who and when for summary and/or paraphrase:
Smith (2012) determined the magnitude of dance fever was
directly correlated with the song’s beats per second.
Who, when and page number for quote
Smith (2012) described dance fever as “a highly contagious,
noxious, and dangerous disorder that produces body spasms and
contorted facial expressions” (p. 123).
Two or more sources in alphabetical order
Research on dance fever indicates that it originated in Paris
discos in 1966 (Doe, 2010: Smith, 2012).

References
Acknowledge previous scholars’ work and provide reliable way of
locating it
Standard citations ensure accuracy, completeness, and utility for
readers
References section begins on new page
All entries are double-spaced using hanging indent

References
Periodicals: Who, when, what, where
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume
number (issue number), pages.
Entire book: Who, when, what, where
Author, A.A. (1967). Title of work. Location: Publisher.
Author, A.A. (1967). Title of work. Retrieved from http://
www.xxxxxxx

Appendices
Supplemental material that would be distracting or
inappropriate in the body of the manuscript
List of stimulus materials
Detailed description of complex equipment or software
Detailed demographic description of population used in
study

63
Using Peer Review and Rise
Model in Turnitin

65
Rise Model Peer Review Prompts
1. What was the author’s thesis statement? (R)
2. What is the argument the author is making? (R)
3. What are the answers to the big 6 questions in this paper? (R)
4. How many main points did the author explain? (R)
5. What points or considerations did the author fail to fully
develop? (I)
6. What are your suggestions for improving.... (S)
7. How could the author polish this paper to make it more clear
and compelling? (E)

• Pro Writing Aid
•After the Deadline
•PaperRater
•Son of Citation Machine
•SourceAid
•Zotero
•Citation Builder
•Bitly Bundle
Tools
68

Using Digital Tools to Teach APA Style

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