APPENDIX

! A Writing a Research Report

Most research reports in psychology appearing in journals have a standard format,
which is specified in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
(6th ed.; American Psychological Association, 2010). The use of a consistent style
makes it easier for readers to locate critical information. In addition, once writers
learn the basics of APA style, it can be easier to write up a report because it is clear
where to put various kinds of information.
In general, APA-style papers have the following components in this order:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• References
• Tables
• Figures

Occasionally, there are deviations from this listing. For instance, if a manuscript
reports on two or more studies, the author might combine the Results and
Discussion section for each study rather than creating two sections. Then there
might be a General Discussion after the final study. Following APA style isn’t diffi-
cult, but you have to pay attention to the details.
As with any writing you do, it is important to communicate well. The former edi-
tor of the journal Teaching of Psychology, Charles Brewer, has commented that writers
should strive for “clarity, conciseness, and felicity of expression.” This means that
you should be clear in making your points; you should use economy in your writing,
keeping it as short as you can while still getting your message across; and you should
write so that your readers don’t have to fight their way through a tangled thicket of
words to get your point.
This appendix is designed to help you learn appropriate formatting so your reader
knows where to find information. It will also be somewhat useful in giving you
396 Writing a Research Report

guidance on writing style. Remember that this guide to APA style only highlights the
material in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The infor-
mation here will be useful for creating a basic APA-formatted manuscript. There are
many other details in the Publication Manual itself.

Formatting Your Manuscript

There are a few general considerations involved in formatting an APA-style manu-
script. To begin with, you should set your margins at one inch on the top, bottom,
and sides. Then leave them that way. In addition, everything in the manuscript
should be double spaced. Set your word processor’s line spacing at double spaced.
Then leave it that way.
Another aspect of APA style is that every page should be numbered in the upper
right-hand corner, next to the short title. The best way to display the header and to
paginate appropriately is with your word processor’s function for creating a page
header. By using the header function, you guarantee that this information appears
where it needs to on every page. If you type in the header and the page number
manually, any time you add or eliminate material in your manuscript, the header
and page number will wind up in the wrong place.
When you are typing your manuscript, you will create several different sections
(e.g., Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion). For most of these sections, you do not
begin a new section on a new page. As a rule, just continue to type, using normal double
spacing between lines. There are some exceptions to this; they are explained below.
In addition, you have to create headings for each section. There are different levels
of headings, depending on the complexity of your manuscript. For most single-study
manuscripts, you will use two different types of headings.
When you finish typing the main body of the manuscript and the references, you
then add any tables that you want to include. The tables do not appear on the pages
with the normal text. They are put at the end, right after the references. Each table
goes on a separate page. If you have created figures, place each one on its own page
with a figure caption on that page. (In previous editions of the APA manual, the fig-
ure captions went on a separate page; this is no longer the case.) Graphs, charts, and
pictures are all classified as figures.
The general points in this section appear in Figure A1. Remember that this is a pri-
mer on APA style. There are other guidelines that are relevant to more complex
manuscripts than you are likely to produce. You can refer to the Publication Manual
for those details. You can also learn from reading and referring to journal articles
that have been published.

Title Page
The title page is pretty simple to construct, but it is important to include all the
information that is required. You can see the general format in Figure A2. There are
three main components of the title page: the running head, and the title, and the
author information.
Title Page 397

Abstract
Type the abstract, which begins at the left margin and is not indented. Double space everything.
Do not put an extra
It goes on its own page. It is usually a single paragraph that
space between sections.
summarizes the research project.
Title
(The introduction follows immediately after the title. Do not use
the word Introduction to start the paper.)

Method
Participants

The participants are described beginning on the line below the word Participants,
with the first line of every paragraph indented.
Type the secondary
sections in bold
type, flush with Materials and Apparatus
the left margin. The materials used to conduct the study appear here, beginning below the heading.
The first line of every paragraph is indented.
Center the main sections in bold type.
Procedure
The procedure of the study appears here, with the first line of
every paragraph indented.

Results

The results appear here. You type them as you would any other
material, indenting the first line of each paragraph.

Discussion
The discussion of the results go here, including statements of whether
hypotheses were supported, what the conclusions are, and what future research might entail.

References
Start the references on a new page.

Figure A1 General format of an APA-style research report

Running Head
The running head consists of a shortened version of the paper’s title. The running
head helps others keep your manuscript together and in the right order if printed
pages become separated. If the title of your paper is “Study habits of college students
over four years,” the running head would be something like STUDENT STUDY
HABITS (typed in all capital letters). (You should not italicize it. The examples in this
appendix appear in italics so you can see them, but you rarely use italics in a research
report.)
The running head appears on every page of the manuscript, so it is best to use the
header/footer capability on your word processor to create it. In this way, your com-
puter will make sure that the pages are numbered correctly and that the running
head is in place, even if you revise your paper, adding or eliminating material.
The words “RUNNING HEAD” appear only on the title page. On all other pages,
only the actual running head appears. The running head is like an abbreviated title.
It should explain the general nature of your project. It is limited to a maximum of
50 characters (i.e., letters and spaces). Your full title may be longer than 50 characters,
so the running head needs to be a shorter version of the title. If your title is fewer
than 50 characters, you can use the full title of your paper as the running head.
398 Writing a Research Report

Running head: EXPECTATIONS ABOUT HUMOR 1

It is a good idea to use the page

header function in your word
processing program to create the
running head.

Expectations about Humor Affect Ratings: A Generalizable Effect with Social Implications

Bernard C. Beins, Caitlin McCarthy, Marci Rigge, Brittany Rigoli, and Stephine Sawyer

Ithaca College

Double space everything in your

manuscript on every page

Figure A2 Format of a title page in APA style

Title and Author Information

The title of the paper should clue the reader into the nature of your project. The
recommended length is 10–12 words. Your name and your affiliation, which will be
your school (unless your instructor tells you otherwise for a class paper), appear just
below the title of the paper. They let the reader know who you are and where you
come from. In a manuscript submitted to a journal, you would include an author
note on the title page; this feature is not usually required in a paper for a course.

Abstract
The abstract is a brief description of the purpose of the project, what methods the
author used to address the issues of interest, the results of data collection, and the
conclusions and interpretations the author drew. This section gives the reader a gen-
eral sense of the paper so he or she can decide whether to read the entire paper.
The abstract is typed on its own page, immediately after the title page. It appears
as a block. That is, the first line is not indented. According to the APA Publication
Manual, the abstract should be about 150–250 words long.

Introduction
The Introduction section begins with the title of the article you are writing. The word
“Introduction” does not appear, so type the title, then begin the introduction itself.
Introduction 399

The first time you mention a

reference, list the last names of the
authors, but cite all of them. Put the
year of publication in parentheses.

If you wanted to discuss whether people equate sex and death, you could refer to the
research by Goldenberg, Pyszczynski, McCoy, Greenberg, and Solomon (1999). They provided
evidence about the sex–death link. Or you could cite the research questioning the effectiveness
of the so-called “three strikes” laws that mandate lengthy prison sentences (Stolzenberg &
D’Alessio,1997)

If your first citation of a work appears in

parentheses, give the last names of all authors,
using an ampersand (&) instead of the word and
prior to the last author’s name. The year of
publication goes last, following a comma after
the last author.

The second time you refer to work done by three or more authors, cite only the first
author. So when mentioning the work linking sex and death by Goldenberg et al. (1999), you
use the first author’s last name and the Latin abbreviation et al., which stands for and others
(but you do not use italics). The year goes in parentheses. If you refer to work by two authors,
you cite them both any time you mention them, such as the work on prison sentences
(Stolzenberg & D’Alessio, 1997). If you mention work done by six authors or more, like the
work by Hennigan et al. (1982), you include only the first author’s name, even the first time
you cite it.

If a work has six or more authors, list only the

first author’s last name, followed by the
designation et al., with a period after al. You do
this even the first time you mention it.

Figure A3 Reference formats for citing work in a manuscript in APA style

As with the rest of your manuscript, use double spacing, with no extra space between
the title and the beginning of the introduction. This section addresses several ques-
tions that prepare the reader for the ideas discussed throughout the manuscript:

• What is the general topic of the research article?

• What do we know about this topic from previous research?
• What are you trying to demonstrate in your research?
• What are your hypotheses?

You are likely to make your first mention of the work of previous researchers in
the introduction. There is a general format for referring to that work. When you
cite a published journal article, you typically use the authors’ last names and indi-
cate the year of publication or presentation of their work. As you see in Figure A3,
you might mention names in the text per se or in parentheses. The APA Publication
Manual describes the conventions in detail for citing authors. The highlights are
in Figure A3.
400 Writing a Research Report

Method
This section of the manuscript contains several subparts. Each one is pretty much
self-contained. The purpose of the Method section is to let the reader know how you
actually carried out your project. There should be enough detail so another person
could read your words and reproduce your study in nearly identical form. You should
present only those details that would be relevant to the purpose and outcome of
the study. The different segments of the Method section describe who took part,
what materials and implements were important in carrying out the study, and the
procedure used to complete the research.

Participants
In this subsection, you tell the reader who participated in the study, how many peo-
ple (or rats, mice, pigeons, etc.) were involved, and the demographics of your sample
(e.g., age, ethnicity, educational level, etc., as appropriate). The information readers
need to know about your participants includes the following:

• How many humans or nonhumans were studied?

• If there were nonhuman animals, what kind were they?
• If there were people, what were their characteristics (e.g., average and range of
age, gender, race or ethnicity, were they volunteers or were they paid, etc.)?

Apparatus and Materials

The basic issues in this subsection involve what you needed to carry out your study.
Sometimes you have used machines, computers, or other instrumentation. Much psy-
chological research also requires materials that participants read, learn, memorize, and
so on. When you have created your own apparatus, you should describe it in great detail.
If you used commercially available apparatus, you can simply mention the type of appa-
ratus (with make and model), the company that provided it, and any other relevant
details that would be useful for somebody who might want to replicate or simply under-
stand your approach. Important information about materials and apparatus include:

• How many and what kind of stimuli, questions, etc., were used?
• What instrumentation, if any, was used to present material to participants and to
record their responses?

Procedure
This subsection addresses the issue of what the participants actually did during
the research session. The details here should give a complete account of what your
participants did from the time the study began until the debriefing was done. The
important elements of the procedure are as follows:

• When the participants arrived, what did they do?

• What did the experimenters do as they interacted with participants?
• In what order did experimenters and participants carry out their tasks?
Results 401

Results
In this section, you give a verbal description of your results, accompanied by appropri-
ate quantitative information (e.g., means and standard deviations, statistical analyses).
It is often difficult for a reader to understand your results if you simply list all of them
without describing them. A long series of means, for instance, can be hard for a reader
to comprehend without some narrative to accompany them. The critical questions in
the Results section include the following:

• What were patterns of behaviors among participants?

• Did responses and behaviors differ when groups were compared?
• What types of responses or reactions are predictable in the different groups?
• Were there predictable relationships among variables?
• What were the results of any statistical tests?

Your Results section can also include tables and figures. Sometimes a table or a fig-
ure can present important information much more simply than you can describe it
in words. When that is the case, make good use of tables and figures. At the same
time, try to avoid using tables and figures that present only a small amount of useful
information. You probably don’t want to use a graph, for example, if you have only
two data points to compare.
In detailing your results, make sure that you give enough of a verbal description
so the reader has a good idea of what you found. If you present only numerical infor-
mation, the reader may have difficulty understanding which results were most
important and how they related to one another.

Tables
Tables can present data very effectively and efficiently. They are relatively easy to cre-
ate with the Tables function in your word processing program. Figure A4 outlines
some of the main considerations in the use of a table.
At times, tables can get quite complex, especially when there are many groups
being compared or when researchers use complex statistical analyses. The basic
format is pretty simple, though. The table consists of a label that gives enough
information to the readers so they don’t have to refer back to the text to compre-
hend the contents of the table. The table also contains data, often organized by
conditions or groups. Sometimes, mean values appear in the margins of the tables,
the so-called marginal means. In some cases, tables may not contain numbers, but
only words and text. This type of table follows the same general principles as
numeric tables.

Figures
Graphs and charts used to be difficult to construct when an author had to draw
them by hand. Currently, however, data analysis software and spreadsheets permit
easy construction of graphs. It is important to remember that when you use graphic
402 Writing a Research Report

EXPECTATIONS ABOUT HUMOR Don’t forget that the page header Page #
and the page number appear
on pages with tables.
Table 1 (or 2 or 3, etc.)
Title of Table, Giving Enough Detail So that Reader Does Not Have to Refer Back to the Text to
Understand the Meaning.

Draw a horizontal line beneath

Italicize and double space the title. groups that constitute an
Capitalize the major words. independent variable.

Name of IV#2

Name of IV#1 Group A Group B

Group 1 Mean of Group 1A Mean of Group 1B (Marginal Mean of Group 1)

Group 2 Mean of Group 2A Mean of Group 2B (Marginal Mean of Group 2)

(Marginal Mean of A) (Marginal Mean of B)

If you use the Tables function in

your word processor, make the
lines of the table invisible.

Figure A4 Example of a results table in APA style

presentations, you should make sure that they convey the information you want in a
manner that is easy for the reader to comprehend. It takes some practice in creating
effective visual presentations; you can learn how to construct them by looking at
published figures to see which ones are effective and which ones are not.
The main types of figures used in research articles are line graphs, bar graphs, and
scatter diagrams. Line graphs show the relation between two quantitative variables.
Bar graphs are often used to represent relations among categorical variables. Scatter
diagrams usually reflect correlational analyses. Figures A5 and A6 provide examples of
line graphs that look slightly different, but that convey the same information. The
two graphs show that the depiction can look different depending on which indepen-
dent variable you put on the x-axis and which variable you place in the graph.
You can represent your data in bar graphs. Typically, bar graphs represent catego-
rical data, but the example in Figure A7 is based on the same continuous data we’ve
been working with in these examples. You can see that the visual representation of
the bar graph shows the same pattern that you see in Figure A5.
If you have completed a correlational analysis, you might want to present a scatter
diagram that reveals the relation between two variables. The basic format of this type
of figure is the same as for line graphs and bar graphs. The type of information in a
scatter diagram is different in an important way, however. Unlike line and bar
graphs, which present data at the level of groups, a scatter diagram includes data
points from each individual on two variables being measured.
Discussion 403

Note that there is no

page header or page
number on a page that
The dependent contains a figure.
variable goes on
the Y-axis.

14
To differentiate the
variables, you can either
12
use different markers
Mean Recall of Words

(e.g., squares or circles)

10
or filled in or not-filled in
markers or different types
8
of lines (e.g., complete
line versus dashed line).
6

4
Low Noise
2 High Noise

0
The specific Slow Fast
groups for the Rate of Presentation
first IV.
The legend identifying
the second independent
variable goes within the
boundaries of the graph.

The name of
the first IV.

Figure A5 Example of a line graph in APA style

Statistical Results
The statistics that you are most likely to use in your research report are the analysis
of variance, the student’s t-test, the Pearson product–moment correlation, and the
Chi-square test. When you type your research results, you need to follow specific
guidelines about including necessary information. Figure A8 gives the formatting
for these tests.

Discussion
After you tell the reader what has happened, you need to spend some time explaining
why it happened. The Results section is simply a description of the results, without
much explanation. By contrast, the Discussion section offers you the opportunity
to explain why your results occurred as they did and why they are important to the
psychological community.
When you discuss your findings, it is important to relate them to the ideas you pre-
sented in your Introduction section. The Introduction sets the stage for the research, so
your reader will expect you to show why those ideas are important to your ideas. This is
the section of the manuscript that allows you to draw inferences about important
404 Writing a Research Report

You can differentiate

the variables by using
different types of lines.

14
Mean Recall of Words 12

10

4
Slow
2 Fast

0
Low Noise High Noise
Rate of Presentation You choose which
independent variable
goes on the X-axis and
which is contained within
the body of the graph.

Figure A6 Example of a line graph in APA style (version 2)

The bars representing a given

level of the second IV (e.g.,
Low Noise) always look the
same. They look different
14 from other levels of the IV.

12
Mean Recall of Words

10

4
Low Noise
2 High Noise

0
Slow Fast
Rate of Presentation

Figure A7 Example of a bar graph in APA style

References 405

Use italics for the letter

representing the statistic.

Use italics for the

probability value.
Descriptive statistics: M = 4.16, SD = 0.87

Student’s t-test: t (25) = 3.01, p < .001

Analysis of variance: F(2, 25) = 1.33, p > .05, MSE = 3.91

The mean square error is a
statistic that is becoming
Chi-Square: χ2(3, N = 120) = 0.15, p > .05
standard in reporting results
of the ANOVA.
Correlation: r (56) = .59, p < .01

If an obtained value is less

than 1.00, use a zero before
Probability values and the decimal point when the
correlation coefficients value could possibly be more
cannot take values greater than 1.00.
than 1.00. For these
statistics, do not put a zero
before the decimal point.

Figure A8 Format for presenting statistical results in APA style

psychological processes that are taking place among your participants. It is perfectly
appropriate for you to speculate on the meaning of your data. If others disagree, they
can always do their own research to support their ideas. When you speculate, you
should give the logic behind your arguments. Otherwise, you are only giving an opi-
nion, not logical speculation. The Discussion section addresses the following questions:

• What do the results mean?

• What explanations can you develop for why the participants responded as they did?
• What psychological processes help you explain participants’ responses?
• What questions have not been answered fully?
• How can your results relate to the research cited in the introduction?
• How do your results relate to other kinds of research?
• Did any new ideas emerge that you could evaluate in a subsequent experiment?

References
The Reference section includes the full citation for any work that you referred to in
your writing. This section is only for works cited in your paper; it is not a general bib-
liography related to your topic. The rule is that if something was referred to in the
manuscript, it belongs here; if a work was not mentioned in your writing, it does not
appear here.
406 Writing a Research Report

Journal article with one author:

Only the first word in the
Example: Smith, J. R. title is capitalized.

Last name, Initials. (Year of publication). Title of article. Name of Journal in Italics,
Volume Number (Issue number), page numbers. doi:0000000/000000000000

Use a hanging indent for your

citation. This is easy to do with For references to journal Example: 404–425
your word processing articles, you do not include
program. The first line is flush the issue number. Include it
with the left margin, with only if each issue of the
following lines indented. journal begins with Page 1. This is the Digital Object
Identifier (doi) that some
journals use to identify a
specific article. The DOI is
Journal article with more than one author:
often on the first page of
Example: Lee, R. E., Use an ampersand (&) the document.
Gomez, J. P., & O’Leary, M. not the word “and.”

Last name #1, Initials., Last name #2, Initials, … , & Last name N, Initials. (Year of publication).
Title of article. Name of Journal in Italics, Volume Number in Italics, Volume
Number (Issue number), page numbers. doi:0000000/000000000000

Figure A9 Format for journal article references in APA style

The reference section is actually fairly easy to create because you know exactly
what the section must contain. The only difficulty is making sure that you use the
correct format in the citation. You may be familiar with styles other than APA’s, like
MLA (from the Modern Language Association) or the Chicago style. They are consid-
erably different from APA style. Fortunately, in your manuscripts, you are likely to
use only a few of the many types of sources available, so it is easy to become familiar
with the rules for citing references. Examples appear in Figures A9–A12.
The most common sources are journal articles, books and book chapters, presenta-
tions at conferences, and electronic resources. You can see how to format them in
Figures A9–A12. Specific examples appear in Table A1. Each of these can come in sev-
eral different varieties, so you will have to make sure that you are following the APA
guidelines exactly. For details on the less common types of references, you can con-
sult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. There are also
numerous websites that provide help. The technical information about the citations
tells the reader:

• What research was cited in the report (e.g., work published in journals or other
written sources, research presentations, personal communications)?
• Where was the information made public?

Writing Style
As the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association points out, scienti-
fic writing is different from fiction or other creative writing. Scientific writing benefits
Writing Style 407

Book:

Last name ~1, Initials., & Last name #2, Initials, Jr. (Year of publication). Title of book in italics.
City of Publisher: Publishing Company Name.

Example: Washington, DC:

American Psychological
Association. Identify city
and the state.
Edited book:

Last name ~1, Initials., & Last name #2, Initials. (Eds.). (Year of publication). Title of book in italics.
City of Publisher: Publishing Company.

The title of the List the editor(s) so that

chapter is in Roman the initials of their first
Type, but the title of names appear before
the book is in Italics. their last names.
Chapter in a book:

Last name, Initials. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In Initials Last name #1 & Initials
Last name #2 (Eds.), Title of book in italics (pp. page numbers). City of publisher:
Publishing Company.

The designation for page

numbers, p. for a chapter
with a single page and pp.
for multiple pages, goes
before the page number
(e.g., pp. 12–31).

Figure A10 Format for book references in APA style

Example: 2002, August

Oral presentation at a conference:

Last name, Initials. (Year of presentation, Month of Presentation). Title of presentation. Paper
presented at Conference Name, Location of Conference.

Example: Paper presented at

the annual convention of the
American Psychological
Association, Chicago, IL.
Poster presentation at a conference:

Last name, Initials. (Year of presentation, Month of Presentation). Title of presentation. Poster
session presented at Conference Name, Location of Conference.

Figure A11 Format for oral and poster presentation references in APA style
408 Writing a Research Report

Electronic reference from an online-only journal article with no DOI:

Last name, Initials. (Year, Date). Title of article. Online Journal Name in Italics, Volume #,
Article number. Retrieved from <URL—Web address>.

Electronic reference from an online-only journal article with DOI:

Last name, Initials. (Year, Date). Title of article. Online Journal Name in Italics, Volume #,
Article number. doi:0000000/000000000000

This is the Digital Object Identifier (doi) that some

journals use to identify a specific article.
The DOI is often on the first page of the document.

Electronic reference from a print journal that was accessed online:

Last name, Initials. (Year). Title of article. Journal Name in Italics, Volume #(Issue number),
page numbers. doi:0000000/000000000000

Online Document:

Last name, Initials. (Year). Title of work in italics. Retrieved <Month, day, year> from
<URL—Web address>.

Provide the entire Web address,

beginning with http://
Don’t use the pointed brackets
when you type the references.

Figure A12 Format for electronic references in APA style

from clear and direct communication, whereas creative writing benefits from the
creation of ambiguity, abrupt changes in perspective, and other literary devices.
When you write a research report, you should concentrate on making your point
clearly, avoiding prose that doesn’t contribute to the logic of your arguments.
This section presents some common problems in writing that you should note.
Much of your writing to this point has probably been more literary than scientific, so
you might have to unlearn some habits that you have developed.

Precision of Expression
When you write, avoid using more words than you need and avoid words that are
more technical than necessary. Sometimes communication is better when you use a
technical term because it has a specific meaning that the term transmits very effi-
ciently. On the other hand, when you use complex wording to describe a simple
situation, the reader can get confused. Using impressive terminology may not help
you get your point across.
Just as you should avoid being too technical, you have to make sure that you are not
too informal in your language. If an experiment has some methodological flaws, for
example, and the results might be confounded, you should not make vague statements
like The methodological flaws skewed the results because the word skew could mean
just about anything. You would want to be more specific, suggesting that
The methodological flaws led to higher mean scores in Groups A and B, or something equally
explanatory. Or if your participants engaged in a behavior in some circumstances, you
Writing Style 409

TABLE A1 Examples of reference formats for the reference list at the end of the article
in APA style.
Journal articles:
Notes:
1. Most journal articles now have a so-called digital object identifier, or doi designation. If there is
no doi for a journal article, the citation simply ends right after the page numbers of the article. If
there is a doi, it comes immediately after the period following the page numbers of the journal
article.
2. You do not include the issue number for the journal, only the volume number, if the journal has
continuous pagination. If the first issue of a volume has pages 1 to 64 and the second begins
with page 65, you don’t need to include the issue number, only the page numbers of the article.
On the other hand, if each issue begins with the page number 1, you do include the issue
number. Almost all scientific journals have continuous pagination, so most of the time you don’t
include the issue number.
One author of an article:
Heitzmann, D. (2011). Recalling our roots: The joy of college student psychotherapy. Journal of
College Student Psychotherapy, 25, 103–104. doi:10.1080/87568225.2011.556924
Two to six authors of an article:
(All authors’ names appear, with a comma after each one, including the author whose name
appears just before the ampersand [&] when there are multiple authors. The citation ends with
the page numbers of the article.)
Mitchell, S. L., Darrow, S. A., Haggerty, M., Neill, T., Carvalho, A., & Uschold, C. (2012).
Curriculum infusion as college student mental health promotion strategy. Journal of College
Student Psychotherapy, 26, 22–38. doi:10.1080/87568225.2012.633038
Article with more than six authors:
The following article had 48 authors, which would take too much space in the reference section.
So you cite only the first six, then type three ellipsis points (…), an ampersand (&), and the final
author. There should be commas after all authors’ names except the final author:
Löckenhoff, C. E., De Fruyt, F., Terracciano, A., McCrae, R. R., De Bolle, M., Costa, P. R., … &
Yik, M. (2009). Perceptions of aging across 26 cultures and their culture-level associates.
Psychology and Aging, 24, 941–954. doi:10.1037/a0016901
Reference in internet-only journal article:
Katz, J., Tirone, V., & van der Kloet, E. (2012). Moving in and hooking up: Women’s and men’s
casual sexual experiences during the first two months of college. Electronic Journal of Human
Sexuality, 12. Retrieved from Nwww.ejhs.org/volume15/hookingup.html
Reference to an article published online in advance of the print journal:
Swanson, H. L. (2011, August 22). Working memory, attention, and mathematical problem
solving: A longitudinal study of elementary school children. Journal of Educational Psychology.
Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/a0025114
Book:
Cytowic, R. E. (1993). The man who tasted shapes. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam & Son.
Edited book:
Davis, S. F., & Buskist, W. (eds.) (2002). The teaching of psychology: Essays in honor of Wilbert
J. McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
410 Writing a Research Report

TABLE A1 (cont.)
Chapter in an edited book:
Gardner, H., Krechevsky, M., Sternberg, R. J., & Okagaki, L. (1994). Intelligence in context:
enhancing students’ practical intelligence for school. In K. McGilly (ed.), Classroom lessons:
Integrating cognitive theory and classroom practice (pp. 105, 127). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Ball, P., Giles, H., & Hewstone, M. (1984). second language acquisition: The intergroup theory
with catastrophic dimensions. In H. Tajfel (ed.), The social dimension (Vol. 2, pp. 668, 694).
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Online document:
Lloyd, M.A. (2001, January 20). Marky Lloyd’s careers in psychology page. Retrieved April 2,
2012 from www.psywww.com/careers/index.htm.
Oral presentation at a conference:
Loftus, E. F. (2003, January). Illusions of memory. Presented at the National Institute on the
Teaching of Psychology. St. Petersburg Beach, FL.
Paper session at a conference:
Freedner, E., Wright, F., & Beins, B. C. (2007 April). How expectation affects humor appreciation.
Paper presentation at the University of Scranton Psychology Conference, Scranton, PA.
Poster session at a conference:
Doychak, K., Herschman, C., Ferrante, P., & Beins, B. C. (2012, March). Sense of humor: Are we
all above average? Poster session at the annual convention of the Eastern Psychological
Association, Pittsburgh, PA.

should specify how often the behavior occurred; ill-defined statements like most of the
time do not communicate as precisely as you want in a research report.
Another grammatical feature that leads to problems is the use of passive-voice
verbs (e.g., they were asked to move instead of I asked them to move). For one thing,
such verbs make for dull prose. Another problem is that passive-voice verbs lead to
lack of clarity. That is, to say that The participants were given the materials means that
you are not telling your reader who did the giving. When you use passive-voice
verbs, the actor is often hidden. In some cases, it is important to know who com-
pleted the action. In virtually all cases, active-voice verbs make your prose more
interesting.

Avoiding Biased Language

When you describe or refer to people in your writing, use language that gets your
point across but also shows sensitivity to the individuals and groups to which you
refer. For example, sexist language can be problematic. If you make a statement that
The pioneers, their wives, and their children who settled the western states experienced hard-
ships we cannot even imagine, you are showing bias in your language. The implication
is that the men were the pioneers, whereas the women and children were not.
Another type of bias that we see less than we used to regarding the sexes is the use
of the word man to refer to people in general. The convention of using man to refer
to people also led to the use of male pronouns (i.e., his, him) when the meaning sup-
posedly included women. This change has led to the use of plural pronouns in
Writing Style 411

referring to a single person (e.g., A student can be rude when they use their cell phones in
class). Although this has gained acceptance in speech, it is not appropriate in formal
writing because if you use a pronoun to refer to a student, the pronoun must be sin-
gular. One solution is to use plural nouns (e.g., student) so the use of plural pronouns
is grammatically consistent. The use of he or she, his or her, or other double pronouns
can also solve the problem if you use a singular noun.
A further issue regarding pronouns involves the use of first-person pronouns (e.g.,
I or we). Many students have learned to avoid using the personal pronoun I. Teachers
have said to use passive-voice verbs or to use we in their writing when they mean
only a single person, that is, themselves. According to APA style, it is appropriate to
use I when referring to yourself. Using I also avoids the use of passive-voice verbs,
which you should keep to an absolute minimum.
Another issue involves sensitivity to diverse groups, particularly with respect to the
labeling of those groups. It is impossible to state a set of unchanging rules because the
terms we use to denote people in various groups change. It may not be possible to
satisfy everybody in every group, but you should be aware of the terms that any parti-
cular time are appropriate for describing them. Incidentally, if you use the words Black
and White as racial or ethnic terms, these words should be capitalized.
Recently, authorities on writing have concluded that it is not appropriate to refer to
people as though a single characteristic defined them completely. For example, in dis-
cussing people with handicaps, you should avoid calling them the handicapped because
such a term implies that the handicap is perhaps their most significant characteristic.
Noting that they are either handicapped people or people with handicaps highlights the
fact that they are, first and foremost, people. For a task as difficult as writing well,
these few rules will not suffice by themselves, but they provide a good start.
412 Writing a Research Report

The following section presents a brief example of an APA-style paper based on

research conducted by students and presented at the annual convention of the New
England Psychological Association in 2007.

Figure A13
Writing Style 413

Figure A14
414 Writing a Research Report

Figure A15