a little heads up on how nit picky APA formatting can be...
Hey y'all,
As I've been grading article reviews, I've noticed a few APA formatting mistakes that most of you probably are not aware of making.
1. When it comes to seriation (i.e. making a list), APA requires that you do so by lower case letters in full parentheses, not numbers. e.g. GOOD = "Panera serves (a) bagels, (b) coffee, and (c) soup." BAD = "Panera serves 1) bagels, 2) coffee, and 3) soup."
2. Generally, numbers under 10 should be written as text, except for 6 types of exceptions, see slides 50-52 of the first link below). Numbers 10 and over should be written in numerical form (except for 3 types of exceptions, see slides 53).
All of this is spelled out in your APA manual. I also found some pretty good online resources that spell a lot of these issues out, www.buffalostate.edu/library/research/apa.ppt and http://www.docstyles.com/apacrib.htm. Just know that APA has an opinion about EVERYTHING, so always double check every stylistic effort, even if you think it's right.
Don't feel discouraged or too overwhelmed in trying to keep straight all of these little details. The more research type writing you do, the more you'll pick up on these. The only reason I came to know these little tidbits is after my advisor edited my Master's thesis 8 times :P and from an older student in my lab. So, seek out the edits of more experienced APA writers, and they will point you to the light of the APA format. Good luck and stay strong.
As I've been grading article reviews, I've noticed a few APA formatting mistakes that most of you probably are not aware of making.
1. When it comes to seriation (i.e. making a list), APA requires that you do so by lower case letters in full parentheses, not numbers. e.g. GOOD = "Panera serves (a) bagels, (b) coffee, and (c) soup." BAD = "Panera serves 1) bagels, 2) coffee, and 3) soup."
2. Generally, numbers under 10 should be written as text, except for 6 types of exceptions, see slides 50-52 of the first link below). Numbers 10 and over should be written in numerical form (except for 3 types of exceptions, see slides 53).
All of this is spelled out in your APA manual. I also found some pretty good online resources that spell a lot of these issues out, www.buffalostate.edu/library/research/apa.ppt and http://www.docstyles.com/apacrib.htm. Just know that APA has an opinion about EVERYTHING, so always double check every stylistic effort, even if you think it's right.
Don't feel discouraged or too overwhelmed in trying to keep straight all of these little details. The more research type writing you do, the more you'll pick up on these. The only reason I came to know these little tidbits is after my advisor edited my Master's thesis 8 times :P and from an older student in my lab. So, seek out the edits of more experienced APA writers, and they will point you to the light of the APA format. Good luck and stay strong.
posted by ann @ 12:05 PM
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