Writing an APA-Style
Research Report
Title, Abstract, Introduction
The Title Page
• Running Head in Header with Page
Number
–  50 characters, flush left, all upper case
• Title
– centered, upper and lower case
• Authors and Institutional Affiliations
– centered, upper and lower case
– ordered by relative contribution
• Author Notes
The Abstract
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ctrl, Enter to create hard page break.
This will be page 2 of the manuscript.
“Abstract” centered on first line.
Do not indent next line.
One paragraph, ≤ 120 words.
Highlight abstract text, look lower left to
see word count.
> 120 Words
• I usually cheat and provide more than 120
words, and get away with it.
• Here there were 142 words in the abstract,
4,740 in the entire document.
Writing Style
• Try to avoid passive voice (This has been
found to be difficult).
• First person is OK, but not too often.
• Avoid quotations, paraphrase instead.
• Avoid footnotes.
• Avoid dehumanizing language, but
“subjects” is now OK.
Introduction Section
• Start on a new page, after the abstract
• On the first line, type the title
– upper and lower case
– centered
• On next line, start the text
– Indented
– left-aligned.
Introduce Your Research
• Why did you conduct this research?
• How is your research different from
previous research?
• Start out broad and then narrow the focus.
• Review the most relevant literature.
• Finish with a statement of purpose.
– What results were expected?
– Why were these results expected?
Expected Results
• Research hypotheses may be formally
stated in the Introduction.
– but don’t present “null” hypotheses.
– I prefer a less formal presentation.
• Pre-diction versus post-diction
– Predicting course performance in freshman
and sophomore physics courses: Women are
more predictable than men.
Citations
• Acknowledge the work of others, do not
plagiarize.
• Consult the Writer’s Handbook.
• Look in APA style journals for examples.
• One-to-one correspondence between
citations in text and those in reference list.
Example Citations in Text
• ….. female jurors are more likely than
male jurors to find a male defendant guilty
of sexual harassment of a female plaintiff
(Egbert, Moore, Wuensch, & Castellow,
1992; Moore et al., 1994; Wuensch,
Campbell, Kesler, & Moore, 2002).
• Calhoun and Townsley (1991, p. 66) noted
that …….
Example Reference List
References
Calhoun, K. S., & Townsley, R. M. (1991).
Attributions of responsibility for acquaintance
rape. In A. Parrot, & L. Bechhofer (Eds.),
Acquaintance rape: The hidden crime (pp. 57 69). New York, NY: Wiley.
Castellow, W. A., Wuensch, K. L., & Moore, C. H.
(1990). Effects of physical attractiveness of
plaintiff and defendant in sexual harassment
judgments. Journal of Social Behavior and
Personality, 16, 39 - 50.
Headings
• Can have 1-5 levels of headings.
• Two should be enough for your paper.
• Ignore the information in Martin, the APA
has changed their rules recently.
• See APA-Style Headings
• See the Writer’s Handbook.