Introduction to
Academic Writing
Fall 2010
MA Program on Applied English
Dr. Ad-Fu Huang
Course Outline
Writing for the behavioral and social sciences
Manuscript structure and content
Writing clearly and concisely
The mechanics of style
Displaying results
Crediting sources
Reference examples
The elements of a thesis proposal
Course Schedule
Week 01/ Course description and group division
W02/ Writing for the behavioral and social
sciences
W03-W04/ Manuscript structure and content
W05-W06/ Writing clearly and concisely
W07-W09/ The mechanics of style
W10-W11/ Displaying results
W12-W14/ Crediting sources
W15-W17/ Reference examples
W18/ Structure of the thesis proposal
Introduction to
Academic Writing
Chapter 4
The Mechanics of Styles
Mechanics of styles
Outline
Punctuation
Spelling
Capitalization
Italics
Abbreviations
Numbers
Metrication
Statistical and mathematical copy
Mechanics of styles
Punctuation
Spacing after punctuation marks (PP87-88)
Period (P88)
Comma (PP88-89)
Semicolon (PP89-90)
Colon (P90)
Dash (P90)
Quotation marks (double vs. single) (PP91-92)
Parentheses (PP93-94)
Brackets (PP94-95)
Slash (PP95-96)
Mechanics of styles
Spelling
Preferred spelling (PP96-97)
Hyphenation (PP97-100)
 General Principle 1:
 General Principle 2:
 General Principle 3:
 General Principle 4:
 General Principle 5:
Mechanics of styles
Capitalization
Words beginning a sentence (P101)
Major words in titles and headings (PP101-102)
Proper nouns and trade names (PP102-103)
Nouns followed by numerals or letters (P103)
Titles of tests (P103)
Names of conditions or groups in an
experiment (P103)
Names of factors, variables, and effects (P103)
Mechanics of styles
Italics
Use of italics (PP104-106)
Mechanics of styles
Abbreviations
Use of abbreviations (overuse, underuse, and
deciding whether to abbreviate) (PP106-107)
Explanations of abbreviations (P107)
Abbreviations accepted as words (P107)
Abbreviations often used in APA journals (P108)
Latin abbreviations (P108)
Scientific abbreviations (PP108-110)
Plurals of abbreviations (PP110-111)
Abbreviations beginning a sentence (P111)
Mechanics of styles
Numbers
Numbers expressed in numerals (PP111-112)
Numbers expressed in words (P112)
Combining numerals and words to express numbers
(PP112-113)
Ordinal numbers (P113)
Decimal fractions (PP113-114)
Roman numerals (P114)
Commas in numbers (P114)
Plurals of numbers (P114)
Mechanics of styles
Metrication
Policy on metrication (PP114-115)
Style for metric units (P115)
 Abbreviation
 Capitalization
 Plurals
 Periods
 Spacing
 Compound units
Mechanics of styles
Statistical and mathematical copy
Selecting effective presentation (P116)
References for statistics (P116)
Formulas
Statistics in text (PP116-117)
Statistical symbols (Table 4.5) (PP117-123)
Spacing, alignment, and punctuation
Mechanics of styles
Equation
Equations in text (P123)
Displayed equations
Preparing statistical and mathematical copy