Running head: SURNAME, F.
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Provide Your Title in Title Format
Firstname Surname
University of Alberta–Augustana Campus
SURNAME, F.
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Abstract
Left justified and very brief summary of the entire page. Word count should not exceed 150-200
words. The easiest way to write an abstract is to write it last and use one or two sentences to
summarize every major section: literature review (focus on the topic and your central prediction),
methods, results, and discussion. See APA (2010, Section 2.04) or Morling (2015, p. 489) for
further details. You can find an expected order of sections for the entire paper in Appendix A.
The abstract, introduction, and the reference section start at the top of a page.
SURNAME, F.
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Provide Your Title in Title Format
Consult APA (2010, Section 2.05) or Morling (2015, p. 489-492) for details about
introductions. The introduction serves as the literature review for your project. Your first
paragraph will introduce the topic and explain why the area of research is of interest in the social
sciences for applied or theoretical reasons.
The next paragraphs should provide a review of the literature. The lit review should
integrate these sources to show how various papers support or contradict each other. You do not
need to provide a detailed analysis of the methods. You should only include the material that is
relevant to your research question. Remember that your literature should be written in the past
tense. Lengthy literature reviews will benefit from the use of headings (consult APA, 2010,
Section 3.03). End the lit review with a summary of what is known or contested given the
literature. This leads the reader toward your proposed research question, thesis, or resolution.
Your assignment will give you specific guidance.
In a literature review for a proposal, the final paragraph would be a separate section,
immediately prior to the Methods, perhaps entitled “This Study”. See Appendix B for some
examples an explicit statement of your hypothesis. You should indicate the research design you
have chosen to test your hypothesis. Look at the articles you are reading for examples of the type
of information included. This section may include a rationale for the study design or choice of
variables. Part of learning to write is to discern what information your reader needs.
Method
Consult APA (2010, Section 2.06) or Morling (2015, p. 492-494) for further details. If
you need more levels of heading, see APA (2010, Section 3.03).
Participants (do not leave a header hanging at the end of the page “widowed” in this manner)
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Include number, recruitment method, and selection process if you are not using a
convenience sample. This is the place to describe the demographics of your group if that is part
of your study (gender, age range, etc.). If you have a large sample and wish to report many
descriptive statistics, you may find that a table is helpful.
Materials
If you require special tools or props for your research, describe them here. Otherwise, do
not include this section.
Procedures
Describe what a participant experiences from the time they begin the study until its
completion. This should include when and how you gather consent, as well as the order in which
things happen if there is more than one step. Only include the necessary elements of the
following subsections. Refer to your actual consent form and include it in an Appendix.
Appendices are labelled in order of appearance by letter, like this (see Appendix X)
Measures. Your survey should be described in general terms here (4 questions
addressing x and 3 addressing y). You must include the actual survey in an Appendix. Refer to it
in this section (see Appendix Y).
Operational definitions of variables. Variables that are not related to inclusion or
exclusion criteria for participants (these go in the Participant section) should be defined here. If
necessary.
Coding. If you conducted an observational survey describe how coding and reliability
were handled here.
Debriefing. If you conducted an experiment, describe how participants were debriefed
and provide a copy of the material provided to the participant here.
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Results
Describe your results in this section following the standards provided in APA (2010,
Section 2.07) or Morling (2015, p. 494-496). For advice about how to report statistics, see APA
(2010, Section 4.35 and 4.45-4.46). For advice about how to refer to Tables and Figures, see
APA (2010, Section 5.05). This is very picky, and varies by test, pay attention to the format.
Begin by providing descriptive statistics about the sample. This will be followed by the
results of your primary or most important or more general hypothesis. Write about groups of
related results together. Separate results from unrelated hypotheses into different paragraphs. Do
not interpret your results at this point.
Integrate references to your Figures and Tables into your text like this (see Figure 1), but
don’t integrate the figures and tables themselves. They are included on separate pages at the back
of the manuscript, tables first in numerical order, followed by figures.
Discussion
The discussion section should begin with an interpretation of your results. What did you
find and what does it mean? This is usually brief and relatively cautious. Be conservative about
the implications of your work. Did you or did you not reject the null hypothesis? APA (2010,
Section 2.08) or Morling (2015, p. 496-497) for further details.
After the results of your study have been interpreted, discuss how they fit with
information reviewed in your literature review. Does your work support or challenge previous
work? This is an evidence-based evaluation of the outcomes of your study.
This interpretation is then tempered by a consideration of the methodological strengths
and weaknesses of your study. If your results were not significant, then you no doubt reported a
power analysis in the results section. Here is where you can discuss what would be needed to
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increase power in your study. Consider reliability of measurement, as well as threats to internal
and external validity. Consider study design. Consider N. Consider all the various validities we
have been exploring in class (again, see Morling).
Often researchers will speculate about why their results differ or provide additional
information regarding the topic of interest. This is the point in the paper where that type of
speculation is encouraged. You are not restricted to the care and caution of the results section,
but here offer possible theoretical, applied or practical factors that may affect behaviour in this
area, but for which we do not yet have evidence to evaluate. Often this section involved a
statement about planned or proposed future research.
A final and very brief conclusion ends the report. This should summarize in two or three
sentences, what was found and what it means, but do so more briefly than in your first paragraph
and with reference to the more complex position you can now take having offered the additional
information in the discussion section.
SURNAME, F.
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References
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Buckels, E. E., Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2013). Behavioral confirmation of everyday
sadism. Psychological Science, 24(11), 2201-2209.
Chambers, J. R., Schlenker, B. R., & Collisson, B. (2013). Ideology and prejudice: The role of
value conflicts. Psychological Science, 24(2), 2201-2209.
Leclerc, C. M., & Kensinger, E. A. (2008). Effects of age on detection of emotional information.
Psychology and Aging, 23, 209-215.
Marentette, P., & Nicoladis, E. (2011). Preschoolers’ interpretations of gesture: Label or action
associate? Cognition, 121(3), 386–99. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2011.08.012
Marentette, P., & Nicoladis, E. (2012). Does ontogenetic ritualization explain early
communicative gestures in human infants? In S. Pika & K. Liebal (Eds.) Developments in
primate gesture research (pp. 33-53). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Nestor, P. G. & Schutt, R. K. (2012). Research methods in psychology: Investigating human
behavior. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Tutton, M. (2012). When and why the lexical Ground is a gestural Figure. Gesture, 12(3), 361368. doi:10.1075/gest.12.3.04tut
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Consider the Instructions in APA (2010, Section 5.07 – 5.19, particularly the checklist on p. 150).
Note that text within a table uses a non-serif font (such as Arial) for ease of reading. The table
itself is double-spaced, but not its notes or titles. The table caption is a title, appearing above the
table in Title Format.
Table 1. Age, Minutes Coded, and Distribution of Gestures by Gesture Type. Age (in months) Child 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 8.75 C-­AD -­ 60 60 60 60 60 C-­KV -­ 60 60 60 60 F-­JS -­ -­ 60 60 60 60 F-­ZN 60 60 60 60 9 9.5 10 Total 60 60 60 45 615 -­ 60 60 60 540 60 42 60 462 -­ -­ 60 60 480 Minutes -­ coded -­ -­ -­ Note. Table adapted from Marentette and Nicoladis (2012). Often a note includes the symbols representing probability in the body of the table. SURNAME, F.
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Consider the Instructions in APA (2010, Section 5.20-5.30, particularly the checklist on p. 167).
Note that text within a figure uses a non-serif font (such as Arial) for ease of reading. The figure
caption appears below the figure. It is not a complete sentence. Notes are included in the figure
caption.
100
Percent Correct
80
60
40
20
0
Icon
Arb
Icon
Female
2 yr
Arb
Male
3 yr
4 yr
Figure 1. Percent correct object choice by child across gesture type, gender and age. Error bars mark standard error of the mean. Figure reproduced from Marentette and Nicoladis (2011). SURNAME, F.
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Appendix A
Order of elements in your manuscript
1. Title Page
2. Abstract – new page
3. Manuscript – continuous pagination throughout
4. References – new page
5. Tables, numbered in order of reference in the ms. Place each table on a separate page.
6. Figures, numbered in order of reference in the ms. Place each figure on a separate page.
7. Appendices. You will likely have two, one for the consent form, one for a copy of your survey
or perhaps a coding form. These are lettered in order of reference in the ms. Place each appendix
starting on a separate page.
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Appendix B
How to introduce your study: Some examples
Leclerc and Kensinger (2008)
“In the current research therefore, we compared young and older adults’ detection of four
categories of emotional information (positive high arousal, positive low arousal, negative high
arousal, negative low arousal) with their detection of neutral information.”
Buckels, Jones and Paulhus (2013)
“We aimed to address two interrelated questions. First, can sadistic behaviour be captured
in the laboratory? And second, can measures of sadistic personality predict these behaviors
beyond already established measures of the Dark Triad? These questions were addressed with
two studies.”
Chambers, Schlenker and Collisson (2013)
“We conducted three studies to examine prejudice differences between conservatives and
liberals and to assess the role played by value conflicts, as compared with the target’s race. In
Study 1, we examined…”
Tutton (2012)
“We begin by examining why speakers use gestural Figures with the prepositions
between and entre, and what these gestures reveal about how speakers conceptualise the
lexicalised locative relationship.”