APA Seriation
Dr. Gustafson
What is Seriation?
• APA Manual 6th Edition – 3.04
• Seriation signals the reader to key points within
a section (for example, a list of items)
• Different types of seriation for different
purposes
Numbered Lists
• Separate paragraphs in a series
or
• Separate sentences in a series
• Arabic numeral followed by a period
• Only use with complete sentences and end with period
Example
Participants made the following judgments:
1. Individuals who . . . [paragraph or sentence continues].
2. Nondepressed persons . . . [paragraph or sentence continues].
3. Depressed persons . . . [paragraph or sentence continues].
Bulleted Lists
• Separate paragraphs in a series
or
• Separate sentences in a series
• Only use with complete sentences and end with period
• Used to avoid connoting ordinal number or items
Example
Participants made the following judgments:

Individuals who . . . [paragraph or sentence continues].
 Nondepressed persons . . . [paragraph or sentence continues].
 Depressed persons . . . [paragraph or sentence continues].
Lists within Paragraph or Sentence
• List items within a sentence or paragraph
• Identify elements with lowercase letters in parenthesis
• Use comma to separate items - in sentence where there are no other
internal commas
• Use semicolon to separate items – in sentence where there are other
internal commas
Example (sentence with no other internal commas)
The participant's three choices were (a) working with another participant, (b)
working with a team, and (c) working alone.
Example (sentence with other internal commas)
We tested three groups: (a) low scorers, who scored fewer than 20 points; (b)
moderate scorers, who scored between . . .
Seriation Misc.
• Use the correct type of seriation for your
purpose
• Numbered lists connote order or hierarchy of
items; use bulleted list if hierarchy is not
intended
• Follow paper or journal typeset requirements for
bullet style