APA Style Guideline for writing your IB Psychology Internal Assessment
Capitalization (General)
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In titles and headings, capitalize all words with four or more letters.
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After a colon, capitalize the first word beginning a complete sentence.
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Capitalize Black and White when referring to race.
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Capitalize proper nouns and adjectives used as proper nouns.
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After an extract, use lowercase “p.” and “pp.” to indicate page numbers.
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Trial 5, Day 2, Experiment 4 . . . BUT chapter 4, row 3, and column 5.
Hyphenation
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Do not hyphenate -ly and superlative words (e.g., widely used test, best informed students).
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Do not hyphenate common prefixes (posttest, prewar, multiphase, non-significant) unless
needed for clarity (e.g., pre-existing).
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Do not hyphenate foreign, letter, numeral terms (a priori hypothesis, Type A behavior) when
the meaning is clear without it (e.g., least squares solution, heart rate scores).
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Hyphenate adjectival phrases (role-playing technique, high-anxiety group, two-way analysis).
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Hyphenate compound adjectives preceding nouns (client-centered therapy, t-test scores).
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Hyphenate if the base is an abbreviation or compounded (pre-UCS, non-collegebound).
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Hyphenate if the base word is capitalized or a number (pre-Freudian, post-1960).
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Hyphenate if the words could be misunderstood without a hyphen (re-pair, un-ionized, coworker).
In-Text Quotations
· Follow the author-date method of citation. The author's last name and the year of
publication for the source should appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear
in the reference list.
·
Examples:
Smith (1970) compared reaction times . . .
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APA Style Guideline for writing your IB Psychology Internal Assessment
In a recent study of reaction times (Smith, 1970) . . .
In 1970, Smith compared reaction times . . .
Short Quotations (fewer than 40 words)
·
Enclose the quotation within double quotation marks.
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Provide the author, year, and specific page citation in the text.
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Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the
parenthetical citation.
·
Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are
a part of the quotation but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.
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When paraphrasing, the citation (author and page number) must still be included.
·
Brackets indicate a word not used in the original source
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Examples:
She stated, "The placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner"
(Miele, 1993, p. 276), but she did not clarify which behaviors were studied.
According to Miele (1993), "The placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in
this manner" (p.276).
Miele (1993) found that "the placebo effect disappeared" in this case (p. 276), but what will
the next step in researching this issue be?
Long Quotations (longer than 40 words)
·
Place quotations longer than 40 words in a freestanding block of typewritten lines, and omit
quotation marks.
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Start the quotation on a new line, indented five spaces from the left margin. Type the entire
quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within
the quotation five spaces from the new margin.
·
Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after closing
punctuation mark.
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Examples:
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APA Style Guideline for writing your IB Psychology Internal Assessment
Miele's 1993 study found the following:
The placebo effect disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner. Furthermore,
the behaviors were never exhibited again, even when real drugs were administered. Earlier
studies conducted by the same group of researchers at the hospital were clearly premature in
attributing the results to a placebo effect. (p. 276)
Jones's (1998) study found the following:
Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time citing
sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to purchase
a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)
Numbers
·
Spell out numbers under 10.
·
Use figures (14, 233) to express numbers 10 and above.
·
Use figures to express numbers under 10 that are grouped for comparison with figures 10
and above:
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The results showed that 2 out of 20 recipients disagreed with the proposal.
·
Use figures and the percentage sign to represent percentages:
A significant majority, 62%, said they would support the fundraising campaign.
EXCEPTION: Use the word “percentage” when a number is not given: Researchers
determined the percentage of rats…
·
Dates, ages, and money are represented by figures:
2 weeks ago
She was a 2-year old.
The workers were paid $5 each.
·
Common fractions are written out: One fifth of the respondents…
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Regardless of the rules above, numbers that begin sentences must be written out, but APA
asks you to AVOID beginning sentences with numbers.
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When writing decimal fractions, include a zero before the decimal point if the number is less
than 1.
Example: 0.25 inches or 0.58 inches.
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APA Style Guideline for writing your IB Psychology Internal Assessment
·
Roman Numerals should always be written as Roman Numerals if they are part of the
established terminology.
For example, if the term is Type II Error, do not change it to the Arabic form (Type 2
Error).
·
Generally use Arabic numbers for routine lists, etc. Example: Step 1, Step 2, etc.
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Always use commas between groups of three digits in most figures of 1,000 or more.
EXCEPTION: page numbers (page 1038); binary digits (00011011100); serial numbers
(258974631); degrees of temperature (3084◦ F); numbers to the right of a decimal point
(4,987.2598).
·
If a number is written as a plural, do NOT use an apostrophe when adding the s or es:
Fours and sixes, 1950s, 10s and 20s.
When referring to an era (the 1950s) the year is plural, not possessive and there is NO
apostrophe.
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