An EasyGuide to APA Style. Regan A. R. Gurung
avoid in your writing is attributing human characteristics to nonhuman entities. This is known as anthropomorphism, sometimes called pathetic fallacy (which seems a bit harsh). The PM states (Section 4.11) that when writing in your scholarly voice, you avoid anthropomorphism by using active verbs with human actors in your sentences. Notice in the example that follows, the experiment (nonhuman) is doing something that only humans can do.
Incorrect: The experiment will demonstrate the early development of children’s vocabulary.
Better: The purpose of the experiment is to demonstrate the early development of children’s vocabulary.
That said, there are exceptions to this anthropomorphism rule, and these exceptions are those instances of common writing style in the psychological literature. For example, phrases such as “the results illustrate” or “these findings suggest” are often used to discuss the meaning of the results of an experiment in a Discussion section of an article or paper. Therefore, these are acceptable forms of anthropomorphism for your paper as well.
This notion of proofreading your work before you turn it in brings up another vital practice you need to use if you want to improve your writing skills: You must learn to write for your audience, and in college, that will typically mean writing for your professors. They may ask for deviations from APA Style and APA format, and that is OK. Remember, they are the folks who are grading your work. If they prefer more passive voice than first person in scientific writing, follow that advice over the course of the class; just know that the PM indicates a preference for the active voice (Section 4.15). In Chapter 20, we provide details on how best to proofread your papers.
As with everything else regarding writing, we get better with practice. So we close this chapter with some sentences you might encounter in scientific writing; your task is to rewrite them in the active voice. Your rewrites do not need to match perfectly, but take note of the different methods you can use to rewrite into the active voice by putting the “do-er” of the action first, followed by the verb, and ending with the object or receiver of the action. Also, take a stab at rewriting the sentences below that include the errors described above. This practice will help you communicate clearly and concisely with your desired audience.
Start with these (you saw some of them on the previous page):
The data were analyzed using SPSS.
This conclusion was reached by the researchers in the study.
Although manic depression was diagnosed in some of the participants, the drug treatment was beneficial for all participants in the study.
The questions were developed by the interviewer.
It was determined by the researcher that the results were inconclusive.
Participants were asked by the experimenter to read the instructions carefully before proceeding.
The proposed methodology will likely be passed by the institutional review board.
As I observed the interaction patterns between participants, I noticed that body language played an important role in communication.
As I was reading this study of mental illness during the 20th century, I noticed that classification of disorders was not very clearly defined.
The speech laboratory wanted to explore the underlying causes of stammering.
The EasyGuide improved the understanding of APA Style.
Remember, as with any other complex skill, practice makes perfect!
4 A Quick Grammar Summary for APA-Style Writing
Do you play cards? Nowadays, you can watch competition card games on TV; one of the most popular is Texas No Limit Hold ‘Em tournaments. If you have watched any of these shows, you have probably heard the announcers say something like, “Texas Hold ‘Em takes a minute to learn but a lifetime to master.” We wish that the rules of English grammar (and APA Style and format) took a minute to learn and then a lifetime to master; alas, it is more complicated (in our opinion). If only it took a minute to learn the rules! When we say a lifetime to master, we do not mean that you have to memorize the rules, but you need to practice the rules and become familiar enough with them that you can avoid embarrassing mistakes (and some memorization is good for the brain, too). In this chapter, we provide plenty of tips on how to avoid those embarrassing (and not-so-embarrassing) writing mistakes.
Of course, entire textbooks and college courses are devoted to grammar and style. Six of our favorite books include Air and Light and Time and Space: How Successful Academics Write (Sword, 2017), Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century (Pinker, 2014), Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English (O’Conner, 1996), Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing (O’Conner, 1999), Eats, Shoots & Leaves (Truss, 2003), and the ever-classic The Elements of Style (Strunk & White, 1979). This chapter is a brief summary of the key components you need to know and practice to be a better writer of APA Style and format. We organize our presentation here around parts of a sentence and parts of speech, and we end with common grammatical mistakes to avoid.
Parts of a Sentence
Texas No Limit Hold ‘Em is a card game with its own terminology that must be learned to play—it includes terms such as the flop, the turn, the button, big slick, and trips. If you did not understand those Texas No Limit Hold ‘Em terms, you would have a hard time just following the game (much less playing it). The same is true for grammar terminology. If you do not know what the terms mean, then it will be difficult to apply any rules. So we start here with parts of a sentence. By the way, many of these explanations come from Maddox and Scocco (2009), who provide a wonderful resource on basic English grammar, available online as a PDF. Next up will be parts of speech, followed by grammatical errors you want to avoid.
Subject: The part of a sentence that is being written about.
The researchers studied the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. (The subject is “researchers.”)
Predicate: What we say about the subject of the sentence. (The main word in the predicate is the verb.)
I hypothesize that younger adults spend more time on Facebook than do older adults. (The predicate is “hypothesize.”)
Phrase: Grammatically related words of a sentence that do not contain the main verb (a sentence fragment that would not exist as a sentence on its own).
I attended the session at the conference on applying to graduate school. (Both “at the conference” and “on applying to graduate school” are phrases—written alone, they would not stand as sentences.)
Clause: Grammatically related words that do contain a main verb. An independent clause is part of a larger sentence that could stand on its own as a complete sentence. A subordinate clause cannot stand on its own as a sentence because the clause begins with a qualifier, such as “because” or “when.”
I want to take statistics, unless the class time conflicts with my work schedule. (“I want to take statistics” is an independent clause because it can stand on its own as a complete sentence. The second clause, “unless the class time conflicts with my work schedule,” is a subordinate clause because of the qualifier “unless.”)
Object: The part of the sentence that receives the action of the action verb.
I completed an application to graduate school. (The object of the sentence is “application,” which is the receiver of the action of the verb “completed.”)
Parts of Speech
Next, we provide definitions for each of the parts of speech. This compilation of information