An EasyGuide to APA Style. Regan A. R. Gurung
the subjects or objects of a sentence. A noun can be singular or plural, which has implications for the verb used with the noun. There are many different types of nouns, but one important distinction for APA format is the proper noun, used to describe a unique person or thing. Proper nouns start with a capital letter (which also applies to APA–format citations).
Example: “The role of the Rorschach in the clinical intake exam: Impact on psychotherapy effectiveness.”
In this journal article title from a reference section, Rorschach is capitalized because it is a proper noun, referring to a specific projective test.
Pronoun
A pronoun is a word used to replace a noun, typically used to avoid repetition. There are also singular and plural pronouns, and the pronoun rules differ depending on whether the pronoun is used as the subject (e.g., “she,” “he,” “they,” “who”) or the object of the sentence (e.g., “her,” “him,” “them,” “whom”).
Example: “I hypothesize that students reading online textbook pages will score lower on a multiple-choice test than will students reading a traditional textbook.”
The pronoun “I” takes the place of the author’s name.
Adjective
An adjective is a word that describes or qualifies a noun or pronoun. Adjectives can be found before a noun being described (attributive adjective) or after a verb that follows a noun being described (predicative adjective).
Example 1: “The first-year student signed up for the research study.”
“First-year” is the attributive adjective describing the student.
Example 2: “This study is incomplete.”
“Incomplete” is the predicative adjective describing the study.
Article
Articles (“a,” “and,” “the”) are actually a special form of adjective called demonstrative adjectives. A definite article (“the”) points out something specific or already introduced. An indefinite article (“a, an”) introduces something unspecific or something mentioned for the first time.
Example: “The Method section follows immediately after the Introduction section of a research paper.”
“The” in both cases refers to specific parts of a research paper (definite article), and “a” refers to any (unspecific) research paper (indefinite article).
Verb
Verbs typically describe the action within the sentence. Verbs are the most important words in a sentence; they describe the action the subject takes or the subject’s state of being.
Example 1: “The student wrote a fine paper.”
“Student” is the subject; “wrote” tells us what the student did.
Example 2: “The student was happy with the paper.”
“Student” is the subject; “was,” with the adjective “happy,” tells us the student’s state of being.
There are many different kinds of verbs, and verb forms change depending on, for example, the subject (singular or plural), the tense, the voice (active or passive), and the verb form (regular or irregular).
Examples: First-person verbs are formed using the subject pronouns I and we. It is appropriate to write in APA Style using first-person pronouns and their accompanying verbs, because writing in the first person helps avoid passive voice (see Chapter 3). Second-person verbs are used with you. Third-person verbs are used with the pronouns he, she, it, and they.
Adverb
Adverbs are words used to modify or qualify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or clauses.
Example 1: “Participants completed the survey quickly.”
“Quickly” is the adverb that describes how the survey was completed.
Example 2: “Study 1 successfully demonstrated the phi phenomenon; moreover, Study 1 replicated previous research.”
Both “successfully” and “moreover” are adverbs; “moreover” is an example of a conjunctive adverb. (Within a sentence, if a clause begins with a conjunctive adverb, it is preceded by a semicolon.)
Preposition
Prepositions are words that combine with nouns or pronouns to provide the connections between two words or clauses. Some prepositions are “about,” “above,” “after,” “among,” “around,” “along,” “at,” “before,” “behind,” “beneath,” “beside,” “between,” “by,” “down,” “from,” “in,” “into,” “like,” “near,” “of,” “off,” “on,” “out,” “over,” “through,” “to,” “up,” “upon,” “under,” “until,” “with,” and “without.”
Example: “My manuscript is under review at the journal.”
Conjunction
Conjunctions are used to join words, phrases, or clauses. There are coordinate conjunctions (“and,” “but,” “for,” “or,” “nor,” “so,” “yet”) and subordinate conjunctions (“that,” “as,” “after,” “before,” “if,” “since,” “when,” “where,” “unless”).
Example: “Beth, Eric, and Regan enjoyed writing this book. Because writing in APA Style can be difficult, we thought this book would be helpful to students.”
“And” is a coordinate conjunction, and “because” is a subordinate conjunction.
Interjection
Interjections are words, phrases, or sentences that express emotion; often, interjections end with an exclamation point or a question mark.
Examples: Take care! Are you kidding me?
Interjections are used infrequently in APA-Style writing.
Common Grammar Mistakes to Avoid
Many rules and much advice are available to students who want to improve their writing. We certainly applaud you for reading this book and wanting to improve your writing skills. Table 4.1 at the end of this chapter presents some common writing errors to avoid, with a brief label for each error. These are some common mistakes that deserve your special attention, and different authors have suggested that if you make any of the grammar mistakes listed next, these types of mistakes make you look “dumb” (Clark, n.d.) or “stupid” (Gilbert, 2006). Those labels may be taking conclusions a bit far, but you clearly want to avoid making these errors. They make you look as though you wrote your paper at the last minute and/or suggest you did not have the time or inclination to proofread. Following is a summary of the combined lists (Clark, n.d.; Gilbert, 2006), with examples relevant to APA Style and format.
Your—You’re