Writing in APA Style: A Checklist

Consult the Publication Manual of the APA to make sure that your lab reports and papers conform to APA style. You may find it helpful to look at the sample manuscripts provided in your textbook to see examples of how a paper should look. Be sure you are looking at the example of correct APA formatting, and not the exercise provided for you to practice finding errors! You may also want to review my lecture outline from Psy 241 on writing in APA style (http://condor.depaul.edu/~dallbrit/extra/psy241/psych241-lec4-writing.htm) or the examples of references in APA format I have provided in my “Resources for students” web page (http://condor.depaul.edu/~dallbrit/resources.html). If either of these links is broken, try starting at my home page.

In addition, the following checklist may be helpful as you prepare your manuscript.

Checklist

Cover Page (Title Page)

• Does my Cover page have a running head page header with the appropriate capitalization?
• Does my title reflect what the study was about (does it identify independent and dependent variables)

Abstract

• Does my abstract identify why the research was done, what was hypothesized, what the results were and the interpretations of the results.
• Does my abstract adequately describe all of this information in 120 words or less?
• Is the abstract on a page by itself immediately following the title page?

Introduction

• Does my first or second paragraph identify why the study was done?
• Does the first or second paragraph identify why the research topic is important and how it relates to people’s lives?
• Does my literature review identify important studies in at he appropriate level of detail?
• Have I stated the hypotheses in their correct form?
• Have I briefly stated how these hypotheses will be explored?
• Have I adequately described and explained all terms (including the operationalizations of my variables?
• Did I remember not to label this section “Introduction”?

Method

• Have I identified my participants in enough detail?
• Have I described why some data was missing or excluded?
• Have I described any scripts or other materials and referred to them in an appendix?
• Have I adequately described the procedures in such a way that someone could replicate my experiment?
• Subsections:
• Participants - how many, where they were found, demographic characteristics such as age and gender
• Apparatus – Describe any special equipment used. May not merit a separate subsection unless it is particularly unusual or complicated equpment
• Materials (or Stimuli) – Describe any pictures, texts, or other materials used as stimuli. Provide examples in a table or figure, or include all the materials in an appendix.
• Design – Identify the independent and dependent variables. Describe how the experiment was designed to test the hypothesis and control possible confounds. If you included any counterbalancing or control variables, describe them. State how many trials there were.
• Procedure – This should be a step-by-step description of what happens to each participant and what they do. Other researchers should be able to read your procedure section and duplicate the steps of the experiment exactly.

Results

• Have I restated what each hypothesis was just before reporting the relevant result? Example: “I predicted that participants would respond faster in the experimental condition than in the control condition.”
• Have I described the result clearly? Example: “This prediction was confirmed. Reaction times were significantly faster in the experimental condition than in the control condition.”
• Have I described my data by using the appropriate descriptive statistics (means or frequencies)? Example: “The mean reaction times were 2124 ms. for the experimental condition and 2535 ms. for the control condition.”
• Have I provided a measure of variability - such as standard deviation (SD) or standard error of the mean (SEM) for the means that I reported, either in the text of the paper or in a table? Example: “The mean reaction times were 2124 ms. for the experimental condition (SD = 785) and 2535 ms. for the control condition (SD = 810).”
• For analysis of variance, have I stated whether each IV was manipulated between-subjects or within-subjects? Example: “Condition (experimental vs. control) was a within-subjects factor in the ANOVA.”
• Have I correctly reported the inferential statistics (such as t or F tests) in the correct format? Example: “This difference was statistically significant, t (37) = 3.14, p < .05.”
• Have I justified every statement about the pattern of the results with a statistical test (for example, if I say that the mean for one condition is greater than the mean for another, did I provide the results of a t test to justify that claim)?

Discussion

• Have I restated why the research was done and what was found?
• Have I adequately interpreted this research in terms of its meaning for people and its implications for relevant theories?
• Have I discussed the major limitations of the study (e.g., internal validity, external validity, construct validity)?
• Have I proposed research that would further an understanding of this topic (e.g., what other methodologies would strengthen our knowledge of this topic)?

References

• Have I checked all of my references for correct capitalization, punctuation and underlining?
• Does my references section list all and only the works that I cited in the text of the paper?

Figures/Figure Captions

• Are my figures and Figure captions according to APA style?
• Do my figures have the appropriate labels on the X and Y axes and have titles that accurately reflect the content of those figures?

Other

• Have I edited my paper for wordiness, grammar, punctuation, and spelling?
• Have I double-spaced everything, including the abstract and references sections?