APA style: Structure of a Research Report/Proposal

APA Style: General Guidelines 

Formatting

1. Double-space entire document
2. Left Justify all of your text.

1. Indent each paragraph.  You an either click a tab at the start of each paragraph, or use the ruler.  Put the top slider ½ inch in and leave the second slider as is (see below) 
   

3. Margins

1. Use 1-inch margins throughout (top, bottom, left, right)
2. Click File, Page Setup, Margins.  Fill the appropriate blanks with “1”.

4. Header - In case your paper becomes unclipped or unstapled (note: please staple or paper clip your paper prior to turning it in), you need to have a consistent header on all pages.  APA style is to use the first two or three words of the title, then a few spaces, then the page number.  To create the header:

• Go to the View menu, and select Header and Footer.
• Click on the right justification button in the main toolbar.
• Type your header, then press the spacebar 5 times.
• Click on the “page numbering” button in the Header and Footer toolbar.  It is the little number sign (pound key on your cell phone). 
• Click on “Close” in the Header and Footer toolbar to return to the main body of your text.

Every page of the report will now have the same header as the title page (with different page numbers.

5. Use a single font type font size (12 pt) throughout your paper.

Title page

1. The first page of your paper should be the title page.  Near the top of the Title page, type your title and press enter once.  Normally, you would type your name next, but I want to grade your paper anonymously, so please do not write your name on the title page; put it at the very end of your document, instead.  If you want, you can use Jane Doe, or Jeffrey Amherst, or any other moderately amusing pen name.  Press enter, then type your affiliation (Amherst College) and press enter.
2. Center the title, your pen name and your affiliation.
3. Skip to a new page by pressing ‘Control-Enter’

Citing authors' work 

   When you talk about the work of other people, it is imperative that you cite their contribution to your paper, both in the text and in the reference section (see below).  Use the following formatting information for citations in the text.  Use the word “and” between author names in a sentence, but use the ampersand (“&”) when listing authors inside parentheses.  Include the publication year. Follow these examples: 


            Smith and Jones (1998) surveyed men and found that....

            Other researchers (Doe, Reddy, & Smits, 1970; Zucher & Bates, 1968) found... 


   When listing multiple citations in parentheses, list them in alphabetical order by 1^st author.  If you cite a paper with three or more authors on more than one occasion, list all of the authors in the first citation.  In all subsequent citations, use the following: Doe, et al., (1970).  DO NOT INCLUDE ANY INFORMATION OTHER THAN THE AUTHOR’S LAST NAMES AND YEAR OF PUBLICATION IN THE TEXT.  The title, author’s affiliation, journal name, etc. should appear ONLY in the reference section. 


 

References

   The reference list always begins on a new page, after the last page of the discussion; skip to a new page by pressing ‘Control-Enter’.  Center the word “References” at the top of the page.  The full citations follow, double-spaced, in alphabetical order.  Indent the first line of each reference.  (see #2 under formatting above).  When you have more than one article with the same first author, put them in alphabetical order by the second author.  Multiple one-author citations by the same person appear in chronological order, earliest reference first.

• For a journal article:  Give the last names, then initials, of all of the authors, then the publication date (in parentheses), then the article’s title.  Then give the journal title (italicized or underlined), the volume of the journal (also italicized), and the page numbers for the article.  

EX:  Peretz, I., Kolinsky, R., Tramo, M., Labrecque, R. Hublet, C., Demeurisse, G., & Belleville, S. (1994).  Functional dissociation following bilateral lesion of auditory cortex.  Brain, 117, 1283-1301. 
 


• For a chapter in an edited book: After the authors’ names and the publication year, give the chapter title.  Then, give the editors of the book the title of the book and ghe page numbers of the book chapter.  The final information is the location (if a large city like London or New York, just give the city) and name of the book’s publisher.
 


EX:  Spence, J.T., Deaux, K., & Helmreich, R.L. (1985). Sex roles in contemporary American society. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 149-178). New York: Random House. 


• For a book: Give the authors’ names and the publication year, the title of the book and the publication information.
 


EX:  Willingham, W.W., & Cole, N.S. (1997).  Gender and Fair Assessment. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.  


 

Other, useful tips

1. Do not use boldface anywhere (underline for emphasis).
2. Use only one font (and only one font size, preferably 12) throughout the entire document.
3. Do not use contractions (e.g., “don’t,” “aren’t,” “I’ve”).
4. Only use abbreviations for long terms.  The first time the term appears, give the abbreviation in parentheses, and use the abbreviation every time thereafter.  For example: “The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used in all of the studies.  When other measures of depression were used, they were used in conjunction with the BDI.”
5. (almost) No quotes!!!  You will see very few quotes in journal articles.  There are several reasons for this.  First, we are not in the business of interpreting text like you might be for an English literature paper.  Second, I am not interested in what some other researchers think about an issue, or how some other researcher describes their work or its significance.  I’m interested in what you think and how you describe and interpret ideas in the literature. 
6. Talk about experiments in the past tense.  They have already happened.
7. ‘While’ and ‘since’ refer to time; substitute ‘although’ and ‘because’. 
 


If you have any questions, PLEASE ASK! 

       
 
 
 
 


 


APA style: Structure of a Research Report/Proposal 


Title page

4. Near the top of the Title page, type your title and press enter once.  Normally, you would type your name next, but I want to grade your paper anonymously, so please leave this information blank.  If you want, you can use Jane Doe, or Jeffrey Amherst, or any other moderately amusing pen name.  Press enter, then type your affiliation (Amherst College) and press enter.
5. Center the title, your pen name and your affiliation.
6. Skip to a new page by pressing ‘Control-Enter’
 


 

Introduction

      The text of your report begins on a new page (do not type “introduction”).  Each subsequent section of the text (method, results, discussion) follows without any page breaks.  Each section is marked by a centered header (Method, Results, Discussion), with no extra blank lines between the sections.   


      In this section of your paper, you want to discuss the background related to the experiment you have chosen.  In particular, you want to discuss and explain the theoretical and empirical questions that your experiment addresses.  Why is the theoretical question important?  To what other issues in the field does the theoretical question relate?  How will the results of the experiment answer the theoretical question?  What are the major psychological theories that are being tested?  If there is more than one theory at stake, what are the predictions made by each theory? 


      You will probably need to do some additional reading (hint-hint) to present a complete picture of the issues surrounding your selected experiment.  One source for background literature is PsychInfo.  To get to PsychInfo, go to the main library page.  Click On-line indexes and data bases, Psychology, Psych-Info.  You can search either by author (try the authors of the paper in question), or by subject.  Another good source for background literature is your textbook.  However, you may NOT use your textbook, itself, as a source.  You should only use it as a way to find primary sources that are of interest.   


      When you talk about the work of other people, it is imperative that you cite their contribution to your paper.  See the general APA style guide available on the web page for more information.   


Method 

      This section typically has three subsections, Participants, Stimuli and Procedure. Each section should be indented and underlined in the format shown below.  In the stimuli section, you want to describe the important characteristics of the stimuli in your experiment.  In the procedure section, you would describe how the experiment was conducted.  For example, if your study was a memory study, you would describe the kinds of materials that the subjects learned/remembered in the stimulus section, and the method used to learn/test the material in the procedure section. 

 

      Method

      Participants.   

      Stimuli.   

      Procedure. 

 

 

Results

      If you (or the class) collected data, the results section should include either a graph or a description of how the data looked.  If you are completing a research proposal, your results section will include a description of what you expect the results would be if your experiment was conducted.   You may include a figure or table of expected results if you think it will help you communicate the expected pattern to your reader.  However, a figure alone is not sufficient.  You must explain the interesting / important features of the data to the reader.   


 

Discussion

The discussion section begins by summarizing the project and explaining the implications of the results.  You should be sure to compare the results obtained (or expected) with those reported in the literature.  Discuss potential reasons for the discrepancies.  Finally, the discussion should touch on broader issues.  For example, what implications does this research have for cognitive psychology or memory research, in general?  What are the limitations of the study, and more importantly, how might you overcome these limitations yourself?  Would correcting these limitations alter the theoretical interpretation of the data?  What other questions does the study raise?  How might you design an experiment to answer those questions?  You also might discuss what implications this study has in the ‘real-world’.