APA: More Than Citations

By Hillary Wentworth, Writing Consultant

It’s easy to think of APA style as simply a way of crediting the sources you reference in your paper. Yes, the citation part of APA is quite important, as you always want to maintain academic integrity and avoid plagiarism. However, there is much more to APA than parentheses at the end of a sentence. Carve out some time to review chapter 3 in the APA 6th edition manual or the Perrin Pocket Guide, which both deal with writing in a scholarly manner. In these chapters, you’ll find tips on transitions, word choice, tone, and bias, among other topics. Here’s a taste:

• Did you know that using he to indicate both genders is a form of bias? Instead, you will want to use he or she or revise the sentence to avoid the pronoun. You can also easily change a singular noun to a plural, thus allowing for the neutral they. Here’s an example:

Biased: When a teacher introduces a lesson, he should use images to stimulate visual learners.
Unbiased: When teachers introduce a lesson, they should use images to stimulate visual learners.

• Has a tutor or editor ever commented on anthropomorphism in your writing? What a long word, what an interesting concept! Anthropomorphism is the act of giving human qualities to inanimate objects, such as a course paper. Here’s an example:

Incorrect: This paper discusses the importance of social cognitive theory in the development of personality.

Well, a paper can’t really discuss anything because it is lying flat on a desk or embedded in your computer. You as author, however, can discuss, argue, and examine. A revision of this sentence could be as follows:

Correct: In this paper, I will discuss the importance of social cognitive theory in the development of personality.

• Do you find your paragraphs dragging on and on? Are you exceeding the page limit on every assignment? If you are having a hard time getting your point across clearly and quickly, check out what APA calls economy of expression. Sometimes the best way to express an idea is also the simplest. I like to go through my papers after I’ve written a draft and physically cross out extra words with my pen or rephrase especially wordy sections. In this way, I train myself to write succinctly in future papers. Consider this original sentence:

Wordy: There are several ways for researchers to design their studies; those ways are quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches.

And here is the revision:

Better: Researchers can design their studies in several ways: through quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods approaches.

This revision just streamlines the material to avoid the passive there are and the repetition of ways.

Now that you’ve had a sampling of APA’s great advice for writers, remember to turn to that book whenever you are feeling lost at your computer screen. It’s not all citations and references, you know.