Shaking Up the Format

Tips for Student Paper Writing and Managing Changes to APA Formatting

I've seen some recent Tweets showing excitement over some of the pending changes to formatting recommendations in the forthcoming APA Publication Manual version 7 (due for realease in October 2019). One thing that I'm pleased to see is more clarification on writing style to approach diversity and inclusion, as emphasized by Amy Diehl:

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Use of singular "they" is now acceptable in APA style formatted papers. https://t.co/3YdyIV5bLa

— Amy Diehl, PhD (@amydiehl) October 10, 2019

​The recent hype over the APA Publication Manual version 7 reminded me that I had planned to do a blog post with some recommendations for student paper writing, based on some of the feedback that I find myself most commonly providing to my undergraduate and graduate-level Education students. I won't dwell too much on formatting specifics -- as I haven't seen the latest APA Publication Manual yet. But, I will provide some tips on writing style and formatting for stronger academic papers.

​Writing Style

Three of the most common things that I point out in feedback on student papers relate to the use of a first-person perspective, the use of colloquialisms, and the use of subjective adjectives and adverbs. Here is the advice that I provide to my students (straight from the handy checklist of notes that I have ready when reviewing assignment submissions):

• Avoid using a first-person perspective in a formal academic paper. No matter how valid your points are, the reader tends to dismiss them as either anecdotal or biased when the first-person is used.
• Avoid using colloquial phrases, unless they are part of a direct quote. They may come across as subjective to your reader, or as cliche.
• Avoid using subjective adjectives or adverbs in a formal paper. Your reader may determine their meaning differently from what you intended. Unless you can quantify the adjective or adverb, avoid using it.

​Common Formatting Issues

I have frequently commented on improper formatting of Running Headers in student paper submissions -- but it looks like I no longer need to worry about that. Running Headers will no longer be required for student papers in APA version 7. But, here is the list of some of the most common formatting comments that I have provided in feedback to my students:

• For an APA paper, you should open the main body with a Level 1 header. Either repeat the title of the paper, or use “Introduction.”
• When stating the purpose of your paper, only use “will” in a proposal. Once the paper is written, say that it “does.” Use something like “this paper explores…”
• Spell out numbers from zero to nine, and use numbers for numbers 10 and above (unless you are presenting a statistical figure).
• Do not use contractions in formal writing.
• Only use "&" when citing a group of authors inside of parentheses for an in-text citation. Use "and" when listing the group of authors in a sentence.
• Do not include active hyperlinks in an APA format paper. Instead, just include the URL formatted as plain text (unlinked).

One big change that appears to be coming with APA version 7 is with the use of et al. for in-text citations. Previously, the standard was to list all authors (if four or fewer) the first time you cited them in your paper, and then to use et al. for subsequent citations of the same resource. Under APA version 7, you will be able to use the format first author, et. al. (year) for ALL in-text citations with three or more authors.

​Formatting for Digital Accessibility

Although I do not (at this point in time) deduct marks for this, I do like to point out to my students when they are not doing things to increase the digital accessibility of their papers. The easiest thing to do -- with the greatest impact for the widest possible audience -- is to use the formatting styles tools in your word processor. Too often I find that student manually format their paper titles, subtitles, and Level 1, 2, 3, etc., section headers. Doing this makes it impossible for anyone using a digital screen reader application to easily navigate your document. By formatting these elements using the formatting styles tools, you make two things possible:

• You can automatically create a table of contents for your document.
• Readers using digital screen readers can easily "tab" through your document sections, without forcing their applications to read the entire document out loud to them. 

Of course, you will need to update those formatting styles from your word processor's defaults to comply with APA standards.

This video shows how to use and modify the formatting styles in Word. 

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​A General Template

​This template may not reflect all of the forthcoming changes -- but it should provide you with a good start on preparing an undergraduate or graduate paper following APA standards.

​Click on the button below to download a general paper template for MS Word, reflecting some of the changes coming for APA version 7.

Download Template

References

American Psychological Association (2019, August 6). Seventh Edition of APA's Best-Selling Publication Manual to Publish in October with a 700,000 First Printing. [Web page]. Available from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2019/08/publication-manual

@amydeihl (2019, October 9). Use of singular "they" is no acceptable in APA style formatted papers [Tweet]. Retreived from https://twitter.com/amydiehl/status/1182135456479219712?s=19

GCFLearnFree.org (2016, February 8). Word: Applying and Modifying Styles. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/w2lES-5Ynbk

Slade, Tim (2017, January 17). 100+ Free Hero Images for eLearning. [Web log post]. Available from https://timslade.com/blog/hero-images-for-elearning/