research paper

RUN-ON SENTENCES

COMMON MISTAKES IN APA-STYLE PAPERS

WRONG: They ran a study, they

asked a number of questions.

RIGHT: They ran a study and they asked a number

of questions.

Do not squash two complete sentences together without a conjunction or proper punctuation.

PASSIVE VOICE

WRONG: A study was run by the

researchers.

RIGHT: The researchers ran a

study.

Active voice is almost always better than passive voice.INCONSISTENT TENSES

WRONG: They ran a study in

which the participants answer questions.

RIGHT: They ran a study in

which the participants answered questions.

Be consistent with tense (past, present, or future).

ARTICLE TITLES

WRONG: Potter (2020) ran a study called “Insert

study title here” where he showed that…

RIGHT: Potter (2020) ran a

study where he showed that…

Do not write out the title of an article in your text.

PRONOUN AGREEMENT

WRONG: The researchers

described its study.

RIGHT: The researchers

described their study.

Make sure pronouns agree in number with their referents.

E.G. AND I.E.

WRONG: They asked some

questions (i.e. “What is your name?”)

RIGHT: They asked some

questions (e.g., “What is your name?”)

“E.g.” means “for example.” “I.e.” means “in other words.” When you use them, put a comma after the second period.

ANTHROPOMORPHIZING

WRONG: The study discovered

that…

RIGHT: The researchers

discovered that…

Do not attribute human actions to non-human things, like studies and articles.

SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

WRONG: The participants, who

were ages 18-36.

RIGHT: The participants were

ages 18-36.

Do not write in incomplete sentences.

NUMBERS

WRONG: It took 5 minutes per

day for thirty-six days.

RIGHT: It took five minutes per day for 36 days.

Use words for numbers under 10 (unless they are ages) and numerals for everything else.

FLOATING “ AND (

WRONG: There were 20

participants (10 boys and 10 girls.

RIGHT: There were 20

participants (10 boys and 10 girls).

Always close quotations and parentheses.

OF VS. HAVE

WRONG: They could of done a

better job.

RIGHT: They could have done

a better job.

Use “could have,” “should have,” and “would have.”

MIXING UP WORDS “Affect” is a verb; “effect” is a noun.

“Than” is for comparisons; “then” is for time.

“Accept” means “believe in” or “receive”; “except” means “unless” or “excluding.”

“To” means “until” or “toward”; “too” means “excessively” or “also.”

WRITING AGES

WRONG: There was a group of children who were 5- years-old and a group

of 10 year olds.

RIGHT: There was a group of children who were 5

years old and a group of 10-year-olds.

Hyphenate when expressing an age as an adjective or noun; don’t hyphenate when simply stating someone’s age.