Education j jordan Quantitative Research Assignment

Tips for Better Writing

Liberty University

Dr. Melanie Tidman DHSc, MA, OTR/L, MHP

These are the Basics of professional writing. These Criteria apply to BOTH Assignments and Discussions. If you follow these suggestions, you should do very well on assignments and discussions.

· Always Use Headings and Subheadings! Double-check the use of Level headings in the APA manual and use them. These help with transitions between paragraphs, sentence structure, grammar, and  organization tremendously and improve the flow of your paper.

· Use transitional sentences between paragraphs to help with the flow of content.

· Watch awkward wording: Try to practice by reading your paper aloud to yourself or another person to make sure the wording makes sense.

· Watch verb tense, present active voice, and plural/singular forms of words

· Try not to start sentences with “This” or “It” but be more specific so the reader knows to what you are referring.

· Always include a formal introduction and conclusion section. These should mirror each other. The intro tells what you are about to do and the purpose of writing the paper. This convinces the reader to read your paper, so make it a paragraph that makes your paper worth reading. Here are the elements of a good introduction and conclusion:

Introductory Paragraph:

An introductory paragraph is crucial to providing a roadmap for your discussion. It should include a clear definition of the issue, some statistics or background on the issue, and end with a purpose statement about what the paper will present. This guides your discussion and provides structure.

Here are the elements of a reasonable Conclusion:

Conclusion:

A conclusion summarizes what you have found in your discussion, what your main findings are (briefly), and how your paper achieved the purpose that you outlined in your introduction. It ends with a sentence about recommendations based on your discussion or for further investigation of the issue. This is the last thing the reader reads, so make it stick in their minds!

 

· Use at least 3 references for original Discussion posts. At least 1 of these reference sources must be from peer-reviewed literature. Use at least 2 references for response posts. Post responses to a minimum of 2 classmates.Try for more participation than the minimum. Follow instructions and the rubric if these criteria vary from discussion to discussion. All sources used for your writing support must be current, published within the past 5 years for the best, most current evidence.

 

· .Direct Quotations: Scholarly writing does not use these much at all. My rule of thumb is to only use a direct quotation when it is absolutely necessary and cannot be stated in your own words per 5 pages of text. Be sure to review the APA method for citing direct quotations. Avoid large blocks of quotations.

· For indented text blocks, APA uses bullets and not numbered lists unless the list is a sequential list or a step-by-step list.

· Review APA for in-text citations and reference page formatting. APA is different than MLA. References are left justified for the first line and indented for each additional line of each reference. Click on CTRL T at the beginning of the second line and following of a reference to create a Hanging Indent. OR you can highlight your entire Reference page then click CTRL+T.

· Do not use first person in formal writing: First person is not as formal nor professional, in my opinion. So no “I, me, my, our, we”. The exception is for reflections, where examples and applications need to be in the first person tense of words.

· Do not use Jargon or slang.

· Double space throughout your paper including the Title Page and Reference page.

· Use a standardized APA Title page format .    This format is required for all  assignments throughout the course.

· Form a Peer Review Group to help each other review papers and make suggestions.

· Use the INBOX links to ask for APA writing tips and tricks or instructor feedback and for individual questions.

· Use Liberty resource website for APA information. https://www.liberty.edu/casas/academic-success-center/writing-style-guides/apa-guide/

· When making statements that sound like facts in your paper, back them up with reference citations. Avoid conjecture or Editorializing ( Instead of: “I think healthcare should be free” How about :”Healthcare costs can be out of reach for most Americans (Smith, 2010)”.

· Use narrative when possible and I suggest you avoid large bulleted lists. Review APA for in-text lists (uses (a)…..,(b)….., and (c)…..). You may use Bullets indented for listing out items, not numbered lists.

· Avoid complex, long sentences and long paragraphs. Avoid short choppy sentences and make sure your paragraph content is consistently related. Be clear.

· Stick to the page length criteria as much as possible. Some Instructors are very hard on this. If the Rubric does not limit pages, then cover the topic well. If the Rubric has a page limit, then follow this. If you go over the page limit, don’t worry as this is typically a 1-2 pt penalty.

· Define all terms, do not take for granted that the reader understands. The first time you use a term and want to use an abbreviation, spell out the term followed by ( ) with the abbreviation. Then, you may use the abbreviation throughout the rest of the paper.

· Please run Spelling and Grammar Check!!! Download the free version of Grammarly to double-check your discussions and/or assignments (one option, there are others).

· Try not to focus on the grade but the learning process. When the Instructor writes comments, try to incorporate this feedback for future papers. When the Instructor provides an example or suggestion, use it. Remember, Instructor preference takes precedence for subjective course requirements. When direct suggestions are not incorporated, the Instructor feels either you did not understand them or chose not to use them. Take advantage of this learning opportunity!

· Do’s and Don’ts for References:

1. Never change the order of authors within a citation. The order matters very much to the authors who wrote the article

2. Never number your references in APA

3. Never put citations on your reference page if you have not cited them within the body of your article and vice versa.

· Ways to Improve your writing:

1. Do Not use Contractions (don’t, can’t, etc)

2. Avoid “there is” or “there are” (i.e :There are many issues that students face at a university” instead write “Students face many issues at the university”)

3. Avoid words such as really, good, very, a lot, so (makes the sentence weak) (i.e. Many students think the university is very hard” instead try “Many students think the university is difficult”. Also, avoid a lot.( i.e. Instead of “A lot of students live on campus” use “Many students live on campus.”).

4. Avoid passive voice, such as “Healthcare reforms were implemented by Obama.” Instead use “Obama implemented healthcare reform”. Also, “The war was won by the French” use “The French won the war.”

· When you write, use strong verbs (i.e., Instead of “He gave assistance to my friend,” use “He assisted my friend.” Also, “He made an objection” instead write, “He objected”

· Comments and feedback on your drafts will be made using Track Changes in Word. Be sure you can view the comments and Red Edits on your papers and discussions. If you cannot see any comments, please message me in the INBOX.

· From Liberty’s Writing Center https://www.liberty.edu/casas/academic-success-center/writing-style-guides/apa-guide/

· Use active voice, rather than  passive voice (PDF).

· Be specific and concise.

· Avoid poetic or figurative language; scientific writing is the most appropriate for APA.

· Use past or present perfect tense (e.g., researchers have shown) for a literature review and description, and past tense when referring to results and experiments previously conducted.

· Title case = all significant words, usually those with 4+ letters, must be capitalized. Title case is used for titles of works mentioned in the body of your paper, and for the names of journals in your reference list.  All five heading levels also use title case.

· Sentence case = only the first letter of the first word, proper nouns, and the word following a colon, if any, should begin with capital letters. Sentence case is used for all resource titles in the reference list (i.e., book or article titles, webpages, etc.).

· Use quotation marks around the titles of shorter works (i.e., articles or poems) and italics for the names of larger words (i.e., books or plays) mentioned in the body of your paper.

· APA-7 allows a wide array of fonts and sizes but Liberty University prefers all course assignments to be completed in  12-point Times New Romans

Specific Details Summary

Main Body

· Before beginning to write the body of your paper, center the paper’s title on the first line in title case in bold font, exactly as it appears on the title page. The title is now considered a Level 1 heading.

· Your introductory paragraph/section, if you have one, will begin on the next line. Note that  APA-7 expressly forbids using the term  introduction as a heading; just type that paragraph under the paper’s title without any heading. Professors always trump APA, so if your professor requires a heading labeled Introduction, then include it. If your introduction section includes subheadings, those would be formatted as Level 2 headings.

· APA-7 recommends only one space after closing punctuation in the body of the paper (whereas  APA-6 recommended two).

Headings

· APA papers use headings to separate paper sections and establish a hierarchy of information.  Short papers (usually five pages or less in the body of the paper) may not have any headings unless required, but longer papers benefit from the organizational aspects of headings.

· Always begin with Level 1 headings and apply the appropriate heading and subheading levels from there.  Do not simply progress from Level 1 to Level 2 to Level 3.

· For each heading, include at least two subsection headings or none at all. This follows the same principle as an outline: Section one would be divided into sections  A and  B or more;  A cannot stand alone.

· As such, heading levels align with outline levels: Capital Roman letters in an outline become Level 1 headings, Capital Arabic letters become Level 2 headings, etc.

· Please note that some of the sample papers published by APA to demonstrate proper  APA-7 format (including the “professional” version on pp. 50-60 of the  APA-7 manual) depict the “Conclusion” section with a Level-2 heading. This is limited to empirical papers that are being submitted for publication in scholarly journals, as those conclusions pertain to the “Discussion” sections in such papers and are not conclusions of the overall papers themselves.  Conclusions in academic papers at Liberty University will be Level 1 headings (including dissertations and theses, which are divided by chapters, unlike journal article manuscripts).

· A paper may only have Level 1 headings if it is not divided into smaller subsections — or the content under some Level 1 headings may include two or more Level 2 headings (and some content under Level 2 headings may include two or more Level 3 headings).

· See the sample APA papers for visuals of these heading levels:

· Level 1: centered, boldface, in title case, with the content beginning on the line below

· Level 2: left-aligned, boldface, in title case, with the content beginning on the line below

· Level 3: left-aligned, boldface, italicized, in title case, with the content beginning on the line below

· Level 4: indented, boldface, in title case with a period, then one space, and begin your content on the same line

· Level 5: indented, boldface, italicized, in title case with a period, then one space, and begin your content on the same line

In-Text Citations

· An in-text citation is used whenever another author’s work is directly quoted or paraphrased.

· Citations for paraphrases use an author/date format: (Author, Publication Year), e.g. (Smith, 2007).

· The citation for a direct quote should also include the page number: (Author, Year, p. #). If no page number is available (as in the case of an online webpage), list the paragraph: (Author, Year, para. 11). APA-7 expands this to including descriptive location details to get your reader to that content in longer non-paginated electronic resources such as e-books.  In such cases, provide a heading or section name.  If the heading or section name is brief (generally four words or less) include the full name, without quotation marks (i.e., Owen, 2020,  Attachment Disorders section, para. 8).  If the heading or section name is too long (generally, more than four words), use an abbreviation of the heading or section, encapsulated in quotation marks.  For example, for a section named “Peace and Power in Modern Day Relationships,” the citation would be (Owen, 2020, “Peace and Power” section, para. 3).

· You can move information from the in-text citations to other parts of the sentence that the quote is part of as long as all required elements are present: e.g. Smith (2007) says, “arrows are sharp” (p. 8).  However, the date follows the author’s/authors’ name(s), unless APA’s exception applies for subsequent citations of the same resource in a paragraph in which the first such citation was narrative in-text (not parenthetical; discussed further in Liberty University OWC’s sample APA papers).

· The page number  follows a direct quote, even if these elements are split within your sentence.  For example, Smith and Harlow (2011) elaborated on this by suggesting that “paper planes can float” (p. 8).  Owen (2017) posited that “foxes can fly” (p. 17) in her dream analysis.

· Any quotation longer than 39 words should be made into a freestanding “block” of text, with  no quotation marks (see Liberty University OWC’s sample APA papers due to formatting limitations of this webpage).

· The entire left margin of block quotes should be indented one-half inch as a whole “block” (with no extra indent on the first line).

· The parenthetical citation with the page number on block quotes follows the quote and period, with no additional punctuation after it (unlike shorter quotes, where the parenthetical citation falls within the sentence itself with the period following it).

 

Special Rule Regarding Repeat Citations

APA-7 allows writers to cite their source only once per paragraph,  provided  the reader can discern where the other sentence(s) derived from.  This requires specific structuring.  For example:

Owen (2020) claimed that “foxes can fly” (p. 17). She detailed their nocturnal habits. Her research gave critical insight into this population.

In each of the second and third sentences above, the sentences were structured in such a way that the content clearly refers back to Owen’s work.

In the case of Bible verses, it is easy for the reader to understand that subsequent citations of those came from whichever Bible version was cited earlier in that paragraph.  For any subsequent verses cited in a paragraph that already has a full Bible citation, you can just use the verse itself.  In each new paragraph (or if you change versions in the same paragraph), you will need to include the full citation.  For example:

God calls each of us to witness to others to “make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel” ( New American Standard Bible, 1971/1995, Ephesians 6:19-20). Mark 13:10 and Matthew 28:19 command us to preach to all nations and make disciples…

There is no need to add the Bible version in that second sentence because the reader knows both of those verses refer to the same version of the Bible cited in the previous sentence.

Bible

· The rules for Bible citations have changed completely; you must now cite the Bible version in the body of the paper and include it in your reference list.  Please see the appropriate sample  APA-7 paper for your level of study for a detailed discussion of this .

· Note that  APA-7 specifies to cite Bibles in “book formats” (p. 302) that are “treated as having no author.” Below are some examples of the hard copy references versus online references of some common versions. The citations are the same for both, as they contain the version name and the year(s) of publication.  If you are using a different version, you will format it by following the examples given below (be sure to include a hanging indent, which this webpage cannot feature).

· Scripture should be cited from one of the mainstream Bible versions (see list of some below).  Study Bibles are generally NOT considered scholarly, as the notes within can be quite biased depending on the author of those notes, and thus Study Bibles should only be used sparingly by Divinity students as to exegetical projects.

· When including a verse, place it in the locator position after the year (in place of the page number).  For example, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” ( New American Standard Bible, 1971/1995, John 3:16).  You can also introduce it in the text of the sentence itself: John 3:16 proclaims that “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” ( New American Standard Bible, 1971/1995).

References

· Center the word “ References” (in bold font but without quotation marks) on the top line of a new page following your conclusion.  This term is also now regarded as a Level 1 heading.  If you have only one resource to cite in the entire paper, APA authorizes the use of singular “ Reference.”

· Use hanging indents (the first line of each entry should be left-justified, with lines two+ indented ½” from the left margin).

· Alphabetize all entries by the first word in each (usually the first author’s last name for each).

· Note that you must include a comma after the author’s name that precedes the ampersand in the reference list, even when there are only two authors.  This does not apply to citations in the body of the paper.

· There should only be one space after periods in the reference list entries, just as in the body of the paper.

· If a work has more than 20 authors, list the first 19 followed by an ellipsis (…).  Include the last author’s name immediately after the ellipsis as the final author mentioned.   Do not include an ampersand (&) in references with 20 or more authors.

· Note that APA-7 allows writers to superscript the suffixes of ordinal numbers, as long as the writer is consistent throughout (see section 6.35 of the  APA-7 manual).  The examples included in the resources in this Quick Guide include superscripted suffixes for all book edition numbers, in accordance with APA-7’s option to do so.

· Do include reference entries for classical works including the Bible.

· Do not include reference entries for personal communication.

· Do not include a period after a URL or DOI.

· Note that the issue number of a journal article should be connected/attached to the volume number — e.g.,  12(8).  The volume number should be italicized, but the attached parentheses and issue number should not.

· Check  Google ScholarLinks to an external site. or  CrossrefLinks to an external site. for DOIs of all articles published since 2007, if one is not readily denoted on the article itself.

· Format all DOI entries in URL format (https://doi.org/xx.xxxxxxx).

· Omit the publisher city and state in most cases (exception: conferences and symposiums).

· Only include the access date for online content that is likely to change (such as wikis).

· Do not include static hyperlinks which require log-on credentials to access, unless required by your assignment.  This includes EZproxy links obtained from searches in the Liberty University Online Library.

· See the links at the top of this page for expansive reference entry examples.

· The Use of AI: Please refer to the Liberty Student Handbook and Liberty AI policies for use of AI for any assignment or Discussion. As a general rule: AI generated content cannot be used in any assignment or discussion.