T-test report

Writing up results for projects in APA

You will write a method, results, and discussion section. Below is a description of what should be

included in each section

Method (labeled, centered, bold)

The Method section of an APA-style paper is the most straightforward to write, but requires precision.

Your goal is to describe the details of your study in such a way that another researcher could duplicate

your methods.

The Method section typically includes Participants and Design, Materials and/or Apparatus, and

Procedure sections.

Participants and design (labeled, flush left, bold)

Total number of participants, and any demographic information about the participants, such as gender,

age. Also, include how the participants were selected. Randomly? Were they compensated for their

time in any way? (e.g., money, extra credit points)

Materials (labeled, flush left, bold)

Carefully describe any materials or stimuli used in the study.

 If you included a questionnaire, you should describe it. For instance, note how many items were

on the questionnaire, what the response format was (e.g., a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging

from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)).

Procedure (labeled, flush left, bold)

What did participants do, and in what order?

Results (labeled, centered, bold)

The results section is the place in the report where you summarize your data and report the findings of

any relevant statistical analyses.

In APA style, the results section includes preliminary information about the participants and data,

descriptive and inferential statistics, and the results of any exploratory analyses.

Include these in your results section:

 Participant flow and recruitment period. Report the number of participants at every stage of the

study.

 Descriptive statistics. Summarize the primary and secondary outcomes of the study.

 Inferential statistics, including confidence intervals and effect sizes. Address the primary and

secondary research questions by reporting the detailed results of your main analyses.

 Write up the results in the past tense because you’re describing the outcomes of a completed

research study.

Descriptive statistics The exact descriptive statistics that you report depends on the types of data in your study. Categorical

variables can be reported using proportions, while quantitative data can be reported using means and

standard deviations. For a large set of numbers, a table is the most effective presentation format.

Include sample sizes (overall and for each group) as well as appropriate measures of central tendency

and variability for the outcomes in your results section. For every point estimate, add a clearly labelled

measure of variability as well.

Inferential statistics For each statistical test performed, first restate the hypothesis, then state whether your hypothesis was

supported and provide the outcomes that led you to that conclusion.

Report the following for each hypothesis test:

 the test statistic value,

 the degrees of freedom,

 the exact p-value (unless it is less than 0.001),

 the magnitude and direction of the effect.

What doesn’t belong in your results section?

It’s important to provide a complete picture of your data analyses and outcomes in a concise way. For

that reason, raw data and any interpretations of your results are not included in the results section.

Raw data: It’s rarely appropriate to include raw data in your results section.

Interpretation or discussion of results: This belongs in your discussion section. Your results section is

where you objectively report all relevant findings and leave them open for interpretation by readers.

While you should state whether the findings of statistical tests lend support to your hypotheses, refrain

from forming conclusions to your research questions in the results section.

Explanation of how statistics tests work: For the sake of concise writing, you can safely assume that

readers of your paper have professional knowledge of how statistical inferences work.

Discussion (labeled, centered, bold)

A resource for the discussion section can be found below and in the course content.

https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/discussion-phrases-guide.pdf