![]() ![]() Use numerals for numbers greater than nine (10, 101, 909, etc.) spell out numbers nine and below (one, five, nine).įirst exception: Use numerals for quantities of time or amount (e.g., 1 day, 30 s, 5 mg) that do not begin a sentence.The purpose of conjunctions such as however, but, and and is to join, and a word beginning a sentence should not be a joining word. Some believe that however should not be placed at the beginning of a sentence if it can be appropriately placed elsewhere.The lemmings, which performed well in the first race, were all fuzzy animals.īecause which is more often misused, one should occasionally conduct a " which hunt." The lemmings that performed well in the first race were not included in the second race. Restrictive clauses begin with that and are not set off by a comma nonrestrictive clauses begin with which and are set off by a comma. Men, who are tall, are better at basketball than horned toads, which are short.Ī special case of this rule concerns the use of which versus that. Men who are tall are better at basketball than men who are short. Nonrestrictive clauses, which are not essential to the meaning of the sentence-they merely add further information-are set off by a comma. Restrictive clauses, which are essential to the meaning of the sentence, are not set off by a comma.Henry Jones entered the data, and Janine Hinderson analyzed them.Īfter Henry Jones entered the data, Janine Hinderson analyzed them. Commas must be placed between two independent clauses in a sentence and after a dependent clause at the beginning of a sentence.For expressions enclosed in quotation marks, the ending quote mark goes after any comma or period appearing at that point: "His cat, nicknamed 'Stripes,' often preferred.".For example: "He had roast beef, mashed potatoes, and green beans for lunch." For items in a series, use commas after each item except the last.WRONG: Thinking about his girlfriend, a car almost hit him. RIGHT: Thinking about his girlfriend, he was almost hit by a car. Participial phrases must be placed next to the noun they modify (i.e., no "dangling" participles):.Avoid writing the therapist, the patient, and so on instead, write therapists or patients, which can be referred to by plural pronouns such as they or them. By rewording a sentence, non-sexist language can often be achieved without resort to clumsy pronous such as he or she.When comparing the relation between two things, use relation instead (Rothman, 1998). A relationship is usually by blood or marriage. ![]() The word hopefully means "full of hope." Therefore, "Hopefully, he will leave soon," should be rendered, "It is to be hoped that he will leave soon," or, "We hope he will leave soon.".Otherwise, while can be replaced with whereas or although, and since can be replaced with because or given that. The words while and since should be used only in their temporal senses.The singular form, rarely used, is datum: "The data were analyzed by Jack Sprat, who examined them datum by datum." When there are two spellings for a word (e.g., judgment, judgement), the first spelling listed in the dictionary should be used.Contractions ( can't, isn't, I'll, etc.) should not be used in formal writing.The and is represented with an ampersand ("&") if the cite is within parentheses and is spelled out ("and") if the cite is not inside parentheses. Multiple references within a single citation are listed in alphabetical order.ī. APA style now forbids the standard practice of placing two spaces after periods and colons a single space is now preferred.Ī.Careful attention to these rules should allow one to weed out many common errors. Some additional rules are based on general editorial experience. This guide to writing in APA style (American Psychological Association, 1994) contains rules that are generally more advanced (although no more difficult to apply) than those found in other web-based introductions to APA style. ![]()
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