Most of us are used to SpellCheck. The one place where writers forget to pay attention is in references. Word picks up lots and lots of things in references that are not incorrect. There are so many that writers stop looking for the things that are wrong. You need to train yourself to methodically go through the reference list and make sure that every marked item is, in fact, correct. Parentheses Reading research reports takes a lot of energy. Your readers will be happier if you make that job easier. Anything that breaks up a sentence or a paragraph slows down reading. Parentheses are the prime offender. We have to use them, particularly for citations. Think about ways not to use them. Stop adding parenthetical comments. Most of the time another sentence would do the same job just as well. Think about referencing authors directly instead of doing it indirectly inside of parentheses. Write Smith and Johnson (2001) found instead of something like Cooperative learning was found to be useful (Smith & Johnson, 2001). Actually, this is a better form anyway because it makes it clear that you are talking about Smith and Johnson and not reporting on your own idea and then saying these other authors support your idea. It is perfectly acceptable to take the date out of the parentheses as well: In a 2001 study, Smith and Johnson found…. Sometimes writers try to this problem by using long dashes instead of parentheses for parenthetical comments. That is grammatically correct but it ends up being the same problem: lots of long dashes that are disruptive to the flow of the reading. Direct Quotations Direct quotations create the same reading flow problems for readers as parentheses. It is one for short quotations to be inserted in a sentence but block quotes are a huge distraction.
Most of us are used to SpellCheck. The one place where writers forget to pay attention is in references. Word picks up lots and lots of things in references that are not incorrect. There are so many that writers stop looking for the things that are wrong. You need to train yourself to methodically go through the reference list and make sure that every marked item is, in fact, correct. Parentheses Reading research reports takes a lot of energy. Your readers will be happier if you make that job easier. Anything that breaks up a sentence or a paragraph slows down reading. Parentheses are the prime offender. We have to use them, particularly for citations. Think about ways not to use them. Stop adding parenthetical comments. Most of the time another sentence would do the same job just as well. Think about referencing authors directly instead of doing it indirectly inside of parentheses. Write Smith and Johnson (2001) found instead of something like Cooperative learning was found to be useful (Smith & Johnson, 2001). Actually, this is a better form anyway because it makes it clear that you are talking about Smith and Johnson and not reporting on your own idea and then saying these other authors support your idea. It is perfectly acceptable to take the date out of the parentheses as well: In a 2001 study, Smith and Johnson found…. Sometimes writers try to this problem by using long dashes instead of parentheses for parenthetical comments. That is grammatically correct but it ends up being the same problem: lots of long dashes that are disruptive to the flow of the reading. Direct Quotations Direct quotations create the same reading flow problems for readers as parentheses. It is one for short quotations to be inserted in a sentence but block quotes are a huge distraction.
APA%20Reminder%20Manual.docx