Here is some advice regarding your APA style papers based on the common "newbie" errors that I have seen.

• In APA style, you write in the past tense. e.g., "The dependent variable was height." Not "The dependent variable is height".
  
  You only use present tense occasionally in the discussion section to talk about general principles that apply all the time. For example, rather than saying "This study showed that height was related to gender," you can say "This study showed that height is related to gender." Notice that "This study showed..." is past tense because the study was already conducted. But you say "height is related", not "height was related", because you believe that what the study showed will always be true.
  
  
• Don't explain details of the procedure that make no difference to the reader. For example, the reader doesn't care whether you used Excel to record the data or SPSS to analyze it. Which analysis you did is important (e.g., independent t test versus paired t test). But the fact that you used a certain menu choice in a certain program is way too much detail.
• The papers you write for this class are reports of empirical studies. They must be written in precise language. When someone is reading creative writing, they like variety and creativity in the way ideas are expressed. When someone is reading an empirical report, they like writing that explains complex ideas in ways that are easy to follow because the language is unambiguous and clear. In creative writing you may have been taught that when you mention an idea more than once you should use different words for the idea to avoid repetition. In scientific writing, the opposite is true. When you present an idea or concept to the reader you should choose a particular word or phrase to mean that concept. Then, whenever you refer to that concept again, use the exact same word or phrase so that it is easy for the reader to know exactly what you mean.
  
• When speaking of participants, speak of them in the plural. This allows you to use the non-gender-specific "they", rather than "he or she".
• Use left justification, not full justification (see me if you don't know what justification is, or don't know how to set it using your word processor).
  
• Use parallel structure. For example, this sentence is not parallel structure:
  
  "The mean height for the 220 females was 66 inches, and 70 inches for the 212 males."
  
  This is parallel structure:
  
  "The mean height was 66 inches for the 220 females and 70 inches for the 212 males." (notice, no comma is necessary)
  
  
• Finally, make use of the model papers provided on D2L and in your textbook. Many errors can be avoided by doing this.

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