APA Writing Tips
NU411: Healthcare Issues and Ethics
Levels of headings: Please use level headings to organize your paper. (APA, p. 62, 3.03)
Seriation: Many students have difficulty with keeping ideas in a series of parallel structure and same part of speech (APA, pp. 63-65, 3.04) EX: Correct:
1) working with a team, participating with one other person, standing alone
2) promotion of social justice, activation of support groups, participating in a march
3) write professionally, speak well, dress appropriately
Incorrect
1) work with a team, participating with one other person, to stand alone
2) promote social justice, activation of support groups, be a participant in a march
3) writing professionally, speak well, be sure you are
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67 APA
Verbs: (APA, p. 77-79, 3.18, 3.19)
Active vs passive voice: Use the active voice of a verb as much as possible – makes for more dynamic writing.
Select tense carefully
Make sure the subject and verb agree in number
Pronouns: It is good to use pronouns to prevent saying the names/items over and over, BUT pronouns can confuse people if it is not clear to what this, that, these, those, they, etc. refers. The reader does not want to have to go back to beginning of paragraph to figure out your reference. Also, each pronoun must agree in number and gender. (APA, p. 79-80, 3.20) EX: cannot use ‘everyone’ (singular), and then later in sentence use ‘their’ (plural).
That vs which: ‘That’ is a restrictive clause that is necessary to the meaning of the sentence, and no commas are used. ‘Which’ is a non-restrictive clause that adds further information to sentence but is not essential to the sentence, and commas should be used. (APA, p. 83 – book says ‘which’ is sometimes uses as a restrictive clause, but not preferred way. If used as a restrictive phrase, would still use comma for ‘which’ and not for