Chapter 4

The mechanics of style

Presented to:Dr.Nasreen
Presented by: Nabeela Rehman(02)
Ifrah Nawaz(07)
Muhammad Irfan(16)

introduction
This chapter is about styles for APA
journals regarding more basic things
which are useful to explain and
usage with relevance to APA journals.
It tells general rules explained in
widely available style manuals.

Table of content
1) punctuation
2)Spelling
3)Capitalization
4)Italics
5)Abbreviations
6)Numbers
7)Metrication
8)Statistical and mathematical copy
9)equations

punctuation
Punctuation establishes a sentence.
Tells the reader where to
pause,comma,semicolon,colon,stop,q
uestion mark, or
detour(dash,parentheses,brackets)

Punctuation
1. Spacing after punctuation marks.
2. Period.
3. Comma.
4. Semicolon.
5. Colon.
6. Dash.
7. Quotation marks.
8. Double or single equation marks
9. Parentheses
10.Brackets.
11.slash

1.Spacing after punctuation marks

Insert one space after
Commas, colons and semicolons.
Periods that separate parts of
references.
Initials in personal names.

Period
It is used to end a complete sentence.
Periods are used with abbreviations.
Use period with as follow,
Initials of name like(j. R. smith).
Latin abbreviations
Reference abbreviations

Do not use period with

Capital letters
Acronyms
Web addresses
Metric and non metric measurement
abbreviation

Comma
Between elements and in a series of
three or more items.
1.Use comma with
To separate two clauses.
To set off the year in exact date.
To separate groups of three digits in
most numbers.

2.Do not use comma with

Before an essential or restrictive
clause.
Between the two parts of a
compound predicate.
To separate parts of measurement.

semicolon
Use a semicolon
1. To separate two independent
clauses.
2. To separate elements in a series
that already contains commas.

colon
Use a colon with
1. In ratios and proportions.
2. In references between place of publication
and publisher.
3. Between a grammatically complete
introductory clause.
. Do not use colon
1. After an introduction that is not a
complete sentence or independent clause.

Dash
Use a dash to indicate only a sudden
interruption in the continuity of
sentence. Over use weakens the flow
of materials.
For example:these two participantsone from the first group and one
from the second-were tested
separately.

Quotation mark
Use double quotation marks
1.To introduce a word or phrase used as
an ironic comment or slang.
2.The title of article, chapter or book.
Do not use double quotation marks
1.To cite a letter,word,phrase or sentence.
2.To introduce a technical or key term.
3.To hedge.

Double or single quotation

marks
To enclose quotation in text.
In block quotations(40 or more
words).
With other punctuations.

parentheses
Use parentheses
1. To set off elements.
2. To introduce an abbreviation.
3. To enclose the citation.
4. To enclose numbers.
5. To enclose statistical values.

brackets
Use brackets
1. To close the value that are limited.
2. To enclose parenthetical material.
. Do not use brackets
1. To set off statistics that already
include parentheses.

slash
Use a slash
1. To clarify a relationship.
2. To set off English phonemes.
3. To site a republish work in text.
. Do not use slash
1. When a phrase would be clearer.
2. For simple comparisons.

2.spelling
Preferred spelling
Spelling should conform to standard
American English as exemplified in
Merriam-Webster collegiate
dictionary(2005).
Plural forms of some words of Latin
or Greek can be troublesome.

hyphenation
Compound words take many forms
that is two words as two separate
words.
hyphen: no space before and after.
em dash: longer than a hyphen.
en dash: longer and thinner than a
hyphen. Shorter than em dash.
Minus: slightly thicker and higher
than en dash.

3.capitalization
Use an uppercase letter for the first
letter of word.
Words beginning a sentence.
Major words in titles and headings.
Proper nouns and trade names.
Nouns followed by numerals or letters.
Titles of tests.
Names of veriables,factors and effects.

italics
Italic is a style of font that slants the
letters evenly to the right. This text
should be in italics. When a font is
installed on a computer there will be
an italic version.

Italics
Use of Italics
Titles of
books,periodicals,films,videos,TV
shows and microfilm publications.
Genera,species,and varieties.
Introduction of a new,technical,or key
term or label(after a term has been
used once,do not italicize it).
A letter, word, or phrase.

Cont
Words that could be misread.
Letters used as statistical symbols or
algebraic variables.
Some test scores and scales.
Periodical volume numbers in
reference lists.
Anchors of a scale.

Do not use italics for

Foreign phrases and abbreviations
common in English.
Chemical terms.
Trigonometric terms.
Nonstatistical subscripts to statistical
symbols or mathematical
expressions.
Greek letters.
Letters used as abbreviations.

5.Abbreviations
Use of abbreviations
To maximize clarity, use
abbreviations sparingly. Although
abbreviations are sometimes useful
for long, technical terms in scientific
writing, communication is usually
reproduce rather than clarified.
Explanation of abbreviation
Abbreviations accepted as words

Cont..
Abbreviations used often in APA
Journals
Latin abbreviations
Scientific abbreviation
Other abbreviations
Plurals of abbreviations
Abbreviations beginning a sentence

6. Numbers
The general rule governing APA style
on the use of numbers is:
1. Use numerals to express
a) numbers 10 above e.g. 12 lists
b)numbers in the abstract of a paper
c) Numbers that immediately precede
a unit of measurement e.g. 12 cm
long

d)Numbers that represent

statistical or mathematical
functions, percentages and
ratios e.g. 5 %of the sample
e) Numbers that represent time,
date, age and scores e.g. 1 hr
34 min
f) Numbers that denote a specific
place in a numbered series,
parts of books and tables e.g.

. Use words to express

a) Any numbers that begins a
sentence, title or text heading e.g.
Twelve students improved, and 12
students did not improve.
b)Common fractions e.g.
one fifth of the class
c) Universally accepted usage e.g.
Five pillars of Islam

. Use a combination of numerals and words to

express back-to-back modifiers. E.g. 2 twoway interactions
4. Treat ordinal numbers as you would cardinal
numbers e.g.
Ordinal: The fourth grades
Cardinal base: four grades
5. Use a zero before the decimal point with
numbers that are less than 1 when the
statistic can exceed 1
e.g. 0.23 cm

 For routine work, use Arabic numerals.

E.g. step 1
While for established terminology, use
Roman numerals. e.g. Type II error
7. Use commas between groups of three
digits in most figures of 1,000 or more.
8. To form plurals of numbers, add s or
es alone, without an apostrophe. E.g.
1950s, fours and sixes

7. Metrication
In APA, all references of journals to physical
measurements are expressed in a metric
system which is based on the international
system of units.
If measurements are nonmetric, you may
report the no metric units but also report
the established SI equivalents in
parentheses. E.g.
The rod was 3 ft (0.91 m) long.

 Use metric symbol when it appears with a

numeric value. E.g. 4 m
Dont use symbol when it doesnt appear with
numeric value.
Use lowercase letter for full name of metric unit.
E.g. meter, centimeter
Dont use a period after a metric symbol.
Use a space between a symbol and the number
e.g. 4.5 m
Use dot between compound units. E.g.
Pa . S (use space in case of full names)

8. Statistical & Mathematical Copy

Use a sentence, for present three or fewer
numbers.
Use a table, for present four to 20 numbers
Use a graph, for more than 20 numbers
For common statistics, dont use formulae and
reference
For less or new statistics, use formulae and give
reference
Include information for understanding when
reporting inferential statistics.

 Population parameters are usually

represented by Greek letters.
Use an uppercase, italicized N to designate
the number of members in the total
sample.
Use a lowercase, italicized n to designate
the number of members in limited sample.
Use standard typeface for Greek letters,
superscripts, subscripts and abbreviations
that are not variables

 Use boldface for vectors and

matrices
Use italic type for all other statistical
symbols
Aligns sign and symbols carefully.
Type subscripts first and then
superscripts.
Always use a space.

9. Equations
Place the equation in the line of text.
Punctuate al equations, whether
they are in the line of text or
displayed.
Place short and simple equations.
Follow the BODMAS rule of algebra
used in the equations.