Ask OASISIntroduction
Slide 3
Title: Using Numbers, Hyphens, and Lists in APA
Speaker: APA has various rules that help writers clearly present information for readers. In order for a reader to understand your ideas, writers need to articulate facts clearly and distinguish between facts and peripheral information. In this module you will explore three ways to present and describe facts effectively and in APA style: numbers, hyphens, and lists.
Hyphens
Slide 3
Title: Hyphens: The Best of Combinations
Speaker: Writers may find themselves presenting factual information that includes descriptive words like “all-inclusive” or “non-confrontational.” These sort of combined words, including compound words and words that use prefixes and suffixes, should follow APA’s guidelines for hyphenation.
Slide 4
Title: Hyphens: The Best of Combinations
Speaker: Hyphens are often used to create adjectives. Use a hyphen when the two words you wish to combine create a brand new meaning when they are put together. Click the arrows to see examples of this type of hyphen use in action.
Slide 5
Title: Hyphens: The Best of Combinations
Speaker: Not all adjectives that combine two words require a hyphen. If the two words you are combining can be understood without a hyphen, then one is not needed. In the previous examples we saw, the words that were combined were creating a new and distinct meaning. Here, these examples do not. Click the arrows to see an explanation of why a hyphen isn’t needed in these phrases.
Slide 6
Title: Hyphens: The Best of Combinations
Speaker: Most prefixes and suffixes do not require the use of hyphens. However, APA does recommend writers use hyphens with the following prefixes.
Lists
Slide 3
Title: Lists: Seriation
Speaker: Sometimes you will come across instances where you want to list something in your writing. This could be steps to take, perspectives to consider, or items that should be included in a process. Listing is allowed in APA format both in the form of sentences or vertical lists. Vertical lists take the form of either bulleted or numbered lists and are called “seriation” in APA.
Slide 6
Visual: Lists: Seriation
Speaker: Vertical lists can be created with either numbers or bullet-points, and each format has particular rules. Click on the these example lists to learn more about their formatting.
Slide 7
Title: Lists: Serial Comma
Speaker: If a vertical list feels like it would interrupt the flow of your sentence or paragraph, then a list can also be presented within a sentence. Keep each item in the list separated through the use of what we call a “serial comma.”
Slide 8
Visual: Lists: Serial Comma
Speaker: Here is another example of lists within a sentence. Click on each list to learn more about how the sentence uses the serial comma.
Slide 12
Title: Lists: Serial Comma
Speaker: Sometimes a list within a sentence becomes particularly complicated or long; in those cases, you might want to separate items in a list with letters along with the serial comma. These letters can improve the sentence’s readability and clarity. Click the example below to see it revised with the addition of letters.
Numbers
Slide 3
Title: Numbers
Speaker: When writing for academic purposes, you will probably use a lot of numbers. These can include facts, statistics, dates, times, or details about research participants. APA style guidelines have rules for how to present numbers so that your writing is clear and consistent.
Slide 6
Title: Numbers: General Rules
Speaker: In APA style, numbers can be represented as numerals, or digits, or written out as words. Click on these two formats to learn the general rules for which numbers are expressed each way.
Slide 7
Title: General Exceptions
Speaker: There are many exceptions to the previous general rules. This is where using numbers can get tricky. Review some of these common exceptions. At the end of this module you will find a comprehensive list of these exceptions from APA that we encourage you to save and refer to as you write.