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APA Resources
Welcome to this very resourceful page! If you have any questions concerning writing in APA format, please submit the question through the Discussion Board at right.
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The purpose of this page is to provide to you some knowledge on how to write an empirical paper you can be quite proud of! You will use these skills again and again if you take any science, education, engineering, or psychology courses in college. Writing empirical papers also helps you to organize your thoughts, develop your powers of observation, apply theoretical scientific principles to empirical findings, and analyze empirical data. 

Writing Empirical Studies

​According to the Sixth Edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (American Psychological Association [APA], 2010), empirical studies - such as those you write for your Conceptual Physics and Chemistry courses, represent reports of the research you are carrying out in say, a laboratory environment. These reports contain ". . . distinct sections that reflect the stages in the research process and that appear in the following sequence:
  • introduction: development of the problem under investigation, including its historical antecedents, and statements of the purpose of the investigation; 
  • method: description of the procedures used to conduct the investigation;
  • results: report of the findings and analyses; and
  • discussion: summary, interpretation, and implications of the results" (p. 10).​
There are numerous other paper types that use APA formatting, such as theoretical articles, methodological articles, and case studies - to name a few, but for our class, we will be writing what are called empirical studies.

Constituents of Empirical Studies in More Detail

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While the list above introduces the constituents contained within an empirical study, they all require more clarification.

​Title Page
First and foremost, make sure that any manuscript you turn in has a Title Page, that includes the title - which is a concise statement identifying the "variables or theoretical issues under investigation and the relationship between them," (APA, 2000, p. 23), your own name, and your institutional affiliation (see Figure 1).  

For our class purposes, the author's note should include the names of your lab partners, and crediting me if you use my data in your report. 

Do note on the Title Page the words at top: "Running head: CALORIMETRY TO COMPARE THE ENERGY CONTENT OF FOODS." You will need to insert this on the Title page only, and on subsequent pages include only the title in caps, "CALORIMETRY TO COMPARE THE ENERGY CONTENT OF FOODS."
​Introduction 
The purpose of the introduction is to introduce the specific problem under study and describe the research strategy.  You may want to consider these questions before writing, and answer in the body of your text:
  • Why is this problem worth investigation in the first place?
  • Based upon your theoretical understanding of the principles surrounding the problem, what are your primary and secondary hypotheses? 
  • What are the objectives of the study and how are they linked to theory?
  • Summarize the research design and your findings.
After the abstract, the introduction is the most difficult thing to write - you should save it for after you write the methods, results, and discussion sections (in that order).
Method
This section describes in detail how your study was conducted. This should be so complete that anyone with your similar background could carry out the investigation. In this section you want to include all materials, equipment, chemicals and techniques used in the execution of your investigation. You may divide this into subsections, so that one section enumerates the materials you used, and another the protocol. If you performed two different types of experiments, these may similarly be divided into subsections.

Do not include results in this section. As an example, do not say, "We measured the increase in temperature and found it to be 116 degrees Celsius." Instead say, "We noted the increase in temperature and recorded it in Table 1.3."
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Results
Here you include measured values, calculated values, and statistically derived values. Feel free to include graphical representations of your data, such as data tables, pie charts, and graphs.

You want to be sure to not merely present these visual elements, but describe them.  As an example, you would not let your table only present your percent error for a peanut versus the crouton; make a statement: "Note that the percent error for the peanut (12.81%) demonstrates that our empirically-derived numbers were much more accurate when compared to theoretical values, than those for the crouton (81.57%). 
Discussion
After presenting your results, the discussion allows space to evaluate and interpret them. You might answer whether the results supported your original hypothesis? If not, why? What could you have done to improve on the experiment? What were the limitations of your study? Perhaps the study could have been improved by performing more than a single trial? You might state something such as, "Our calorimetric setup had many limitations, since much of the heat released by the burning food was not directed onto the flask, but lost to the surroundings." Simply put, the discussion section is where you simply discuss your results.
References
These acknowledge the work of scholars you cite, and provide a reliable means by which readers of your paper can locate their work. Start  your reference list on a new page, and double-space all entries. You may want to include your textbook, it would appear as follows:
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Wilbraham, A.C., Staley, D.D., Matta, M.S., & Waterman, E.L. (2002). Chemistry. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.
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Post questions here you have concerning APA reporting requirements
Sample Journal Paper - note ONLY the IMRAD format, you don't need to read it.

In-text citations are not limited to being used only when quoting another author directly - they must be used in paraphrased or summary statements as well.

In your references section, you may want to include your textbook.

Credits for this webpage:

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition: American Psychological Association. American Psychological Association.