APA Style Resources (7th ed.)

Voice

• Use active voice over passive voice.
• For more information, see Purdue OWL's guide (link below).

Tone

• Convey your ideas and findings directly, but also incorporate a compelling tone that reflects the your involvement in the topic.
• Envisioning your audience can help. Who is being written for? What will they find interesting or persuasive?
• Tone can be personal to the individual author. The more you write, the better you will be able to cultivate your tone, and adjust it for different audiences.

Clarity

• Wordiness and complex sentences can confuse readers.
• Be specific with descriptions and explanations. Choose words with intention.
• Avoid colloquial expressions and unfamiliar jargon.
• Active voice will also make sentence structure clear and concise.

Conciseness

• The primary rule of conciseness to to only say what needs to be said. Condense information when possible.
• Pare out unnecessary or redundant words (e.g. say "unanimous" instead of "completely unanimous," or "20 participants" instead of "a total of 20 participants."

The Challenge

• Making information clear and making information concise is a balancing act.
• Don't sacrifice important information for concise sentence structure.
• Don't sacrifice conciseness for every piece of information you've gathered.
• Review published articles and reports to get an idea of how other authors have achieved this balance.

More Information

• Chapter 4 (pp. 111-127) - Publication Manual of the APA (7th ed.)

What is Bias?

• Bias is conscious or unconscious prejudice.
• One can be biased for or against something.
• Biased language can be used unintentionally.
• It is necessary to be conscious of language used in regards to different populations of people as an academic writer.

Labels

• Avoid labeling people and use their preferred identifiers when possible.
• Common language conventions may contain inherent bias (i.e. when a particular group is implied to be the standard or norm).
• Broadly categorizing groups conveys bias. For example, instead of referring to a group of homosexual men as "gays," use the adjectival form (gay men).
• Another method is to "put the person first." This is the preferred method for describing people with disabilities. For example, instead of referring to someone as "a schizophrenic" or a "schizophrenic person," refer to them as "a person with schizophrenia."

Descriptors that Reflect Participation

• To avoid unintentional bias, describe the people in the study in the terms of their participation. "Participant" or "subject" are common terms.

More Information

• Chapter 5 (pp. 131-149) - Publication Manual of the APA (7th ed.)