APA Style Simplified E-Book

Bernard C. Beins

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 291

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

This is a compact but comprehensive guide to writing clearly and effectively in APA style.

• Demonstrates how to write objective scientific research papers using interesting prose
• Incorporates guidelines from the 6th edition of the APA publication manual
• Explores how to develop ideas, connect them to what others have written, and express them clearly
• Discusses the differences between written, oral, and poster presentations and offers instructions for applying APA style to each

Leseprobe

Contents

Preface

How to Use This Book

Acknowledgments

1 Writing Professionally

How Does Professional Writing Differ From Other Kinds of Writing?

Using APA Style

Making a Credible Argument

Different Types of Communication

Effective Communication

Establishing Good Writing Habits

Ethical Writing

2 Elements of Style

Recognizing the Importance of Good Grammar and Style

Choosing Effective Wording

Using Inclusive and Appropriate Language

Deciding on the Use of Technical Language

Avoiding Common Problems

Verb Forms

Spelling

Specific Word Use

3The Introduction Section

Introducing the Topic

Different Approaches to Starting the Introduction

How to Begin

Reviewing the Literature

Introducing Your Research: Generating a Hypothesis

4 The Method Section

Participants and Subjects

Materials and Apparatus

Procedure

Design

5 Communicating Statistics

Why Do We Use Statistics?

What Point Are You Trying to Make?

Understanding Your Numbers

Helping Readers Understand Your Statistics

Differentiating Results and Interpretations

6 The Results Section

Your Hypothesis

Deciding What to Present

APA Style and Presentation of Your Results

Creating Tables

Creating Figures

The Connection Between the Text and the Tables and Figures

The Difference Between Results and Discussion Sections

Some Final Points About Presenting Results

7 The Discussion Section

Summarizing Your Results

Connecting Different Aspects of Your Results

Dealing With Nonsignificant Results

Comparing Your Results With Those of Others

Stating the Importance and Implications of Your Results

Acknowledging the Limitations of Your Study

8 References

Citing References in the Text

Order of Citations in the Reference List

Using Your Word-Processing Program to Create the Citation

Examples of How Different Types of References Should Be Laid Out

9 Final Touches

The Abstract

Formatting Your Manuscript

10 Creating Poster Presentations

Differentiating Visual and Written Communication

Reducing the Amount of Information

Visual Style

Your Behavior: The Ethic of a Poster Session

Creating Your Poster Using PowerPoint®

11 Giving Oral Presentations

The Difference Between Oral and Written English

Adapting APA Style to Oral Presentations

Preparing for Your Talk

Creating Graphics for Your Presentation

Giving the Presentation

12 Sharing Your Work Electronically

New Capabilities in Electronic Sharing

Using a Word Processor to Create Manuscripts for the Internet

Advantages of Internet Publishing Software

Publishing Your Poster on the Web

Uploading Your Manuscript to the Internet

Revisiting the Concept of Plagiarism

Appendix A: Example of APA-Style Manuscript with Common Errors

Appendix B: Corrected APA-Style Manuscript

References

Name Index

Subject Index

As always, for Linda, Agatha, and Simon,who give style to my life.

This edition first published 2012© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc

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Preface

When you learn to write in APA style, it can seem as if you are learning to write in a foreign language. The endless details that you need to know can be overwhelming. In reality, though, learning to produce a paper in APA style does not need to be all that difficult. There certainly are details that you have to pay attention to, but APA style is designed so that readers know what will appear in your paper and where they can find it. If you keep that in mind, the process becomes easier.

I remember writing my first APA-style paper as an undergraduate. I was as mystified by it as everybody else was. In fact, I remember thinking that nobody really wrote like that. So I basically ignored APA style and wrote what I thought was appropriate. The professor didn’t share my perspective and the paper that was returned to me was colored in red marks throughout. So I wised up and decided that maybe people do use this style after all. And it is true: Professionals in many fields use APA style in their communications.

By the time you finish using this book, you will be proficient in APA style. This book is unlike some other guides to APA style in that it does more than simply present a set of rules to follow. My belief is that you can follow rules more easily and effectively if you understand the purpose for the rules. So each chapter in the book tells you not only how to present your ideas but also why it makes sense to do so. In the end, your manuscript will have appropriate formatting, which is important, but it will also be well constructed, meaningful, and (I hope) interesting to the reader.

It would be unrealistic to think that you will know every detail of APA style after using this book. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.), as it is formally known, consists of 290 pages, including the front matter and the index. It is possible to pack a lot of detail into 290 pages, and the American Psychological Association has done so. But the number of details that you actually need to know is not all that great. It seems so at the beginning, but in reality there is a fairly small number that relates to papers you are likely to write.

I tell my Research Team students that if anyone ever hands in a complete APA-style paper without a single deviation from APA style, they will earn an automatic A in the course. Naturally, nobody has even come close. I know that there are so many nitpicking details that nobody is likely to know them all. In fact, I tell my students that I hope nobody gets the automatic A because there are more important things to do with their lives than memorizing the Publication Manual. Still, they do a very creditable job writing their papers that are generally consistent with APA style in virtually all respects and are coherent and interesting as well.

How to Use This Book

This book is largely a reference guide that will help you to format and structure papers. At the same time, it presents useful guidance about the characteristics of high-quality writing that is both competent regarding the use of the English language and consistent with APA style. Your final product will be stronger if you attend to the material on creating compelling prose and to the technical material relating to APA style.

If you are writing a term paper that presents information on what others have studied and reported but that does not involve your own original research, you are likely to benefit from the material in chapters 1 and 2, which relate to high-quality scientific writing; chapters 3 and 7, which relate to introducing the topic you are addressing and integrating that information in a coherent package; and chapter 8, which involves the formatting of reference citations. Some parts of chapter 9, dealing with formatting, will also be helpful.

If you are working on a research project, you will benefit from the material in the chapters already mentioned. In addition, there is relevant information in chapters 4, 5, and 6, which deal with the details of your research and your results.

After you have completed your project, if you are creating a poster presentation, chapter 10 will be helpful. If you are preparing to give an oral presentation, chapter 11 will give you guidance. If you are interested in Internet or electronic publication, chapter 12 will be useful.

Finally, there are two appendixes with a sample research paper in each. In Appendix A, you will see a research paper with common APA-style errors. You may want to glance through this appendix to see if you have fallen prey to these errors, which I have found to be the most common among my own students. Appendix B is a corrected version of the material in Appendix A.

By paying attention to the guidance that this book provides, you will be able to produce written papers and posters and will know how to organize and deliver oral presentations. You should also gain a sense of what you want to communicate and how you want to convey it in a way that other researchers will recognize as competent and professional.

Acknowledgments

Writing sometimes seems like solitary work, but that task is ultimately followed by a flurry of activity on the part of many people. The book you are reading may have started with a single keystroke I made on a computer keyboard, but it would not have appeared as you see it without a coordination of effort. I am grateful for the help I received throughout the production process. The people who contributed in significant (but hidden) ways include the hard-working editorial staff at Wiley-Blackwell, including my editor, Matt Bennett; the project editor, Julia Kirk; and the senior editorial assistant, Nicole Benevenia, and my copy editor with an eagle eye, Joanna Pyke.

I also thank the reviewers who read preliminary drafts and made helpful comments to improve the book. Although it feels good when reviewers give high praise to the work I’ve produced, the critical comments that they provide invariably lead to a more useful and higher-quality book. As such, I give my thanks to the anonymous reviewers who helped clarify my ideas and my prose.

Finally, I must admit that my wife, Linda, is really the brains of the operation. She is a marvelous contributor to all of my projects. This project would not have unfolded without her as wonderfully as it did.

1

Writing Professionally

Write what matters. If you don’t care about what you’re writing, neither will your readers.

Judy Reeves

I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.

James Michener

When people write professionally in the social, educational, or health sciences, they are telling a story about people. But scientists are people, too, complete with individual personalities, likes and dislikes, and ordinary human qualities. Their personalities affect what they do and how they do it. As such, “science writing is not so much about science, but about people—human problems and their solutions, curiosity and discovery” (Holland, 2007). In this book, you will learn how to convey your thoughts on the important problems and solutions relating to people.

It would be hard to overstate how important it is to write effectively. Writing constitutes one of the “3 Rs” of a basic education: reading, writing and ‘rithmetic. In the world of business, success is dependent, in part, on effective writing. For high-level positions, “writing is a ‘threshold skill’ for both employment and promotion” (College Board, 2004, p. 3). In one survey, many companies noted that writing was important in hiring. One respondent asserted that, “in most cases, writing ability could be your ticket in … or it could be your ticket out” (College Board, 2004, p. 3). Potential employees who do not write well are unlikely to be hired and, if they are hired, they are unlikely to be promoted.

Graduate school admission may also depend on writing effectiveness. Graduate programs routinely request essays as part of the application process. This writing is “often used to make final selections of students with similar GPAs and standardized test scores. If you are on the borderline of being accepted and the admissions committee could go either way, a sterling essay can increase your chances of success considerably” (American Psychological Association, 2007, p. 132).

More immediately, the type of writing presented in this book focuses on the technical style presented in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (American Psychological Association, 2010). In the end, you will develop skill in writing in APA style, presenting your ideas with clarity and logic in a manner that will engage the reader.

Most of us find people interesting and are eager to learn why they behave the way they do. But readers do not want to fight through dull and meaningless writing. As writers, our biggest hurdle involves turning complex, technical concepts into prose that others can appreciate.

Writing successfully is not easy. It requires knowledge of the topic we are addressing; judicious selection of the best words, phrases, and sentences; and editing and revising what we have composed. If there were a magical formula that we could use to generate good prose, everybody would succeed in communicating even complex and hard-to-understand ideas. If you have read the work of scientists, though, you will have discovered that, much of the time, scientific writing is dense and impenetrable. Many writers hide interesting concepts inside packages of dull prose.

Furthermore, when you write a paper, not only do you have to make your points clearly, but you have to do it in APA style. This book will focus on writing effectively within the technical constraints of APA style.

How Does Professional Writing Differ From Other Kinds of Writing?

If you are trying to write like a professional, your style will be unlike much of the writing that you have done in the past. When we write professionally, we usually attempt to convey specific information with a great deal of precision, minimizing ambiguity and the possibility of being misunderstood. The adage to say what you mean and mean what you say is highly appropriate for technical writing. You want your reader to understand the points you believe are important, and you want the reader to know exactly what you intend to say.

In other forms of writing, the emphasis may be on crafting artistic prose. The writer attempts to impress the reader with both content and style. The words that Shakespeare wrote for Macbeth illustrate the point. Macbeth lamented that life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” These poetic words convey Macbeth’s despair. However, Shakespeare’s style would not be appropriate for a scientist because the style of science is to be straightforward and unambiguous so the reader does not have to puzzle through the words to find meaning in them.

Psychologists often receive training in how to write objective, scientific papers. Unfortunately, the writing style is often “bloodless” (Josselson & Lieblich, 1996, p. 651), meaning that it is not particularly engaging. Sommer (2006) has encouraged psychologists to learn to write with color and style for lay audiences without sacrificing accuracy. He also implied that the writing style in academic journals need not be dreary.

In scientific writing, we focus on the content of the message. The point is not to impress the reader with the prose, but to render the prose invisible while making the content foremost. This type of writing can be as difficult to do well as literary writing because you need to be concise without omitting important information; you need to choose your words carefully so they engage the reader without obscuring your point; you need to say enough to let your reader understand your message without being repetitive.

Another difference among the various types of writing is that, when we write scientifically or technically, we generally rely on a vocabulary specific to the topic at hand. Professionals understand this wording, but others are not likely to be as conversant with the terminology. This is one of the reasons that scientific writing has the reputation of being incomprehensible—you need to know the jargon. (The concepts are also complex and may be hard to understand, which does not help.) Actually, technical terms are helpful because they let us communicate complex ideas clearly in a few words, although if you do not know the meanings of the words, the prose is meaningless or, at best, difficult.

Using APA Style

A further difference between scientific or technical writing and less formal writing is that, in science, authors typically follow a specific format in preparing reports. In this book, we will follow the guidelines that appear in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (American Psychological Association, 2010), commonly just called APA style. To begin with, in APA style, research reports usually include seven sections, as described in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Typical Sections in an APA-Style Research Report

Section of the report

What the section contains

Title page

The title of the paper, the names of authors, and the affiliations of the authors

Abstract

A brief overview of the entire project of about 150 to 250 words

Introduction

The background and logic of the study, including previous research that led to this project

Method

Minute details of how the study proceeded, including descriptions of participants, apparatus, and materials, and what researchers and participants actually did during the study

Results

A detailed statement of the statistics and other results of the study

Discussion

What the results tell us about thought and behavior

References

Where to find the work cited in the paper that relates to the present study

The path that you will take in writing a paper for a class parallels that of submitting a manuscript to a journal. Most of the time, if a writer submits to a journal editor a manuscript that deviates greatly from APA style, the editor may reject the manuscript immediately as unsuitable for publication. In some cases, editors work with authors so that the final version of the manuscript is consistent with APA style (Brewer, Scherzer, Van Raalte, Petitpas, & Andersen, 2001). Similarly, in a class, instructors often insist on APA style and often work with students trying to learn the intricacies of this kind of writing.

In addition, editors have commented that deviations from APA style often accompany problems with the content of a manuscript. So if you create a manuscript that fails to follow APA style, an instructor who is familiar with (and used to) APA style may assume that you paid as little attention to your ideas as you did to the way you expressed them. In the workplace, employers have expressed similar sentiments, that poor writing reflects poor thought (College Board, 2004).

According to the research of Brewer et al. (2001) on the use and the importance of APA style, writers are likely to deviate from APA style in their presentation of research results and in citing references. So you should pay particular attention to these facets of your writing. If you write a paper in APA style that does not involve empirical research and data analysis, APA style can still apply. The structure of your paper is likely to have elements in common with the Introduction, Discussion, and References sections of a research paper, which appear in later chapters. Once you learn the basics of APA style, writing an effective paper might be easier than you anticipated because you will have a good sense of what belongs in a paper and where it goes.

As you write professionally, keep in mind that readers are willing to be convinced with persuasive arguments, but you have to convince them. Scientific writing entails presenting a series of logical arguments that follow from one another. At the end, your good logic is going to make a believer out of your reader. If we are going to accept the process of science, it means that when a writer offers a logical argument that is supported by good data, we should be willing to accept that argument.

Making a Credible Argument

The difference between scientific writing and other writing has to do with the nature of how psychologists attempt to persuade readers. In everyday life, if you want to change somebody’s mind about something, there are several ways of doing it. One is to appeal to authority. That is, by quoting an expert (i.e., an authority), you can often convince people to believe you. After all, experts know more than others in their field of expertise. Unfortunately, experts can be wrong.

You can also appeal to what “everybody” knows is true; some things are so obvious, they must be true. Unfortunately (again), some things that people “know” to be true simply aren’t true.

You can also appeal to others’ emotions. Politicians and advertisers do this all the time. Unfortunately (again), conclusions based on emotional appeals can make a person feel good about a decision that, ultimately, proves to be troublesome. Furthermore, such conclusions are often not very stable (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986).

We should not simply believe the experts (even though they are probably right more than they are wrong in their areas of expertise); they should have to convince us with logical arguments. We should not simply trust our senses (even though a lot of what we feel to be true has some validity). We should not simply believe in what makes us feel good or reject what makes us feel bad; it should have logical validity.

When trying to convince your reader of your arguments, you should engage the reader in critical evaluation of your ideas. Research has revealed that persuasion based on logic and on attention to important details leads to greater and longer-term acceptance of an argument. This is the type of persuasion that you should strive for in your writing.

Different Types of Communication

If you want to communicate with your audience, you need to know what your audience expects. Depending on whether you are writing, speaking, or presenting visually, your approach will differ somewhat, even if the underlying message is the same.

Written Communication

If you are writing a formal, APA-style research report, as you would for publication in a journal, your reader will expect a structured presentation with considerable detail. The advantage of such a written presentation is that your reader can go back and review the background you cite, review your methodology to make sure it is sound, evaluate your results to judge if they are appropriate, and see if your conclusions are justified from your results and if they relate to the ideas you presented in your Introduction. A written document is a permanent exposition that the reader can go back to at will.

Professionals (including professors) expect the writing to be free from colloquial or informal expressions and to be entirely grammatical. You should choose your words carefully because they are lasting expressions of your ideas.

Oral Communication

In contrast, if you are delivering that same research in an oral presentation, you cannot possibly pack the same level of detail and expect your audience to understand your ideas. Working memory is limited to a small amount of information. So if you are talking to people in an audience, it does not make sense to introduce as many ideas as you would in writing; your audience cannot go back to review what you have already said. They are forced to listen to your ideas in the present and can keep track of only a few ideas.

In an oral presentation, you should limit yourself to three or four main points you want your listeners to remember. You can introduce minor points to help reinforce the major ideas, but your audience will have a hard time keeping the details in memory. Professional speakers suggest that you tell your audience what you are going to say, then say it, and finally tell them what you just told them. There is something to this philosophy, although in a research presentation, you should not be quite so simplistic. You should establish the framework of your presentation and repeat critical points when appropriate. Still, in the short period of time allotted to oral presentations, usually 10 to 15 min, you are limited in the amount of information you can convey, just as the audience is limited in its ability to comprehend your ideas.

Poster Presentations

Yet another medium of expression is visual. Increasingly, research conferences are relying on poster presentations for reporting research findings. In this form of communication, you present all your information in a small display that might be about 4 ft × 6 ft (i.e., 1.3 m × 2 m) in size. The dimensions vary from one conference to another, but the amount of space always seems to be smaller than you would want.

One of the worst things you can do is to fill the poster with text. Nobody wants to fight through a poster with endless strings of sentences. The viewer is typically interested in your main points. Fortunately, during such a presentation, the author of the poster is usually present, so if viewers want to know more details than are available on the poster, they can simply ask. The use of tables, figures, bulleted points, and other eye-catching features is a good idea in a poster. However, you should avoid attractive, but irrelevant, visual features.

So, for a poster, you should present the main points with as little text as you can get away with. Visual elements are often a more meaningful way to make your points accessible. The result is often more information than in an oral presentation, but less than in a complete APA-style research report. It helps when the researcher is present to clear up any misconceptions that arise because not all the information is available on the poster. Furthermore, if you are presenting a poster, you can create a handout that resembles an APA-style manuscript. In this way, interested people can get the gist of your research and can ask you any questions that come to mind right away. Then they can take your written handout and attend later to the level of detail they desire.

Internet Publishing

A relatively new option for communicating your ideas is through the Internet. Web presentations combine various features of traditional manuscripts and of visual displays, but there are some additional elements that foster effective communication. A web-based presentation allows easy use of visual elements that are often too costly to include in printed manuscripts. In addition, you can use hyperlinks with your text to refer the reader to related web material or to references.

A simple web page is fairly easy to create if all you need is to present text, figures, or pictures, and hyperlinked text. It is helpful to know the code for the language of the web, HTML (HyperText Markup Language), but with the authoring software on the market, knowing HTML is not absolutely necessary. Fortunately, it is fairly easy to learn. You can even save word-processed documents in HTML format, although generating a well-formatted web page from a word processor can be tricky.

Effective Communication

A professor named Denis Dutton held a bad-writing contest for a few years. The sentence that motivated him to begin the contest appears below; it was about an attempt at educational reform. The prose, which was not intended to be bad, was absolutely incomprehensible. (You should not feel embarrassed if you don’t understand it. I don’t understand it, either.)

[It] would delegitimate the decisive, if spontaneous, disclosure of the complicity of liberal American institutions of higher learning with the state’s brutal conduct of the war in Vietnam and the consequent call for opening the university to meet the demands by hitherto marginalized constituencies of American society for enfranchisement. (Dutton, 1999)

One of the goals of this book is an attempt to prevent you from writing such incomprehensible prose.

No matter what you choose as your medium of presentation, there are some characteristics of good communication to remember. First, you should establish your theme and organize your thoughts around it, which requires that you know what you want to say. It is tempting sometimes to start writing without a coherent idea of your message. If you operate this way, your writing may meander toward irrelevant topics.

Second, if you want to communicate effectively, you should make sure that your grammar is flawless and that your selection of words is judicious. When your writing is technically competent, your reader will not be distracted from your message by having to figure out what you mean. You also need to go back to your work to edit and revise it. It helps to reread your work when it is not fresh in your own mind; sometimes you can spot problems that were not initially apparent. In addition, your writing may benefit if you ask somebody to read your work and explain to you what is unclear. Mark Twain recognized the importance of revising your work: “The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.”

Finally, it is important to remember that even lengthy manuscripts begin with a single sentence. In order to maximize the effectiveness of your writing, you should set up a schedule and a process. B. F. Skinner is a good example; he was an early bird, so he arose and did his writing for a few hours in the morning, a practice that he continued right up until his death.

Establishing Good Writing Habits

Find a place where you can concentrate free of distraction, at a time when you are clear-headed. If you are a night owl, that may be the best time for you to write; if you are an early-morning lark, that would be a good time. In either case, you should establish a routine. Writing does not happen until you do it. And when you develop your routine, remember to positively reinforce yourself. Identify a goal for your writing session and reward yourself when you reach it. So you might decide to explore and write about a given topic for 30 min. After 30 min, you should reward yourself with a break.

You may need to shape your behavior first, though, so you might need to start with a shorter work period, gradually extending it until you identify the longest period of time during which you can write effectively. Psychologists have identified a phenomenon called post-reinforcement pause. It refers to a period of time after a reinforcement when the animal (including the human animal) stops working toward another reinforcement (Felton & Lyon, 1966). You should make sure that your post-reinforcement pauses are not too lengthy.

By developing good writing habits, you will have taken the first step toward successful communicating. The task is often not easy, but the results are eminently satisfying.

In the next chapters, we will explore how you can develop your ideas, connect them to what others have already written, and express them in a style that reflects a sophisticated knowledge of psychology, all in APA style. In the end, you will have an impact on your audience when you write and when you speak about psychology.

Ethical Writing

Academic integrity is a concept that guides ethical writing and more broadly addresses cheating, plagiarism, and even denying others access to scholarly resources. In this section you will encounter examples and tips to help you avoid plagiarism, but it would be a good idea to read your university’s policy on academic integrity. This section begins with an excerpt from a scholarly source and a paragraph that attempts to paraphrase that source (this example is inspired by the University of Kent’s psychology department web page at http://www.kent.ac.uk/psychology/learning-resources/plagiarism.html).

In Figure 1.1 you can see an outline of the mistakes in the paraphrased version and then a way to rewrite it, which is described in Figure 1.2.

Scholarly Excerpt

According to self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1991) individuals who perform an activity out of choice and pleasure regulate their behavior in a self-determined manner. In contrast, individuals who participate in different activities out of internal and/or external pressures regulate their behavior in a non-self-determined fashion. Throughout the past two decades, much research has shown that self-determined motivation is a useful concept to understand human behavior. (Senecal, Vallerand, & Guay, 2001, p. 178)

Figure 1.1 Avoiding plagiarism.

Attempted Paraphrase

For the last 20 years, much research has shown that self-determined motivation is a useful concept to understand human behavior. Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1991) states that, when choice or pleasure is involved, self-determination can help explain the motivations behind individuals’ activities. Alternatively, individuals who participate in different activities out of internal and/or external pressures regulate their behavior in a non-self-determined fashion.

Figure 1.2 How plagiarism has been avoided.

Paraphrase Rewrite

Senecal, Vallerand, & Guay (2001) draw from research done by Deci & Ryan (1985, 1991) for their own work on self-determination theory, which offers insight into the relationship between human activities and motivation. According to Senecal et al., when choice or pleasure is involved, self-determination can help explain the motivations behind individuals’ activities. Alternatively, “individuals who participate in different activities out of internal and/or external pressures regulate their behavior in a non-self-determined fashion” (Senecal, Vallerand, & Guay, 2001, p. 178).

Whether intentional or unintentional, plagiarism is a very serious infraction. Plagiarism is the use or representation of someone else’s idea or language as your own. This can include

summarizing someone else’s idea without giving that person credit;

using someone else’s language without giving that person credit;

using someone else’s language without quotation marks, even if you give that person credit for the idea;

taking work that someone else wrote for you and presenting it as your own.

However, scholars do not consider it plagiarism if you present information that is common knowledge without a citation. That is, if you offer information that you expect an average person would know, such as the temperature at which water freezes or who the fifth United States president was, then you can include that information without needing to cite any sources.

Unfortunately, the margins of common knowledge are not always clear. For example, what is considered common knowledge might be different for psychologists, sociologists, educators, and health professionals. If there is any doubt, you are always safe in citing your sources.

You should become familiar with what is and isn’t plagiarism not only because you may face severe consequences for plagiarizing but also because including citations and references in your academic scholarship can strengthen your work: It reflects your awareness of scholarly research that points to the same conclusion.