APA style and citations for dummies - Joe Giampalmi 2021

Attend to details
Ten tips for high-scoring research papers
The parts of ten

Good grades result from attention to detail, especially the detail required for research papers. Attending to details reduces errors such as the following: incorrect hanging indentations in references; not formatting the word References in bold and centered at the top of the page; underlining or italicizing the title and major heading; lacking or incorrectly formatting citations; single-spacing text; misaligning margins; incorrectly placing page numbers; lacking required resources; lacking hard page breaks; and omitting dates in citations.

Attending to details also includes addressing minor issues that can accumulate and affect grades. Here are examples of minor issues that need addressing: incorrect spacing following a period at the end of a sentence; omitting a comma preceding an ampersand in a reference item; and not including an available Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Details needing attention also include punctuation, spelling, and other language conventions. You can check out language conventions in Chapter 6.

A final detail that needs attention includes proofreading a few days prior to your deadline. You can review proofreading strategies in Chapter 8. After proofing, email your paper to yourself to ensure there is no loss of formatting. If you’re required to submit a hard copy, ensure that pages are in sequence. Not only is the devil in the details, but so are the grades.