APA style and citations for dummies - Joe Giampalmi 2021

Building basics: structures
Creating a foundation: the principal parts of speech, structure, and usage
Earning applause: APA writing for the academic audience

A writing idea without basic sentence and paragraph structure is like a course without a syllabus — it creates the potential for major misunderstanding. Sentences, the social media of the writing process, engage readers, build idea networks, capitalize on visual imagery, and share ideas with wider audiences. Sentences’ powerful messages can cycle solo:

· “If you can dream it, you can do it.” — Walt Disney

· “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

· “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky

But sentences prefer going viral with other sentences and paragraphs. They fear insecurity and the isolation that comes from straying off topic. Their colleagues include unity, flow, and development.

Paragraphs, units of ideas, are the building blocks of successful writing. Good paragraphs flow like the wind in a sail on a breezy day. Major paragraph parts include the topic or central sentence, middle developing and supporting details, and the concluding transitional sentence. Paragraphs practice social distancing and begin with an indentation. Good sentences generate engaging paragraphs; engaging paragraphs generate ideas as contagious as a yawn in a boring lecture.

These sections show how to develop effective sentences and paragraphs and how to structure them with brain-friendly parallelism.

Sentences and paragraphs

Develop sentences with a general length of between 21 and 25 words, approximately one-and-one-half lines of standard text, or the length of this sentence. The heart of the sentence is the subject-action-verb sentence pattern:

Division I college football generates millions of dollars for college athletic budgets.

Compose sentences by first identifying the subject or topic you’re making a statement about (football), and follow with an action verb (generates). Add variety to that basic pattern by adding dependent thoughts:

Division I college football generates millions of dollars for college athletic budgets, creating the potential for overshadowing college academics.

or

Division I college football, a fall Saturday ritual, generates millions of dollars for college athletic budgets and lifetime memories for passionate fans.

When sentence structure fails, paragraphs fail, writing fails — and you fail.

Paragraphs demonstrate unity when they focus on one topic, with every sentence contributing to the development of that one focus. The number of sentences in a paragraph varies from one (an impact strategy in essay writing) to a half dozen or more in a complex research document. Paragraph development strategies include illustrating, exemplifying, explaining, contrasting, comparing, describing, and analyzing. Paragraphs befriend anecdotes, statistics, and specifics, and they focus on one powerful message, as in the following example:

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…

— Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Paragraph development strategies include adding the phrases such as … and for example …, as shown here:

Professors are impressed with students who show initiative in writing projects and include references such as books, current events, experts’ quotations, class lectures, and content from other courses.

Sentences and paragraphs thrive on specific references, such as the previous 21 to 25 words, Division I, millions of dollars, Dr. Seuss, and fall Saturday.

Answers to the following questions help you develop your sentences and paragraphs:

· Is the sentence length generally between 21 and 25 words? Can longer sentences be divided into two?

· Do the sentences generally show evidence of subject-action-verb sentence patterns?

· Do all the paragraphs contribute to the central focus? Do any sentences or paragraphs stray from the central focus?

· Can an excessively long paragraph be divided into two?

· Does the paragraph development include illustrations, examples, explanations, and so forth?

· Does the sentence and paragraph development include specifics?

Parallelism

Parallelism is similar to when you synchronize your smart devices, thus allowing similar information to flow through your phone, tablet, and laptop. With parallelism, similarly structured ideas flow through sentences and paragraphs, adding writing rhythm, increasing readability, and helping readers to anticipate similar constructions.

For example, if your audience reads, “Researchers analyzed reading, writing, and…,” then they anticipate construction and rhythm similar to reading and writing, a word ending in “ing”, such as calculating. The three gerunds (verb forms ending in ing) also create pleasing sequential sounds.

Unparallel constructions break sentence rhythm and cloud comprehension:

Researchers analyzed to read, write nonfiction, and to calculate.

Parallel phrases add clarity and create additional rhythm:

Researchers analyzed reading novels, writing nonfiction, and calculating fractions.

Parallel structure requires the following components:

· Series of similar constructions: Related nouns, phrases, and clauses require parallelism.

· Unparallel: The following can be done in the summer: reading on the beach, play tennis, and ride bikes.

· Parallel: Summer activities include reading books on the beach, playing tennis in the park, and riding bikes through trails.

· Create parallel structure by identifying the sentence topic (summer activities) and following with the action verb (include). Structure items in a series to be parallel: reading, playing, and riding. Parallelism can be enhanced with phrases: books on the beach, tennis in the park, and bikes through trails.

· Unparallel: Earning advanced degrees requires determination to overcome adversity, friends and family who are supportive, and researching long hours and weekends.

· Parallel: Earning advanced degrees requires determination to overcome adversity, support of family and friends, and commitment to extensive research.

Revise the three requirements with parallel nouns: determination, support, and commitment. Continue parallelism with phrases that follow: to overcome adversity, of family and friends, and to extensive research.

· Constructions joined with conjunctions: Coordinating conjunctions (and, or, and but) and correlative conjunctions (not only …, but also …, and either … or …) require parallelism.

· Unparallel: Participants’ options included walking trails or the bus.

· Parallel: Participants’ options included walking or riding the bus.

· Unparallel: We not only compiled electronic results, but hand printed results.

· Parallel: We not only compiled electronic results, but also hand printed results.

· Listed related constructions: Listed related constructions represent parallel structure challenges. Each listed construction requires parallel initial words, followed by consistent parallel wording:

Artifacts at the September 11 Memorial revealing the scope of the tragedy include a

· Severed NYFD Ladder 3 fire truck with spaghetti-like twisted back ladders

· Battered and punctured New York Fire Department ambulance

· Garden hand rake used during recovery to search for human remains

· Ripped airplane window frame

· Granite slab from the 1993 memorial containing the name John

Each bulleted item follows the pattern of an initial descriptive word followed by a noun: severed fire truck, battered and punctured ambulance, garden hand rake, ripped frame, and granite slab.

Creating parallel lists also includes deleting repetitious items and combining similar items.