Initial Checklist

So, you've completed your study, written your paper, obtained the approval of your advisor and/or committee, and now you are ready to obtain copyediting approval. Congratulations!

The substantive work is done, but you may be surprised at the amount of work you still need to do to conform to APA and departmental formatting rules. There are things you can do to reduce the time your paper will spend in editing and the number of submissions you will be required to make.

Here is a checklist that will help you correct errors in your paper before you submit it for review. Please note that once three errors are found in these categories, your paper will be returned to you for you to correct before the editing process is resumed.

APA Editing Checklist

□ Quotes used only when paraphrase is insufficient

□ Appropriate verb tense used

□ Intro (including hypotheses) past or present perfect tense

□ Method and Results: past tense

□ Discussion: present tense

□ Statistical copy and tables formatted correctly (see APA manual pp. 136-176)

□ Comparisons completed

□ “Since” and “while” used only in temporal sense (vs. “whereas,” “but,” “although,” or “because”)

□ Commas separate each element in series of three or more elements

□ Clarity emphasized over repetition

□ Citations formatted correctly

□ Authors listed correctly

□ “et al.” formatted correctly

□ Headings formatted correctly (pp. 16, 95, 113-114)

□ Bold and italics used correctly (pp. 100-102)

□ Margins justified on left side only

□ Acronym spelled out in first use and then enclosed in parentheses

□ “Study”, “table”, or “figure” followed only by “show” or “indicate”, not any kind of action verb

□ Sentences do not begin with “it” unless your goal is to be extremely tentative

□ Active voice used whenever possible

□ Use of first person pronouns avoided

□ Subjects and verbs agree (pp. 44-47)

□ Pronouns and antecedents agree (pp. 47-50)

□ Gender-neutral pronouns used whenever appropriate

□ Clear antecedents for “this” and “that” used

□ Correct spelling and grammar used

□ Appropriate line and page spacing used

□ Clear differentiation between speculation/opinion, theory, and research findings

□ Colloquial language, informal language, and contractions avoided

□ Serif font used for text, sans serif font for figures

□ Paper reads well aloud