Errors Made on the Second Writing Assignment

Here is a list of errors that have been made on this assignment. Those highlighted in yellow were made this semester. The perfect papers received a score of 25. After evaluation, extra credit points (2) were added to those who completed the extra credit power analyses on Friday. Score on this writing assignment ranged from 15 to 27 in the current class, excepting one that has yet to be submitted.

Failing to Follow Instructions

Failing to submit the paper in a Microsoft Word document. Other formats are not acceptable. If you send me a document in a format that cannot be read by Microsoft Word (for example, a *.wps document), I shall not be able to open it and will consider you not to have completed the assignment.

Using an improper subject line in the email. The syllabus (and email I sent to the class one day before the paper was due) instructs: For class related email, always include a subject line in this format: PSYC 2210:xxxxxxx, where 'xxxxxxx' is a descriptive title -- for example, PSYC 2210: Writing Assignment 1. Failure to follow this convention could result in your email being diverted to my spam folder where I might never see it.

Failing to name the Word document file according to instructions. The instructions were: The file name of the Word document should be “Nnnnn-Write2.docx,” where “Nnnnn” is your last name. If you are using an old version of Word, the extension may be “.doc.” Do not change the name of the extension. [-.5]

Errors of Content

Failing to provide any review of the literature.

Failing to include any literature review on the first construct. The writing assignments document made it clear that the literature review should include material on both constructs: “Your reference list should include both references relevant to ethical idealism and other references relevant to your second construct.”

Not making the focus of the proposed research clear.

Failing to define key concepts in the proposed research.

Too frequent quotation. You should paraphrase rather than quote in almost all cases. One semester I got a paper which was only 453 words long, 206 (45%) of which were in direct quotations. There were ten quotations in a document that was just a few lines over one page. One of my colleagues, who also teaches experimental psychology, Marsha Ironsmith, told me that she tells her students that they are not allowed to quote anybody except William James – he is the only psychologist who ever said things so perfectly that it could not be paraphrased. Another allows no quotations. I will allow infrequent quotation – not more than one quote per page and not more than ten words of quotation per page. Every violation of this rule will result in one point being deducted from the score on the paper. If you feel you really must quote more than I allow, you must convince me of that BEFORE you submit your paper.

Proposing that two variables are related but not explaining how you expect them to be related. For example, proposing that physical attractiveness and intelligence are related, but not indicating whether you think they are positively related or negatively related.

Not having the minimum of ten references. [-.5 for each shortfall]

Citing a reference as a primary source when you did not obtain and read the original source. For example, citing a dissertation but not having obtained it. See Citing a Dissertation.

Errors of Style

Citations in the Body of the Manuscript

Et Al.

  • When first citing a source in the body of the manuscript, you should list ALL of the authors rather than using “et al.” unless there are six or more authors. See my APA-Style Page. [.25]
  • On second and subsequent citations of an article, you should use “et al.” See my Thesis Errors Page.
  • There is no period after "et" (which is not an abbreviation), there is one after "al."
  • If two references with the same year would shorten to the same form using et al., then list as many of the authors as necessary to remove such ambiguity -- for example, if there were in your reference list two or more articles which could reduce to "Wuensch et al., 1996" you might have to say "Wuensch, Poteat, et al., 1996".
  • Do not put a comma before “et al.” when only one author is named before the “et al.” -- for example, (Furnham, et al., 1998). The comma should be removed. See my Thesis Errors Page. [-.1]

Alphabetical Order of Citations Within Parentheses. When listing several citations within parentheses, do so alphabetically, not chronologically. For example: "Cannibalism has been studied by several psychologists (Carr, 1981; Maslow, 1936; Wuensch, 1990)." [-.25]

Do not givepage numbers for journal articles cited within the body of the manuscript, unless you are quoting from the article, and you should be paraphrasing instead of quoting in almost all cases anyway.

Authors’ first names or initials should not be included in parenthetical citations in the body of the manuscript. [-.1]

When the author’s name is part of the narrative (not within parentheses), do not include the year in subsequent nonparenthetical citations to the same work in the same paragraph, unless that would lead to confusion with other studies by the same author. Do include the date whenever the citation appears within parentheses. For example: “Spock (2212) showed that the rings around Uranus contain trace amounts of scatium. Baerarze (2209) had anticipated this finding earlier. Spock also found trace amounts of charmonite in the rings. There is good reason to believe that the content of the rings was expelled from the planet’s surface during long-past volcanic eruptions (Baerarze, 2209; Bumloch, 2213, Spock, 2212).”

Use the ampersand to stand for "and" within parentheses, but not outside parentheses. For example, say "Wuensch and Urwalt (1996) reported that estrogen's effects in tropical climates differed from its effects in temperate climates," but say "Several others have reported similar interactions (Mueller, 1995; Wuensch & Urwalt, 1996; Xenos, 1982)." See my Thesis Errors page. [-.1 per occurrence]

Do not put a comma before the ampersand when there are only two authors. For example, (Twenge, Campbell 2002) should be (Twenge Campbell 2002) [-.1 per occurrence]

When citing a source in the body of the manuscript, the date should be provided immediately after the author(s)’ names, for example, “Wuensch and Klugarse (1996) reported that .....” One student separated the dates by putting them at the end of each sentence in which a source was cited.

If you did not obtain and read the primary source, but rather read about it in a secondary source, you should not cite it as a primary source. Here is an example of how to cite a secondary source:

Rodin, Silberstein, and Striegel-Moore (1985, as cited in Striegel-Moore, Tucker, & Hsu, 1990) ………..

Use letters after years to distinguish multiple publications by the same author in the same year. For example: Several studies (Barnes & Savage, 2005; Wissen, 1988, 1990a, 1990b, 1995 in press-a, 1995 in press-b) have found that scatophilia is strongly related to …….”

Reference List – See my Thesis Errors Page.

The names of journal articles should NOT be abbreviated. [-1]

Hanging indentation should be used in the reference list. [-1]

  • Authors Names
  • Give authors’ last name, initials – not full name. For example, type “Wuensch, K. L.” not “Wuensch, Karl Louis.”
  • You must list all of the authors for each reference, not just the first author, unless there are eight or more authors.
  • If there are eight or more authors, list the first six, then three ellipses, and then the last author's name. For example, suppose that Wuensch published an article with ten coauthors. You would list the names like this: Wuensch, K. L., Carey, A. I., Carroll, L. S., Wundt, W. M., Fechner, G. T., Weber, E. H., ... von Helmholtz, H. L. F. (2027)."
  • When there are two or more authors, put an ampersand before the name of the last author.
  • Do put a blank space between author’s first initial and second initial.
  • Titles of Articles and Titles of Journals
  • Do not capitalize the first letter in major words in the titles of journal articles or the titles of books. [-.25]
  • But do capitalize the first word that follows a colon or a hyphen in a title.
  • Do capitalize major words in journal titles – for example, type “Journal of Scatological Research,” not “Journal of scatological research.”
  • Species names should be set in italic font – for example, Homo sapiens.
  • Italicize the titles of journals and their volume numbers, not the titles of journal articles, and not the authors’ names.
  • Volume Numbers and Issue Numbers
  • Do not type “Vol” before the volume number of a journal, do set it in italic font. [-.25]
  • Do not give an issue number when the journal is paginated by volume rather than by issue. [-.1 per occurrence]
  • Page Numbers
  • Do give page numbers for journal articles, do not type “pp” before the page numbers. [-.2 for each occurrence of missing page numbers]
  • Do not give page numbers when citing an entire book, do when citing one article in an edited book.
  • Do not set page numbers in italic font. [-.5]

References in the list should be in alphabetical order. [-1]

When there are two or more references with the same author(s), list them in chronological order, from that first published to that most recently published. For example, “Wuensch, K. L., (1996)” would come before “Wuensch, K. L. (1998).”

Do not spell out the author’s first name.Use initials.

Forsyth, Donelson D. R. (1980). A taxonomy of ethical ideologies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology., 39(1)., 175-184.

Every item listed in the reference list must be cited in the body of the manuscript and vice versa. Some students insert references in the list (to get up to the minimum of 10) that are not cited in the body of the manuscript and think I will not notice that. [-.1 per occurrence]

Disagreement of date between citation in text and corresponding entry in reference list. [-.25]

Citing Internet sources can be problematic. For example, one student included this in the body of her manuscript: Online Posting. February 2003. < Proper style would have been (Narconon Southern California, 2003) -- no author was identified on the web page, in which case, just as with sources in hardcopy, you identify the organization. The student had no entry in her reference list for this. She should have had this entry:

Narconon Southern California. (2003). Heroin addiction. Retrieved July 4, 2003, from

Use the resources available through my APA-Style Page to learn how to cite electronic resources.

Proper Use of Microsoft Word

Centering a Line: Just select the center icon on the home ribbon (in the Paragraph group). Do not insert blank spaces to create centering – a Word processor is not a typewriter. [-.5]

Indentation in the Body of the Manuscript: Do not use blank spaces to create indentation. Insert a tab (just hit the tab key). A Word processor is not a typewriter. [-.5]

Double Spacing: Do not create double spacing by putting two hard carriage returns at the end of each line. Just Select the entire document and hit the “2” key while holding down the control key. [-.5]

Page Breaks: Hold down the control key and hit the enter key. Do not try to create page breaks by entering multiple carriage returns.

Do not create hanging indentation by use of carriage returns and tabs -- you should, instead, use Ctrl-T to produce hanging indentation. See Microsoft Word Tips for instructions on how to produce hanging indentation in Word.

Text should be aligned left, not fully justified.

Spelling and Grammar

Criterion/Criteria: The former is singular, the latter plural. Do not use “criteria” as the singular form. This is a common error – today I heard President Obama make this error. Earlier this week I heard one of the assistant Deans in the College of Arts and Sciences make this error. I have deducted one tenth of a point from each of their speeches. [-.5]

Numerous Spelling Errors. Word has a spelling checker. Use it. [-1]

“Affect” versus “effect.” See my Thesis Errors page for help on this. [-.25]

Don’t use the word “we” when referring to yourself, unless you suffer from multiple personality disorder. See my Thesis Errors page.

Starting a sentence with “And” or “But.” This is OK in informal writing, but not in formal writing. My Mom even scolds me for doing it in email I write to her.

Improper use (for formal writing) of the word “impact.” As a noun "impact" means "a striking together," "the force of a collision," or "the power to produce changes." Given that last meaning, it is appropriate to say "Sometimes early experience has a profound impact upon later species identity." As a verb "impact" means "to strike together." It does NOT mean to affect. If you say "he impacted my thinking" you are saying he hit your thinking. Think of an impacted wisdom tooth -- it is striking up against your other teeth. See my Thesis Errors page. [.25]

Use of the pronoun “they” with a singular antecedent. “They” is plural, and you should respect its plurality. See my Thesis Errors page. [-.25]

Split infinitives -- for example, “To effectively measure,” which is better worded “To measure effectively” or “Effectively to measure.” See my Thesis Errors page. [-.1]

Disagreement in number between subject and predicate. For example, “both an attractive and an unattractive person walks in” should be “both an attractive and an unattractive person walk in.

Sentence Fragments: These are OK in informal speech, but not in technical writing. Write complete sentences.

Do not use the Redneck Plural: putting an apostrophe in a plural nonpossessive noun – for example, I ate three egg’s with my grits and sausage’s. Do put an apostrophe in a singular possessive noun – for example, I ate all of Sally’s grits while she was back at the outhouse. [-.25]

A preposition is a poor word to end a sentence with.  See my Thesis Errors page. [-.1]

Conjunctions as the First Word in a Sentence: Do not start a sentence with a conjunction. And don't end one with a preposition. See Rules for Writers. [-.25]

Other Errors of Style

Wasted Words: Avoid unnecessary words, such as “In a study conducted by Langer et al. (2011), it was found that …..” Instead, just write “Langer et al. (2009) found that ….”

Font. The font should be 12 point. APA recommends Times Roman or Courier. [-.5]

Neglecting to put a blank space after every comma. [-.1 per occurrence]

Using the pronoun “they” when the antecedent is singular. See . [-.25]

Paragraphs that are too long – one student wrote a single paragraph introductory section, 1,114 words long. [-.5]

Not capitalizing major words in the title of the manuscript.

No page numbers. [-.25]

Use of the generic “he,” “his,” or “him” when referring to people of both sexes/genders. It is better to use plural pronouns in this case.

Using the word “females” as a noun when referring to women or girls or the word “males” when referring to men or boys. APA frowns on this, but allows use of the words “female” and “male” when used as adjectives, such as “female professors.” See my Thesis Errors page. [-.25]

Using the words “woman” and “man” as a noun, as in “women friends are ….” The proper adjective is “female.” [-.1]

Footnotes should not be used in APA-style manuscripts (with rare exceptions) [-.1]

Hyperlinks should not be put in a manuscript, unless it is going to appear online. If Word automatically defines a hyperlink when you type in an url, just click the undo icon and it will remove that definition but leave your typing there.

Having more than the allowed number (one out of ten) of references to Internet documents.