An EasyGuide to APA Style. Regan A. R. Gurung

about psychology, common words are frequently confused; sometimes this is due to a psychological “spin” placed on those words. Honestly, many of these words are commonly confused in disciplines beyond psychology, so keep this list in mind when writing any paper. Following is a brief listing of commonly confused words, with definitions designed to clear up the confusion (with some assistance from www.dictionary.com).

       advice/advise

      advice: noun, an opinion given, such as a recommended action

      advise: verb, to give counsel, information, or notice

       affect/effect

      affect: verb, to act on or produce a change in; noun, feeling or emotion

      effect: noun, a result or consequence; verb, to bring about

       allusion/illusion

      allusion: noun, the incidental mentioning or casual referral

      illusion: noun, a type of deception or false impression of reality

       cite/site/sight

      cite: verb, to quote (typically) an authority, to mention as proof

      site: noun, the position or location of an item to be located; verb, to put into position or locate

      sight: noun, vision, the perception of objects with your eyes; verb, to see or notice or observe

       conscience/conscious

      conscience: noun, one’s inner sense of right and wrong; ethical, moral principles

      conscious: adjective, one’s own awareness of thoughts, sensations, existence

       council/counsel

      council: noun, an assembly of individuals selected to provide consultation or advice

      counsel: noun, advice given to direct the conduct of someone else; verb, to advise or give advice

       data/datum

      data: noun, plural form, individual facts, statistics, or items of information

      datum: noun, singular form of data for one number or a single case

       elicit/illicit

      elicit: verb, to extract, bring out, or evoke

      illicit: adjective, unlawful, not legally permitted or authorized

       lay/lie

      lay: verb, to place or to put an object at rest, or set down

      lie: verb, to be in a horizontal position, recline, to rest, remain, to be situated; to spread a falsehood; noun, a false statement made with intention to deceive, a falsehood

       passed/past

      passed: verb, past tense, to have moved in a specific direction (e.g., “They passed through Tiffin, Ohio, on their way to Beverly, Massachusetts.”)

      past: adjective, gone by in time and no longer exists (e.g., “The flight is now past.”); noun, a time prior to the present moment in time (e.g., “They lived in Green Bay, in the past, before moving to Corvallis.”)

       personal/personnel

      personal: adjective, pertaining to one individual, private

      personnel: noun, the collection of individuals employed in an organization

       precede/proceed

      precede: verb, to go before, to introduce something preliminary

      proceed: verb, to move or go forward, to carry on or continue an action; noun, the total amount derived from a sale or transaction

       principal/principle

      principal: adjective, highest rank of importance or value; noun, a chief or head or director

      principle: noun, fundamental or general law or truth from which other truths are derived

       respectfully/respectively

      respectfully: adverb, showing politeness or deference

      respectively: adverb, in the precise order given, sequentially

       then/than

      then: adverb, at that time, next in order of time, in that case; noun, that time; adjective, existing or acting (e.g., “the then president”)

      than: conjunction, used to show unequal comparison (e.g., “colder than yesterday”), used to show difference or diversity; preposition, to connect two nouns (e.g., “this is better than that”)

       who/whom

      who: pronoun, which person or people; start of a clause to provide information about a person or people (e.g., “who is the captain?”)

      whom: pronoun, the object of a verb or preposition (e.g., “whom did she see?”)

      Subject–Verb Agreement

      The idea of subject–verb agreement may seem simple at first, but the rules get complicated quickly. The subject of a sentence is typically the source of action in a sentence, and often, the subject appears before the verb. The subject of a sentence can be singular or plural, and thus the verb used has to “agree” with the singularity or plurality of the subject (EzineArticles.com, 2009a). Consider the sentence, “I love you.” “I” is the subject, which is to the left of the verb “love.” The object of the sentence (i.e., the one who receives love) is “you” (EzineArticles.com, 2009b).

      The most common subject–verb error we come across in our students’ papers involves a sentence about the data collected for an experiment. “Data” is a plural noun and therefore should always be followed by the verb “are” rather than “is” (or “were” rather than “was” for the past tense).

      The data were collected after all 20 participants were seated in the laboratory.

      Here are some general tips to help you figure out the basic rules of subject–verb agreement (About.com, n.d.; EzineArticles.com, 2009a), followed by some practice sentences to see if you can identify errors. (Not every sample sentence has an error, however.)

      1 Add an “s” to the verb if the subject is a singular noun (a word that names one person, place, or thing).A good research idea takes time to develop.

      2 Add an “s” to the verb if the subject is any one of the third-person singular pronouns: “he,” “she,” “it,” “this,” “that.”She writes well and should have her work published.

      3 Do not add an “s” to the verb if the subject is the pronoun “I”, “you,” “we,” or “they.”You create a new data file for each online survey.

      4 Do not add an “s” to the verb if two subjects are joined by “and.”Utah and Idaho compete for similar grant projects.

      5 “Everybody” is singular and uses a singular verb (as do “anybody,” “no one,” “somebody,” “nobody,” “each,” “either,” and “neither”).Everybody is invited to the colloquium on Thursday afternoon.

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