Dangling modifiers have no referent in the sentence. Because of their placement in a sentence, misplaced modifiers ambiguously or illogically modify a word. You can eliminate misplaced modifiers by placing an adjective or an adverb as close as possible to the word it modifies.

Verbs are vigorous, direct communicators. Use the active rather than the passive voice, and select tense or mood carefully.

Avoid mixed metaphors (e.g., a theory representing one bunch of a growing body of evidence) and words with surplus or unintended meaning (e.g., cop for police officer), which may distract if not actually mislead the reader.

The APA Publication Manual recommends Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2005) as the standard spelling reference for APA journals and books for nonpsychological terms; spelling of psychological terms should conform to the APA Dictionary of Psychology (VandenBos, 2007).

To maximize clarity, APA prefers that authors use abbreviations sparingly. Although abbreviations are sometimes useful for long, technical terms in scientific writing, communication is usually garbled rather than clarified if, for example, an abbreviation is unfamiliar to the reader.

Write about the people in your study in a way that acknowledges their participation but is also consistent with the traditions of the field in which you are working.

A verb must agree in number (i.e., singular or plural) with its subject, regardless of intervening phrases that begin with such words as together, with, including, plus, and as well as.