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Explain how the student's figure violates the three general APA style guidelines.
Case context: A student researcher writes a detailed Results section outlining the exact percentages of participants who chose different options. Below this paragraph, they present a pie chart showing these exact same percentages, colored in bright blue and yellow. The caption reads 'Figure 1. Choices.' without explaining what the categories represent, assuming the reader will look up the category definitions in the main body text.
Question: Explain how the student's figure violates the three general APA style guidelines.
Sample answer: The student's figure violates all three APA guidelines. First, the pie chart repeats the exact same percentage data already detailed in the Results text, violating the guideline that a figure must add important new information rather than repeating data already found in the text. Second, the student uses unnecessary colors (blue and yellow) for aesthetic purposes rather than necessity, violating the guideline that a figure should be as simple as possible and avoid color unless absolutely necessary. Third, the caption does not explain the categories, meaning the reader must refer to the main text to understand the basic result, which violates the guideline that a figure must be completely interpretable on its own.
Key points:
- The pie chart repeats data already in the text, violating the first guideline.
- The use of unnecessary color violates the simplicity guideline.
- The failure to define abbreviations/categories in the caption violates the self-interpretability guideline.
Rubric: Grading Rubric: - 3 points: Identifies that repeating the percentage data violates the guideline to add important new information rather than repeat text data. - 3 points: Identifies that using colors for visual appeal violates the guideline to keep figures as simple as possible and avoid color unless necessary. - 3 points: Identifies that failing to define the categories in the caption, forcing references to the main text, violates the guideline that the figure must be interpretable on its own.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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