When writing an APA-style results section, statistical values can be integrated directly into the narrative sentence or placed within parentheses at the end of a statement, similar to a citation. If there are only a small number of results to report, it is often most efficient to write them out in the text. When a statistic is described in the narrative text, its name is fully spelled out (e.g., mean, standard deviation). Conversely, if the statistic is reported inside parentheses, researchers must use its standard abbreviation or symbol (e.g., $M$, $SD$).