You ran the analysis, the p-value came out significant, and now comes the part nobody teaches: turning numbers into academic prose. This is the stage where statistically sound work still comes back covered in comments — not because of calculation errors, but because of poor wording, off-standard formatting and omitted mandatory information.
The results section has one golden rule that solves half the problems: it presents, it does not interpret. Interpretation, comparison with the literature and causal explanations belong in the discussion. In results you report what the data showed, objectively and completely.
What every inferential result must contain
Whatever the test, five elements are mandatory under contemporary standards:
- The name of the test applied
- The test statistic with degrees of freedom (t, F, U, χ², H)
- The exact p-value, or "< .001" when very small
- An effect size (Cohen's d, η², r, Cramér's V)
- Descriptive statistics for the groups: mean and standard deviation, or median and interquartile range
Item 4 is the most neglected and the most frequently demanded. APA 7 requires effect sizes, and since the American Statistical Association's statement on p-values (2016), reporting significance alone is considered insufficient practice. Effect size answers the question that actually matters: is the effect large enough to have practical relevance? Adding the confidence interval — technically optional but strongly recommended, and required by many journals — raises quality further.
Numeric conventions in APA 7
- No leading zero for quantities that cannot exceed 1: write p = .032, r = .45, R² = .389. This is the single most common APA formatting slip, because statistical software prints 0.032 and the zero is never removed. Note that d and t can exceed 1, so they keep the zero: d = 0.42.
- Two decimal places for means, standard deviations and test statistics. Three for p-values, correlation coefficients and effect sizes.
- Never "p = .000". A p-value is never exactly zero. Use "p < .001".
- Statistical symbols in italics: p, t, F, r, M, SD, n, d, N. Subscripts and test names stay roman.
- Degrees of freedom in parentheses immediately after the statistic: t(48), F(2, 147), χ²(3).
- Commas, not semicolons, separate elements within a statistical string: t(48) = 4.91, p < .001, d = 1.39. APA uses commas throughout, and confidence intervals use a comma between bounds: 95% CI [7.23, 17.25].
- Standard abbreviations: M for mean, SD for standard deviation, Mdn for median, IQR for interquartile range, SE for standard error, CI for confidence interval. Lowercase n for a subgroup, uppercase N for the total sample.
- Spell out numbers below 10 in running text, except when they are statistics, percentages, ages, or precede a unit of measurement: "three groups", but "5 mg" and "8 years".
Sentence templates by test
Independent-samples t-test
If Welch's correction was applied, state it: "Welch's correction was used because of unequal variances (Levene's test, F = 6.12, p = .017)", and the degrees of freedom will be fractional — t(43.7).
Paired-samples t-test
Mann-Whitney U
For non-parametric tests report median and interquartile range, not mean and SD — using the mean here contradicts your own justification for choosing the test.
Wilcoxon signed-rank
One-way ANOVA with post hoc
Always name the post hoc test used, and run it only if the global F is significant.
Kruskal-Wallis
Pearson correlation
Never write that one variable "caused" the other. Use "was associated with", "was related to", "co-varied with".
Spearman correlation
APA prefers rs to the Greek rho for Spearman's coefficient.
Simple linear regression
Use italic capital B for unstandardised coefficients and β only for standardised ones. Software prints unstandardised values by default, so B is usually correct — labelling them β is a frequent error.
Chi-square
APA asks for the sample size inside the parentheses alongside the degrees of freedom for chi-square. If any expected frequency was below 5, report Fisher's exact test and justify the substitution.
Non-significant result
Never write "there was no difference" or "the groups were equal". The correct wording is always "no statistically significant difference was observed". Reporting effect size and power for null results signals rigour.
Table formatting
Every major style guide converges on one essential point: scientific tables have no vertical rules and no full gridlines. Only three horizontal rules — above the header, below the header, and at the foot. Pasting a table from Excel with all its borders is the most immediately visible error a reviewer spots.
- Number and title above the table, left-aligned. In APA 7, "Table 1" in bold on one line, then the title in italic title case on the next.
- Notes below, in smaller type, beginning with "Note." in italics. Explain every abbreviation here, plus the asterisk convention if you use one.
- Every table must be cited in the text before it appears: "as shown in Table 1" or "(see Table 1)". A table never mentioned in the text counts as an error.
- Do not repeat in prose everything the table contains. Highlight only the central findings in the paragraph and refer readers to the table for detail.
- Align numbers on the decimal point and keep the same number of decimals throughout each column.
Figure formatting
- In APA 7, the number and title go above the figure, matching table format, and the note goes below — a change from APA 6, where the caption sat underneath. Other styles still place captions below, so check your target journal.
- 300 dpi minimum. A screenshot of a chart is the leading cause of figure rejection, and it looks visibly jagged in print.
- White background, black text. Dark or coloured backgrounds print badly and raise publication costs. Switch to a light theme before exporting.
- Label both axes with the variable name and its unit of measurement. An unlabelled axis is a basic failure.
- No 3-D charts or decorative effects. They distort the perception of proportion and every style manual discourages them.
- Identify error bars in the note: state whether they represent standard deviation, standard error or a confidence interval — these are different things, and omitting it makes the figure uninterpretable.
- Consider colour-blind readers. Do not rely on colour alone to distinguish series; add patterns, markers or direct labels.
Recommended structure for the results section
- Sample characteristics. Final N, attrition and exclusions with reasons, demographic data. If participants were lost, state how many and why — omitting this raises suspicion of selection bias.
- Assumption checks. Shapiro-Wilk and Levene results, justifying the choice between parametric and non-parametric approaches.
- Descriptive statistics for the main variables, usually in a table.
- Inferential analyses in the order of the specific objectives stated in the introduction. Reviewers check that correspondence.
- Additional or exploratory analyses, clearly labelled as such.
Errors that trigger revisions
- Leading zeros on p, r and R². Run a find-and-replace on the final document — the software prints them and at least one always survives.
- Interpreting in the results section. "This probably occurred because…" belongs in the discussion. In results, only what the data show.
- Omitting effect sizes. Required by APA 7 and increasingly enforced.
- Not stating how many participants were lost.
- Excel tables with all borders.
- Charts with unlabelled axes or coloured backgrounds.
- Reporting four or five decimal places. Spurious precision — two or three suffice and show you understand measurement uncertainty.
- Writing "significant" where you mean "statistically significant". The unqualified word invites the reader to hear "important", which is a different claim.
- A table or figure never cited in the text.
- Not naming the software. State it in the methods: "Analyses were conducted in [software], version X, with an alpha level of .05."
How to state the methods
Generate this automatically
The statistics calculator drafts the paragraph in this format, with effect size and confidence interval, plus the table in editorial format and the figure at 300 dpi on a white background. Just review and adapt.
Open calculatorReferences
- American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).
- Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Erlbaum.
- International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (2024). Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals.
- Modern Language Association. (2021). MLA handbook (9th ed.).
- University of Chicago Press. (2017). The Chicago manual of style (17th ed.).
- Wasserstein, R. L., & Lazar, N. A. (2016). The ASA statement on p-values. The American Statistician, 70(2), 129–133.