A two-way ANOVA gives you three separate results to report, not one: the main effect of Factor A, the main effect of Factor B, and their interaction. Most write-ups miss the interaction term or report it after — instead of before — checking whether it changes how the main effects should be interpreted.
1. Check the interaction first.
If the interaction is significant, the main effects can be misleading on their own (the effect of Factor A depends on the level of Factor B), so report the interaction before either main effect and consider simple-effects follow-up tests rather than trusting the marginal means.
2. APA 7 template for each term:
"A two-way ANOVA was conducted to examine the effects of [Factor A] and [Factor B] on [DV]. There was a statistically significant interaction between [Factor A] and [Factor B], F(df1, df2) = X.XX, p = .0XX, η²p = .XX."
If the interaction is not significant, drop it and report main effects instead:
"There was a statistically significant main effect of [Factor A], F(df1, df2) = X.XX, p = .0XX, η²p = .XX. There was no significant main effect of [Factor B], F(df1, df2) = X.XX, p = .0XX, η²p = .XX."
3. Degrees of freedom. df1 = (levels of factor − 1) for that term (or the product of both, for the interaction); df2 = total N − total number of cells. Get both from your ANOVA table, not just the F-value.
4. Effect size. Partial eta-squared (η²p) is standard for factorial ANOVA. Rough conventions: .01 small, .06 medium, .14 large (Cohen, 1988) — report it, don't just call the result 'significant.'
5. If you need this fast: I built a free two-way ANOVA calculator that runs the test and formats the APA sentence + table for you — statmate.org/calculators/two-way-anova. No signup needed to use it.
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