APA style and citations for dummies - Joe Giampalmi 2021
Understanding APA and academic standards
Capitalizing on consistency: APA and the academic classroom
Conforming to standards: APA and the academic environment
In this part …
Discover the storied history of the American Psychological Association (APA) that shaped today’s guidelines for academic writing, research, and documentation in almost every academic field — and resulted in APA becoming the leader among its peers.
Examine grade-influencing differences between APA’s sixth and seventh editions that affect title page design, page layout, citations, and references.
View side-by-side comparison charts of APA and MLA that reveal subtle game-changing differences for students transitioning documentation styles.
Apply lessons from adversity that will help you master APA, improve your writing, and succeed in college.
Read APA and college-adapting advice for nonnative English-speaking students confronted with cultural differences and language-barrier challenges.
Avoid habits highly conducive to plagiarism such as super citations, citation procrastination, and conditional common knowledge — and read a professor’s perspective on plagiarism.
Motivate yourself by visualizing your college graduation day protocol: faculty procession, academic regalia, tassel toss, and “Pomp and Circumstance.”
Chapter 1. Capitalizing on consistency: APA and the academic classroom
In this chapter
Getting to know the APA
Positioning APA among leaders
Crossing the curriculum with APA
Studying English and APA as an add-on language
The hours you commit to studying APA style and citations, working on research and writing, and completing your required readings moves you days closer to achieving your academic goal of earning your college degree.
Congratulations on the academic success you achieved to date and your hard work that positions you toward earning your college degree in the near future. Your degree will change your life and your family’s future, especially if you’re a first-generation college graduate. Your school success has been punctuated with accomplishments and milestones such as the following:
· Navigating your first day of school without your parents
· Reciting the alphabet
· Learning to read and write
· Meeting your first forever best friend
· Experiencing your first love and first heartbreak
You also survived fractions and decimals, school lockers, middle school hallways, social media embarrassment, and getting lost your first day of college classes. Some of you may even have attended the wrong class on the first day of college, but you survived the obstacles.
Today you face another challenge on your educational expedition: studying and implementing a documentation style that credits, formats, and organizes writing projects consistent with standards in your field of study. You (more likely your professor) chose the American Psychological Association (APA) style and citation guide and not Modern Language Association (MLA) or Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) because you’re studying a social science subject such as sociology, political science, anthropology, linguistics, education, business, or communications.
Although MLA and CMoS also offer a high-quality documentation style, APA continues to grow as the documentation style of choice among academic institutions today.
Familiarizing yourself with APA and any documentation style, less challenging than navigating middle school hallways, can cause you some frustration but will eventually hardwire your brain for user-friendly access to standardize, organize, and document your academic papers. And mastering APA will make you feel as proud as surviving AP English.
Consider this chapter your jumping-off point to the APA. Here I explain a brief history of APA, the importance of documentation, and APA’s position among other documentation styles. I also offer advice for non-native language students who face the challenge of APA along with the most challenging skill for the brain — writing in a second language.
Understanding APA and academic standards
APA, the world’s largest association of psychologists, establishes standards for scholarly writing in most of the social and behavioral sciences for academic writing style, citing sources, and formatting documents. More than a hundred years ago, APA established organizational consistency guidelines for professional scholars, undergraduates, and high school students who created papers for scholarly publication and classroom submission. APA’s style and citation guidelines set a standard for writing and reading academic documents as well as helping manage volumes of scholarship for academic writers and readers.
A documentation style, such as APA and MLA, standardizes crediting works of others, citing sources, listing references, and organizing documents from the title page to appendices. A consistent format guides readers through text with visual consistency, logical flow of headings, and systematic organization to retrieve sources on demand. Standardization also reduces bias when sources are presented. Documentation standards are as important as punctuation standards.
Your professor and university have competitive choices for a style and citation guide. They chose the publication manual (Publication Manual of the American Phycological Association, Seventh Edition) that sold millions of copies worldwide in multiple languages. APA’s popularity continues to grow across academic disciplines and universities. In addition to APA’s growth, it’s the only documentation style with its own For Dummies version. What more could you ask for?
The following sections focus on the role of the APA supporting research in the social sciences and beyond. An early internal conflict within the APA resulted in publishing its first style guide. Students today share responsibility to honor those academic standards that were established over a century ago.
The origin and purpose of APA
The American Psychological Association (APA) began with a few dozen psychologists who organized around 1900 for the purpose of promoting scholarship and standards among growing numbers of academicians in the social sciences. Like many groups of academicians passionate about their beliefs, pioneering APA members experienced an intellectual dichotomy between academic diversification and academic standardization. Some members believed APA should expand academic interests into other fields of scholarship beyond the social sciences. Other members believed APA lacked the intellectual maturity to expand and should first develop standards for their specialized interests at the time.
Proponents of standardization emerged, as well as an official seven-page writing and style guide. The purpose of the early style guide was to promote professionalism and help readers manage growing libraries of research materials.
Looking back from today’s perspective, both groups were right. APA expanded academically far beyond the social sciences, and its standards for academic writing, scholarly publishing, and citing sources ranks at the top of the industry.
Standardizing how you handle topics
The APA establishes standards that provide structure and meaning to a research document. Standards identify guidelines that are important and how to achieve them. Lack of standards is like a marching band without marching orders.
APA publishes standards for topics such as
· Academic writing style: Active, direct, and concise writing that communicates clearly and succinctly
· Grammar, mechanics, and conventions: Writing guideposts that help readers smoothly navigate from page to page
· Bias-free language: Language that respects diverse populations
· Citations and references: Conventions of scholarship that credit works of others and expedite searching their sources
· Document organization and formatting: Standards for organizing title pages, text pages, references, and documents
Respecting the academic environment
APA’s respect of scholarship aligns with the academic sanctity of the college classroom. The classroom environment respects scholarship, values sharing of ideas, and welcomes debate based on evidence. APA’s standards of scholarship seamlessly blend with classroom expectations, like sunshine blends with a warm day at the beach.
Learning resembles a participation sport. Your obligation as a student includes dedication to new ideas, commitment to preparing for classes, and an open mind to new learning. Your participation includes attending every class — and mastering APA guidelines.
A recent study showed three habits common to students who achieved success in college and graduated, which the following sections identify in greater detail:
Attending class
During my decades of college teaching, I can’t recall a student who attended every class in a course and earned less than an A for the course. Those students didn’t earn the A because they perfected attendance, but because they perfected learning habits. Regular class attendance creates a learning rhythm of understanding course content and class organization.
When you attend class, you experience regular exposure to APA content such as citing, referencing, formatting, and engaging with sources. You regularly see models of other students’ assignments and hear professors’ comments on work and other students’ questions. In addition to content experiences, you're regularly reminded of deadlines, helpful resources, and adjustments to assignments.
You have immediate access to ask questions before class, during class, and after class. You actively participate in class and absorb instruction that you paid tuition for. Daily class activity is as important as daily physical activity.
Completing assignments
A body of research correlates the quality of your first college writing assignment with graduating from college. You read that correctly. You’re a risk not to graduate if you neglect or fail to submit your first college writing assignment.
Your assignments, mostly writing, show what you learned. They demonstrate your knowledge of content and your knowledge of APA writing, citing, and formatting. College writing assignments can’t be successful if you begin them a day or two before deadline, similar to habits of some high school students. Frequently, a college writing assignment is longer than essays written by some high school students.
To help you complete your assignments, keep the following tips in mind:
· Begin assignments early. Check out Chapter 5.
· Follow APA strategies. Chapter 5 offers some simple strategies.
· Utilize resources available to help you, such as professors’ office hours and your university writing center. Refer to Chapter 20 for more details.
· Read extensive background on topics you’re writing about. Chapters 9 and 18 discuss this topic in greater detail.
Making friends
Don’t underestimate the importance of socializing in college, which can sometimes take two or three semesters to achieve a level of comfort. Feeling uncomfortable the first semester or two isn’t unusual. Give it time. Get involved in college activities, whether you’re a resident or commuter.
Colleges recognize the importance of incoming students assimilating into both the college discourse community and social community. Colleges offer academic, social, and athletic events. Take the initiative to introduce yourself to people. Talk with other students in your classes. Make eye contact as you walk around campus. Some of the people you meet in college will be your lifelong friends. Nerds are popular in college, both academic and social nerds.
APA and other style guides
Early in my college teaching career, my university required teaching MLA for writing courses and teaching APA for business courses. Later in my career, APA became the standard throughout the university. APA continues to trend throughout universities as the five-star writing and citation guide.
Here’s a look at three major documentation styles:
· APA: APA expanded from its initial use as the style and citation guide primarily for psychology and now extends as the standard for sociology, anthropology, political science, geography, history, economics, business, education, communication, nursing, science, and other fields.
· MLA: MLA, founded in the late 1800s as an advocacy organization for scholars in the study of literature and modern languages, publishes its MLA Style Manual for students and professional scholars in the fields of language and literature. The manual sells millions of copies and published its ninth edition in 2021. Similar to APA, MLA survived philosophical disagreements.
· CMoS: The Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS), first published in the early 1900s, offers style and citation guidelines for students, teachers, and librarians. Chicago recently published its 17th edition and is commonly used in publishing. CMoS lacks the extensive academic use of APA and MLA. This For Dummies book uses CMoS.
Other specialized style guides and their primary content area include the following:
· Harvard: Economics
· Vancouver and AMA (American Medical Association): Medicine
· OSCOLA: Law
· IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers): Technical studies and electrical engineering
· ACS (American Chemical Society): Chemistry