APA style and citations for dummies - Joe Giampalmi 2021

Understanding what makes a college reader
Achieving your personal best: student improvement plan
Earning applause: APA writing for the academic audience

IN THIS CHAPTER

Reading at higher levels

Discovering the “write” way

Planning for future encounters

Studying … together for fun and profit

Up to now, the two major academic skills that have contributed to your school success are reading and writing. They’re the same two skills that will help you to earn your degree, land you a successful job, promote you in your career, provide lifetime enjoyment, increase your income, improve your health, add interest to your social life, and navigate you through daily life.

You’re currently performing one of those skills by reading to derive meaning from a series of lines, curves, and spaces that you translated into complex ideas. The other skill is the reason why you’re reading this book — to write a paper that follows APA style and citations. Reading and writing are complementary skills: Reading improves writing, and writing improves reading. Additionally, by valuing reading and writing, you are also likely to instill that value into your children.

A body of brain research shows that reading and writing improve speaking, listening, spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension of all academic courses and topics. Additional advantages of regular reading and writing include an increase in the following:

· Focus and concentration

· Discipline needed to complete academic projects

· Exposure to new ideas

· Literacy among family members

A successful college education requires an in-depth approach to reading and writing, rather than the surface approach that is common to high school academics.

This chapter guides you through strategies for college-level literacy that meet APA standards. Here I model a plan that prepares you for lifetime literacy. In this chapter, I also reference books for your reading enjoyment. (My success as an author depends on motivating you to read at least one of those books.) Book choices are also adaptable to a college student’s budget, because they’re available for free from college and community libraries.

Here is a trifecta of college success strategies:

· Reading at least 25 pages daily

· Writing a few paragraphs daily, including summarizing class notes

· Creating connections among academic topics in your daily life

Understanding what makes a college reader

High school reading is like going to the movies; college reading is like planning a spring break vacation. Reading requires focus and commitment. You can’t educate yourself without committing to regular reading. Just as college requires upgraded skills for organization, socialization, and technology, it also requires upgraded skills for reading. Prior to college, your reading demands involved summarizing and identifying who and what; now your demands include synthesizing and identifying how and why. Reading books, the signature activity of educated people, represents the brain’s most intensely focused intellectual activity.

Similar to writing, reading development requires daily practice. If you break your reading rhythm, your academic performance declines. Daily practice improves proficiency and develops college and career reading skills.

In addition to your college courses requiring more reading and more complex reading materials, they challenge you to reflect on that reading. Reading without reflecting is like exercising without sweating. College readers show evidence of their reflecting when they speak and write. The academic person you are today is the product of past words you’ve read and heard. The academic person you become in the future will be the product of words you read and hear today and in the future.

Finally, a reader is never bored. You can enjoy reading in a hammock, on a beach, in an airplane, under a tree, on a balcony, beside a rock, waiting for someone — anywhere. You’re the best academic “you” when you are the best reading “you.”

Characteristics of highly proficient college readers include

· Reading everywhere when time is available

· Hanging out in libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops — with a book in hand

· Socializing with friends who are also readers

· Referencing books and authors in class discussions and writing projects

· Coming from a family of readers

· Enjoying the smell and feel of a new hardback book

· Attending author lectures

· Enrolling in reading-concentrated courses

· Demonstrating an extensive spoken vocabulary

· Graduating with honors and a good job

A recent study showed that 72 percent of undergraduates rarely or never completed reading assignments on schedule. If this lack of reading applies to you or if you lack confidence in your reading ability or skills, your academic institution offers trained and patient professionals to help you. Your decision to buy this book shows your determination to improve your academic skills. Take an additional step toward that goal by talking with professionals who can improve your reading.

Read to give your brain a good workout

Is your brain due for a book workout? Don’t lift it; read it. Scientists imaging the brain found that reading enhanced development of the occipital lobe, the part of the brain that processes visual information. Reading was also shown to increase imagination and creativity and to improve decision-making and planning. Imaging also revealed that reading developed the parietal lobe, the part of the brain that translates letters into words and words into thoughts, skills that are relevant to writing. Scientists also learned that reading reduced stress, enhanced social skills, and improved memory.

A recent study showed that students who read self-selected literature for pleasure averaged higher grades in English, mathematics, science, and history than their non-reading peers. That same study reported that many famous celebrities and leaders are also avid readers and that reading for pleasure was a greater academic influence than having a parent with a college degree.