APA style and citations for dummies - Joe Giampalmi 2021

Transitioning from the sixth: APA for today
Updating and debugging: APA seventh edition
Conforming to standards: APA and the academic environment

In this chapter

Demystifying seventh edition updates

Beginning anew

Struggling with referencing

Publishing to celebrate

Since its inception in Philadelphia in 1892, a little more than a hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, APA has passed the test of time and established itself as the sultan of citation. Its leadership envisioned the importance of timely updates and the reinforcing of its position as a guide for scholarly writing and reading. The first APA 7-page writer’s guide, published in 1929, evolved into the 427-page seventh edition, which was released in October 2019.

The seventh edition expands on the theme of inclusivity with continued emphasis on bias-free language and technological accommodations. It also represents a coming of age for undergraduate nonprofessional scholars (and high school students) with an introduction to the student title page and expanded advice on a half-dozen essays, reaction papers, précis, and an annotated bibliography — in addition to the traditional research paper.

In this chapter, I trace the transition from the sixth edition to the seventh, explain a major language innovation ensuring gender-neutral usage, and review clarification and standardization of citations and reference entries.

The traditional focus of APA guidelines has been on publication preparation for scholarly articles written by professional scholars. An increasing APA guideline focus in the past two editions has been on student papers. This chapter also offers encouragement and a plan for college students’ publishing.

Transitioning from the sixth: APA for today

A wise scholar once asked, “How do you know how to get there if you don’t know where you came from?” APA arrived at the sixth edition (the second sixth edition) following a detour resulting from the first sixth edition containing misprint errors in examples. A segment of the scholarly community expressed its disapproval in an unscholarly manner.

Citation and documentation represent a complex process. Describing that process in a publication manual requires the skill of a brain surgeon. The sixth edition was followed with guidelines that simplified and standardized citations and references, the most complex features of documentation style. The citation and documentation process is complex and the standards high. The expectation is perfection, although near-perfection is not failure.

The APA manual was originally created as a literacy manual to improve the writing of scholarly documents in the social and behavioral sciences. It developed into a writing manual for professional publication and for assignments submitted in the classroom. The primary audience has been professional scholars writing for advanced degrees and scholarly publication.

The seventh edition encompasses an approximate 33 percent increase in content from the sixth edition. Notable differences in the seventh edition include flexible pronoun agreement, font accommodations, spacing following a period, and a title page for students. Table 2-1 offers a brief comparison of the two editions.

TABLE 2-1 Differences between the sixth and seventh editions