APA style and citations for dummies - Joe Giampalmi 2021

Addressing bias-free writing style and updated mechanics
Updating and debugging: APA seventh edition
Conforming to standards: APA and the academic environment

Disrespect begins with words. The nickname of a National Football League’s team changed in 2020 because the original name was offensive to a specific population of people. Offensive language offends people.

APA has advocated for bias-free language that affects not only the academic world, but also the publishing world and speakers of the English language. With the goal of including all groups of people, APA continues to develop model guidelines that affect people’s writing and speaking. Recognize the importance of bias-free language in your writing and everyday language.

New seventh edition guidelines promoting bias-free language include examples that encourage respectful and inclusive language for references to age, gender and gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity.

In addition, APA stopped a cruise ship on a dime by championing the use of “they” as a singular pronoun when gender is unidentified or irrelevant. This change represents the reversal of a pronoun agreement rule that existed for generations. The change shows that respect for people supersedes respect for rules. See Chapter 6 for additional information and examples.

Additional updates and clarifications to writing style and mechanics include the following:

· Spelling: APA recommends that spelling conform to Merriam-Webster.com. Preferred spellings include email, webpage, and internet.

· Numbers: Preferences for numbering were updated. For example, numbers are now accepted in an abstract. See Chapter 7 for details and examples.

· Examples: Quotation marks are used to identify words used as linguistic examples, replacing italics.

· Lists: Itemized lists are now acceptable as bullets, numbers, or letters. See Chapter 14 for guidelines and examples.

· Proper nouns: Use of proper nouns has been expanded to include selected name titles, diseases, and disorders. See Chapter 7 for guidelines and examples.

· Abbreviations: The new addition has updated guidelines for using abbreviations in parentheses. Details and examples are included in Chapter 7.

· Linguistic examples: Quotation marks replace italics for identifying linguistics examples (for example: My favorite word without a vowel is “nth.”).