My experience with American Psychological Association (APA) style is very limited. I had a long break between my undergraduate degree and the current Masters. Essays were referenced and mostly typed on a typewriter. Certainly, some students had computers however, it wasn’t the norm. While undertaking LDRS617 the professor was very helpful and patient in making comments and corrections to APA style. I find that some rules are not very intuitive so will have to be learned and the quantity is somewhat daunting. It takes an incredible amount of time when new to make sure the correct APA style is exhibited. I am starting at the beginning. Of note is that it isn’t just the visual rules to follow, it is the content rules such as clear and concise writing, acceptable terminology and using the proper tense (Hatala 2015).
Scholarly writing can be important in my leadership context applying the rules I am learning to work documents. Certainly, being clear and concise, using correct terminology and being aware of the proper tense is important. In the pharmaceutical industry, we cannot make claims about our product unless it is in the product monograph, approved by Health Canada. I saw some parallels to the APA ethics rules. There is no place for presenting incorrect data, being rude to individuals who were studied, fabricating data, modifying or eliminating results, having the data available including post marketing surveillance. Two areas that hadn’t been thought of are authorship credit and writers block (Hatala, 2015). I can see how it must become very motivating to keep asking research questions and doing the work to get the answers or results and how the learning can be implemented.
Part 2
APA style is new to me and like most new things they take time when the brain is struggling to go over all the details. There are no shortcuts now other than the most basic visual rules. My initial biggest worry was accidentally plagiarizing so I over reference. I am learning how to give credit to ideas I read about in someone’s paper versus a direct quote according to APA.
Important points in APA writing are being clear and concise including the tense of the writing, avoid wordiness, redundancy, jargon, colloquial expressions, anthropomorphisms and watch the unit length (Hatala 2015). I would have used the past sentence as a paragraph, however it is not advised to have a long one sentence paragraph.
I haven’t formatted a proper APA paper yet, so will practice. Other details of interest were acceptable terminology. Some terms are known such as First Nations in Canada and to have the others Hatala (2015) listed confirmed.
My other observation is that there is no place to have a sense of humor in this type of writing. This is serious writing.
The questions I have for my instructor are; What do you recommend to someone new to APA to ensure that all rules are followed before submitting a paper? How do you reference online content? Do you have to include the name of the speaker? If there are multiple clips from the same presenter on the same topic, how are these differentiated?
References
American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Hatala, M. (2015). Learn APA Style. Writing Clearly & Concisely. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRu1UPPubMY
Photo by Green Cameleon 21532 on Unsplash
I agree with you that LDRS 617 was very helpful. I surprised myself by how much I have learned with regards to APA style in that course. I spent a lot of time at the beginning making corrections, but I actually submitted some compendiums towards the end that needed no corrections at all! I do know that there are many references that don’t fit the “norm” – those are the ones that I will have to go back and read the rules to make sure I am doing it right.
I also find that I am concerned about plagiarizing and sometimes think that I over-reference.
I really liked your parallel to the pharmaceutical industry. I hadn’t really thought of the APA ethics rules in that way, so it actually helped my understanding when you linked the two.
We are from the same generation, so I am starting from the same place that you are. Like our fellow student, it is encouraging and keeps me engaged when I know I am not alone.
I also really appreciated your questions, and look forward to the responses you receive as they will help me as well.
This weekend, I’m trying to make a Thanksgiving dinner for a house full of guests and keep up with my Masters. In the midst of my Thanksgiving/Masters work balance, your comment about this being serious writing without any room for humour, made me smile and laugh out loud! I was thinking the same thing as I’ve been reading through examples of scholarly papers. I think that’s one of the reasons why I struggle with it; just the formality of it. It’s not how I would address a room full of people if I was presenting and sharing data on a topic. I understand the need and the reasons behind the formatting of a scholarly paper, but if given a choice, it would never be my preferred style of communication. It was nice to know that I’m not alone.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I am glad to hear I am not the only one busy with Thanksgiving meal prep and family activities this weekend. I am also glad to hear that I am not the only one who struggles with the rigorous formality of scholarly writing.