1 Unit 3 Seminar: APA Basic and Reference Pages

What is APA? 2 A format that dictates how a document looks and how sources are credited. Stands for American Psychological Association. APA formatting is like suiting your work in a uniform: the only element that stands out is your unique idea and perspective. Rules for punctuation, word choice, and grammar. Rules for font, margins, spacing, and the overall look of the paper.

Why use APA? 3 APA guidelines allow writers and readers order within a document. It is used by professionals in the social sciences and many medical professions. Focuses attention on who wrote a source and when it was published.  Currency becomes an issue for most research as we want to present the most recent information. Allows writers to use research while offering the original authors credit.

4 Understand APA basics for giving credit Using APA to document sources:  A source is a person or document from which you have obtained information you will use for your own writing.  APA format for documentation is widely used by writers in the social sciences, education, business, and psychology.  A way to create uniform manuscripts for publication.

5 Understand the basics A source is an article, book, or other resource you have used to support you own ideas. Any idea you get from a source, any idea that is not original to you or from your common knowledge about a topic, belongs to someone else. That “someone else” must receive credit for his or her ideas. These ideas often are called “intellectual property,” and are considered similar to tangible property. Paraphrasing and quoting provide two ways of acknowledging source authors. Failing to give credit to sources is plagiarism.

Choosing Sources 6 You can find sources anywhere, but you must determine their credibility. Credibility can be determined in a number of ways. Look at the following for each source:  Currency  Original publication and publisher  Author and professional or academic credentials  Type of source

Source Credibility 7 Sources can be entertaining, popular, professional, and academic. You want to focus on professional and academic sources.  These include:  Articles from academic databases (ex. Academic Search Premier)  Books and e-books from the KU Library  Publications in popular news magazines or newspapers (ex. Newsweek or The Washington Post)  Educational or organizational web sites

What not to use 8 Sources that should be avoided and why:  Dictionaries: offer basic information that the reader could find  Encyclopedias: offer background that is often easily found  Wiki sites: are member run and written and have no level of editorial review  Anyone can post anything at any time.  Example: Wikipedia  General web sites: offer information, but it may not be credible, researched, documented, original, or accurate  Popular magazines: offer articles with less research than news sources (ex. Ladies Home Journal, GQ)

Web Site Guide 9 Paying attention to the domain suffix can help you determine the credibility of a source. Basic suffixes and what they mean:  Government sites:.gov,.mil,.us,  Educational sites:.edu  Non-profit organizations:.org  Commercial web sites:.com,.tv  Networks:.net

Web Sites to Avoid 10 Be careful of the following types of sites:  Personal blogs (web logs)  Sites with a number of pop-ups or ads  Sites that take you away from their site unexpectedly  Sites that do not include the author, date of publication  Sites that are heavily biased or slanted  Sites that allow free membership to participants and do not require log ins for posting or review of material

Creating APA Citations 11 Citations are ways to document something Imagine you won a cooking contest to cook with a celebrity chef in your apartment. You would want to brag to your friends exactly who the chef is and when she/he cooked with you when you show off your newly learned skills. When we use the word “cite,” we are talking about stating what source you got your information from in your paper. Citations tell the reader where the information came from and are used in the text and on the reference page. In-text citations are short “clues” to the full citations on the reference page. If we included every piece of information about our article within the paper, it would look ugly and take up too much room. Instead, we have reference pages. Reference page citations include all of the publication information so that readers can access the sources.

Reference Page Citations 12 These contain all of the publication information that APA deems necessary. They are based on the type of document being cited. To create a solid citation:  Determine the type of source you have (ex. Book, journal article, article from a database)  Find the appropriate example citation in the Writing Center, the APA Quick Reference Guide, or the textbook  Fit the source’s information into the sample citation template

Creating Reference Citations 13 Your textbook offers a list of sample citations by type Choose the citation that best fits your source type Use the sample citation to format one with the source’s information Place finished citations on the References page in alphabetical order Double space each line, including within the citation Indent the second and subsequent lines of each citation on the page

Citation Examples 14 A book with two authors: Wolfinger, D., & Knable, P. (1990). The chronically unemployed. New York: Berman Press. Article in a scholarly journal with separate pagination: Williams, S., & Cohen, L. R. (1984). Child stress in early learning situations. American Psychologist, 21(10),

Locating an Article in the Kaplan Library Often, you want to start off with a basic keyword search (one main word from your chosen topic). Your list of approved topics are found in the Final Project Information under Unit 1. You may only select from these topics. Make sure you completed the Kaplan Library Presentation listed under your Course Home. Go to the main page, and under “Quick Links,” select Library. Under “Online Resources,” select “Super Search.” Under “Search for,” enter one or two words related to your topic, and make sure you select in “All Headings.” For example: search for alternative medicine. You will find different sections of sources. Under the third section, Health Source: Consumer, you should see the article entry: Alternative Therapies. ; Pediatrics for Parents ; ; ; The article provides information on the study pertaining to the complementary or... ; Pediatrics for Parents ; 26 ; 5/6 Alternative Therapies. Keep in mind: these entries are not properly formatted in APA style, but just give a quick title and journal name for your ease. 15

Looking Ahead 16 In Unit 4 we will:  Work to create solid thesis statements.  Discuss how we can narrow our search results just by narrowing our thesis statements.  Learn about writing modes and how to use them.