1. Understanding APA Editorial Style For Students in Social Work Courses Part I Prepared by: BJ Bryson, PhD James Madison University

2. Introduction Understanding APA Editorial Style is a three part series designed to introduce key components If you are in SOWK 288, you are required to review each segment and take the short test on the course web page (Blackboard) after viewing all sections

3. Learning Objectives To introduce students in social work courses to the primary scholarly manuscript style of professional social workers To provide basic information about the American Psychological Association (APA) Manual Editorial Style including its underlying assumptions

4. Other resources are provided throughout each section. You may want to pick up the APA Style Resource Sheet at the CISAT or Carrier Libraries.

5. Disclaimer These presentations are not designed to replace the American Psychological Association Manual (5 th edition) Ultimately every writer is responsible for ensuring that their document (paper) has met the APA editorial style standards Document, manuscript, paper are interchangeable in these presentation

6. This presentation includes Why JMU Social Work Department Uses APA Style? Who uses APA Style? Ethics of Writing Introduction to APA Style What is APA Style?

7. Why the JMU Social Work Department Uses APA Style? As a matter of professional development social work students need to develop a respect for written communication and the process of presenting their work. We seek to develop solid practitioners and scholars

8. A scholar is a learned person who by long study has gained mastery In the case of students you are striving to gain knowledge and become a scholar. This is demonstrated in part by learning a professional presentation style. In social work that is the APA editorial style

9. Who uses APA Style? Psychology Sociology Business Economics Nursing Criminology Social Work

10. Ethics of Writing There are three components of ethical writing covered in this presentation  NASW Code of Ethics as the professional standard  JMU Honor Code as the JMU student ethical standard  APA Style editorial standards

11. Ethics of Writing The Social Work Code of Ethics provides principles and standards for ethical behavior and is the foundation for all professional actions You can find the NASW Code of Ethics on the NASW webpage, in many social work text books and in the Encyclopedia of Social in the JMU libraries Accepted social work students agree to these standards and should be familiar with the Code Students from other majors taking social work courses will need to be familiar with the Code Other professional programs/majors may also have ethical standards

12. JMU Honor Code “In a university community, there can be no doubt that honor and the pursuit of knowledge are inexorably intertwined.” Upon admission each student is automatically subject to the provisions of the Honor System and has a duty to become familiar with the Honor Code and its provisions.

13. JMU Honor Code continued “Each examination, paper and other written or electronically submitted assignment is submitted pursuant to the Honor Code..” with the following pledge signed by students submitting assignments: “This work complies with the JMU Honor Code”

14. JMU Honor Code continued For a complete understanding of the JMU Honor Code read http://www.jmu.edu/honor/printcode.html As a JMU student, regardless of major, you are responsible for knowing this information

15. APA Style Ethics There are many ethical aspects of the APA Style. Only a few are highlighted here.  Scholarly writing is a combination of original efforts (your interpretations, conclusions or assumptions in writing) and uses the work of others giving credit for their ideas, concepts or direct words.  Not to give credit for the work of other writers is a serious offense  Authorship is directly related to individuals who complete work towards development of the manuscript (paper)

16. Introduction to APA Style Academic writing assignments require you to gather, evaluate and use the work of others. Many SW classes require you to write your papers in APA style because the APA Style Manual establishes consistent and concise rules and standards to use in written communication. Academic communication is often a balance between the presentation of your original ideas, representation of information gained from other sources and the integration of both.

17. APA is not a style of writing, but an editorial style applied to your writing. There are many other editorial styles such as MLA Citation Style from your English courses Chicago Style used by other professions Each of these have different resource and reference materials

18. When you draw upon the work of others, you must give proper credit. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism (the failure to give credit, usually through citations, of another author’s exact words, ideas or concepts) and subject to the JMU Honor Code. Within the Department of Social Work a professor my give a grade of “F” for the assignment or the course for plagiarism.

19. Direct quotes, summarizing, or paraphrasing the work of others requires you to give credit to the original author You must also give credit to the ideas of others even when not a direct quote

20. A good rule If you borrow information or ideas from other authors, give credit with a citation in the text and on the reference page

21. What is APA Style? APA is an editorial style consisting of rules and guidelines to ensure clear and consistent presentation of written materials. These cover  Removing Bias in Writing  Punctuation and abbreviations  Construction of tables  Selection of headings  Citation of references  Presentation of statistics  Elements for writing

22. Quick Reference A Quick Reference Sheet is available from the CISAT or Carrier Libraries that provide examples on basic citation information for in-text and reference page citations. Go to the presentation “APA References at a Glance” for more suggestions

23. Moving to Part II If you are in SW 288 Wait until you complete all three sections before taking the test on Blackboard Feel free to review any portion of this presentation or move to Part II

24. The End of Part I