1. Thesis statements, the writing process, and APA Citations
CM 220 Unit 4 Seminar
Thesis statements, the writing process,
and APA Citations

2. Unit 4 discussion Create and analyze a reference using the APA style.
Refer to the readings and Writing Center library (Research, APA, & Plagiarism) for assistance OR
Consult an APA manual (if you have one) or go to APA.org
STEP 1: Choose one of the references you have found on your topic and describe what type of source it is (for example, a book, an article in a magazine or newspaper, a journal article etc.).  Knowing what type of source you have is an important part of properly citing that source!

3. Unit 4 discussion
Step 2: Create a proper, full citation for your References page.  Be sure to pay close attention to spacing and punctuation. While you cannot indent in the discussion board posts, you can now italicize! Step 3: Write a sentence (or more) using that same reference with an in- text citation.  You may paraphrase or use a direct quote, but again, be sure to pay close attention to spacing and punctuation and do not plagiarize the source! Step 4: Discuss why you used this particular format and why you believe it is correct. Mention any resources that were helpful to you in constructing the citation.

4. Unit 4 Discussion Response
Step 5: Review your classmates' posts.  Do they appear correct?  Are there any problems with the format they used?  What about punctuation?  Provide a thoughtful response for ONE classmate that will help him or her more clearly understand the APA Style of citation ( words).
You may want to consult a citation tool like bibme.org to see if your classmate’s citation is similar to the format provided by the generator. Also, for articles available in the Kaplan library, compare the citation to the one provided in the database.

5. Unit 4 discussion post example
1: I found an article from a newspaper in the Newspaper source database of the Kaplan library.
2. Doe, J. (2008, May 17). What are those ingredients? New York Times. Retrieved from
3. While preservatives increase the shelf life of food and allow consumers to eat out-of-season fruits and vegetables, experts like Dr. Smith worry that these chemicals are contributing to the rising obesity rate (Doe, 2008).  4. I looked up how to cite a newspaper article in the Writing Center library; the reading was titled “Basic Guidelines for APA, 6th Edition.” Since we were still using the 5th edition when I took CM 107, I did notice few changes. The first part of the citation is the same: start with the author's last name (followed by a comma), first initial (with a period), then the year, month, and date published (followed by a period). APA 6th edition uses 2 spaces after each period instead of one. Next comes the article title with only the first word capitalized (followed by a period), then the newspaper name, italicized. The retrieval information is a bit different in 6th edition; no date is given, and the library URL is used if no DOI (digital object identifier) is available.

6. Unit 4 project Due on Tuesday (last day of unit 4) 100 points
Include your revised persuasive thesis statement
Describe at least 3 main points that you plan to include in your draft
Discuss at least one potential objection to your argument and how you will address it
Provide APA reference page citations for two sources and a short description/discussion of those two sources
See the samples posted in unit 4 and Doc Sharing

7. Persuasive thesis statements—what should they do?
Take on a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree
Deal with a subject that can be adequately treated given the nature of the assignment
Express one main idea
Assert your conclusion(s) about a subject—take a position!
Use words like “because,” “since,” “therefore,” etc. to show relationships between ideas.

8. Example
Weak: Adoption is a very serious issue, so people who decide to give up a child or adopt a child need to think about it carefully.
Better: The United States needs to create national adoption laws because this will ensure that biological and adoptive parents as well as adopted children are clear about their rights.

9. Three possible points
Since states currently have different laws, parents may be confused about what their rights are and whether the law holds for the state where the adoptive or biological parents live.
National laws concerning the rights of adopted children to find biological parents would also be helpful.
International adoptions would have to abide by specific, national American laws as well.

10. Opposition points and issues to consider
Shouldn’t states have the right to set up their own adoption laws, as they currently do?
Who would decide what the national laws should be?
Would the laws favor biological or adoptive parents? For example, states like Florida have very short periods for biological parents to change their minds about the adoption, while other states have a period of several months.
What about issues like single-parent adoption or same- sex couple adoption?

11. Source
Arkansas adopts ban on adoption, foster care by unmarried couples. (2008, November 12). Education Week, 5, Retrieved November 4, 2009, from Academic Search Premier. This article demonstrates how different states have developed specific laws concerning who can (and cannot) adopt. National guidelines outlining who could adopt would help to reduce confusion. What if an unmarried couple from California wanted to adopt a child from Arkansas? Would the Arkansas law apply, or the California law? National laws would make cross- state adoptions less complicated, and it would also ensure that more conservative states did not adopt such stringent guidelines that orphans could not get adopted.

12. What is APA?
American Psychological Association: Standard for writing that is widely used by writers in the social sciences, education, business and psychology.
Most Kaplan courses require it.
Guides the layout of the document
Requires parenthetical citations in the body of the essay
Uses a reference page with full citations for each source cited in-text
Exception: interviews or other personal communications that cannot be retrieved are only cited in-text

13. New edition—number 6--has some slight differences from the 5th edition
Changes in 6th edition
New edition—number 6--has some slight differences from the 5th edition
The Writing Center has posted new documents that reflect these changes
Main changes
DOI
Spacing after periods (2 instead of 1)
Title page

14. Why do I need to cite my sources?
Enhance credibility
Provide proper credit to your sources
Give reader necessary information to find sources and do further research
Remember, citing is only one piece of the “avoiding plagiarism” puzzle. More on how to paraphrase and quote, the other elements of avoiding plagiarism, next week!

15. Document formatting and title page
Title page: include title of project, author, institution, course, instructor, and due date
Double-space and center information on title page
Include header and page number in upper right-hand corner
Document should be in 12 pt. font, double-spaced, header/page number on each page, first line of each paragraph indented one tab space. Use left justification. Put title on first line of page 2.

16. 6th edition: Title page/header
Running head will go in the header section. The newly formatted title page would look like this:
Running head: LEGALIZING MARIJUANA
Legalizing Marijuana
Kate Smith
Kaplan University CM
Professor Thompson
April 14, 2010

17. In-text (parenthetical) citations
Requires two or three pieces of information:
Author’s last name
Year
Page or paragraph number (required for direct quotes only)
(Thompson, 2007)
(Thompson, 2007, p. 345) OR (Thompson, 2007, ¶ 4)
A survey by the Census Bureau indicates that half of American households have a computer (Thompson, 2007).
According to Thompson (2007), “50 percent of the population have computers” (p. 345).

18. 6th edition: In-text citations for web sites
Provide more information about location of quotes in in-text citations
For example: (Smith, 2009, Discussion Section, para. 5)—get reader to relevant area of source more quickly

19. Reference page formatting
Start on a new page, titled Reference(s), centered in upper- and lowercase letters.
Include a page header and page number in the upper right-hand corner.
Alphabetize by author’s last name.
Double-space throughout.
Use a hanging indent (1st line of each entry flush left, indent subsequent lines 5-7 spaces).
Match with in-text citations.
Italicize titles of books and periodicals.

20. APA reference page formatting
Roll the credits 5
References
About APA style. (2006). Retrieved from
Landau, J., Druen, P., & Arcuri, J. (2002). Methods for helping students avoid plagiarism. Teaching of Psychology, 29(2), Retrieved from
Segal, C. (2006). Copy this. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(4), Retrieved from
What you need to know about plagiarism. (2006). Retrieved from
Villano, M. (2006). Taking the work out of homework. T H E Journal, 33(15), doi:
APA reference page formatting
Start on new page.
Use hanging indents.
Double-space throughout.
Alphabetize by author’s last name (use corporation name or article title if no author is available).
End with DOI or library URL for library sources and URL for web sites.

21. 6th edition: DOI
Use DOI (Digital Object Identifier) instead of retrieval date and database for information obtained electronically (library database, for example) or online
DOI – “a unique alphanumeric string assigned to identify content and provide a persistent link to its location on the internet. The DOI is typically located on the first page of the electronic journal article near the copyright notice. When a DOI is used in your citation, no other retrieval information is needed” (Trexler Library, 2010, p. 3).

22. Common source types Books Journal articles Magazine articles
Newspaper articles
Web sites
Interviews
Speeches
Remember, each source has a specific formatting style!

23. Book with one author
Maslow, A.H. (1974). Toward a psychology of being. Princeton: Van Nostrand.
Author. (Publication year). Title. City of publication: publishing company.

24. Journal article
Miller, W. (1969). Violent crimes in city gangs. Journal of Social Issues, 21(10), 1-28.
Author. (year of publication). Title of article. Journal name, volume #(issue #), page number(s).

25. DOI example for journal article
Old format
Paivio, A. (1975). Perceptual comparisons through the mind's eye. Memory & Cognition, 3(7), Retrieved April 13, 2010, from Academic Search Premier.
New format
Paivio, A. (1975). Perceptual comparisons through the mind's eye. Memory & Cognition, 3(7), doi: /

26. Magazine article
McCurdy, H.G. (1983, June). Brain mechanisms and intelligence. Psychology Today, 46,
Author’s name. (year/month of publication). Article title. Magazine Name, volume #, page number(s).

27. Newspaper article
James, W.R. (1993, November 16). The uninsured and health care. Wall Street Journal, pp. A1, A14. Author’s name. (Publication date). Article title. Newspaper name, page # and section.

28. Internet source
Smith, K. & Jones, M. (2003). Building a better rifle. Retrieved from
Author, A.A., & Author, B.B. (year of publication). Title of page. Retrieved from
No author known:
Raising roofs. (2004). Retrieved from
Move the title in place of the author.