Читать книгу An EasyGuide to APA Style - Regan A. R. Gurung - Страница 7

• Preface •

Traveling to a new place can be exciting, but going anywhere for the first time always has its challenges. Whether a new city, a new school, or a new job, it takes time to learn the ins and outs of the place, its rules and customs. It is a similar process learning to write in American Psychological Association (APA) Style—that is, learning when to use italics, capitalization rules, and abbreviations; how to treat numbers; what citations and references should look like; how to set margins; and what headings, tables, and figures should look like as required by APA format. At first blush, APA Style is almost like a foreign language with its own syntax and grammar, and the manual with all its rules can be as tricky as a labyrinth for any newcomer to navigate. Rules for that foreign language (think syntax, perhaps?) changed a bit with the release of the seventh edition of the APA Publication Manual (hereafter PM; APA, 2020). With this EasyGuide in hand, you take a great step toward simplifying the process of learning how to write papers in APA Style. We will help you through the maze of rules, including the changes to those rules for those who used the earlier sixth edition (APA, 2010), and you may even have (some) fun along the way.

Over the years, we have witnessed the many problems our students have when confronting the numerous details involved in creating APA research papers, term papers, or lab reports. We see the frustration our students feel when trying to find the information they need in the PM amid the voluminous details that primarily apply to faculty members or graduate students submitting manuscripts for publication. Of course, there is also the problem of unlearning APA Style with the seventh edition, which includes some significant changes in some of the well-known formatting rules. Some of us who have lived with the sixth edition for about 10 years now need an EasyGuide more than ever. If your needs are similar to our students’ needs (i.e., writing papers for class), if you need to learn about the changes in APA Style based on the seventh edition of the PM, or even if you are preparing a traditional manuscript for publication, this EasyGuide will serve you well. As we noted in past editions of this EasyGuide, it is possible that if you are in need of a way to cite and report a rare type of reference or an uncommon ordinal scale statistic, then you may also need to also consult the PM.

Our Reader-Friendly Approach

We decided to present the essentials of APA Style using a conversational tone in hopes of making this book and the task of learning how to write more enjoyable. We need to state up front that although we address the details of writing papers in APA Style and format, there are places all over this book where we do not use APA Style and format. For example, because this book conforms to the publisher’s design, you will not see double-spaced lines with 1-inch margins, and you will notice, for example, that the opening paragraph of each chapter and the first paragraph following a Level 1 heading are not indented. We also flex our funny bones (or muscles) when appropriate. (Well, we think we’re funny anyway.) We intend for this to make for easier reading, but note that it is not APA Style. And you will notice the latest edition of the EasyGuide is once again spiral bound to provide easy access to all the information as it lies flat on the desk next to you while you work.

We included some sample papers to illustrate where all the basic rules pertain to writing. We believe by using the sample papers, you will be less likely to overlook the different aspects of APA Style commonly omitted when first learning this type of writing. We also believe that reviewing the most common errors that we have seen over the years (Chapter 20) will help you focus on the content of your writing rather than the minutiae of APA Style and format. The visual table of contents (Chapter 2) and the visual illustrations in the sample paper (Chapter 21) are unique, illustrating the details not to forget and where in the paper these details apply.

How to Use This Book

In this EasyGuide, we have eliminated the search for the basics that can be somewhat time consuming and confusing. We believe that using this book will save you a significant amount of time, allowing you to focus on writing your paper rather than searching for what you need to know about presenting it in APA Style. Here, you will be able to easily find the information you need, with examples presented visually as well as in the text. We illustrate not only how to write using APA Style but also what APA Style really looks like when your paper is complete. The sample paper used in the visual table of contents (Chapter 2) lets you see within an actual paper the details you will need to consider when writing in APA Style, and the sample indicates where in this book you can find the information needed to learn those details. In addition, that same sample paper is included in Chapter 21, where you’ll see the research paper with the details accentuated, this time with the style and format details explained.

Although we organized the EasyGuide in a way that will help you learn the basics in an order we believe makes sense, it is important to remember that each chapter stands alone, and you can choose to read the book in whatever order suits your needs best. This may not be the type of book you read cover to cover but, rather, one you keep next to you as a reference source while writing APA-Style papers throughout your undergraduate career.

We end the book with a chapter that reviews the most common mistakes we see students make when first learning APA Style. You can test your knowledge by trying to answer the multiple-choice questions on those common mistakes. We also include a sample paper (with APA errors purposely embedded) so you can test your knowledge. After you have read the book and when you want to make sure you are comfortable writing without constantly reaching for the guide, test yourself using the error-filled paper and see if you can find the errors. After all, it is hard to know what you need to know if you do not know what you know or if what you know is right—a little metacognitive self-test as it were. Up for the challenge? Go ahead. Also, to encourage you to use this book while writing and in hopes of making the writing process easier for you, a lay-flat spine was purposely used—have this book open next to you while working on your laptop or desktop. Trying to figure out how to format something in Microsoft Word—that’s what the screenshots are for in Chapter 16. It is what the EasyGuide is all about—use this book!

Acknowledgments

A number of individuals made valuable contributions during the development, writing, and editing of this book. We appreciate the learned expertise of our colleagues who helped us shape this book at all steps along the way:

 Brian A. Johnson, The University of Tennessee–Martin

 Dennis J. Kirchen, Dominican University

 Jennifer E. Lape, Chatham University

 Stephen Linenberger, Bellevue University

 Teresa Martinelli, University of La Verne

 Carole A. Pepa, Valparaiso University

When working on any manuscript, family support is crucial, and we all thank our families for helping us maintain our sanity in the midst of deadlines, rewrites, e-mails, and other responsibilities in our lives. Finally, we thank all the students (past, present, and future) who learn to write in APA Style and format. The idea for this book came about as we struggled to teach what some consider a foreign language without an appropriate student-friendly resource. Our colleagues in each of our home departments and in the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (www.teachpsych.org) supported us as we worked to create this resource; we are grateful for their support. We hope this EasyGuide minimizes or eliminates struggles for faculty and students.

Now, a message from the SAGE Legal Department. In a few chapters of this book, we include screenshots of Microsoft Word 2016 so we can show you what to do, in addition to telling you how to do it. Protecting intellectual property rights is important, and failure to do so is akin to plagiarism. So be sure to remember the following:

This book includes screenshots of Microsoft Word 2016 to illustrate the methods and procedures described in this book. Microsoft Word 2016 is a product of the Microsoft Corporation.

We invite you to share the wisdom of your experience with us. We welcome your suggestions for how to make learning APA Style even easier, and we welcome your comments as well as suggestions for the fourth edition of this book. Feel free to e-mail any of us: Beth (bschwartz@endicott.edu), Eric (elandru@boisestate.edu), or Regan (regan.gurung@oregonstate.edu).