APA Style Notes -- 7th Edition

Since APA style has been updated to the 7th edition, a few things in my earlier blog post have changed. I have copied it over here and made the changes!

This is a quick tip sheet on what I am looking for regarding APA style for your papers. 

The first thing, and most important thing, that I care about is your references. Make sure all of the references in your literature review are in your references list at the end of your paper. Never list a reference you haven't pulled, made sure is accurately represented in your paper, and is in your references list. 

There is no things as citing too much. If you are using someone else's idea, cite cite cite. Even if it feels like you are citing every sentence. You probably are, and that's OK. 

IN-TEXT CITATIONS 

In-text citations should read in one of two ways. If you are introducing the author in the body of the sentence, it should read something like this: 

• Lorenzetti (2019) states that.... (for one author)
• Lorenzetti and Tillman (2019) state that... (for two authors -- be sure to use the word and as opposed to an ampersand [&])
• Lorenzetti et al. (2019) state that... (for more than two authors)

[Side note: "et al." is Latin for "and others." Think of it as, "and friends."]

If you are putting the reference at the end of the sentence, it looks like this, with the period coming after the parentheses: 

• Because I said so (Lorenzetti, 2019). (for one author)
• Because we said so (Lorenzetti & Tillman, 2019). (for two authors -- note the ampersand [&])
• Because we said so (Lorenzetti et al., 2019). (for more than two authors)

REFERENCES PAGE

All of your references should be uniform, with a hanging indent. They should read like this (but with a hanging indent, which is hard to do on a blog):

Last name, first initials with a space between each letter (year of publication). Title of article with only first letter capitalized: Subtitle of article with only first letter capitalized. Journal Name in Italics with All Words Capitalized, Volume(Issue -- non-italicized with no space between volume # and start of parentheses), encompassing page numbers with numbers only.

Lorenzetti, N. L. (2019). One-hit wonder: This is the best article you will ever read. Journal of Awesome Articles, 86(2), 332-335.

Lorenzetti, N. L., & Tillman, W. A. (2019). (For more than one author -- make sure that you put a comma after the first author even if there are only two authors. Use the ampersand here.)

QUOTES 

Avoid quoting when possible. You should only quote when you absolutely cannot put it in your own words. My rule of thumb is no more than one quote for every three pages of (double spaced) writing. Otherwise, it's not your work, but rather a copy-and-paste job. 

If you do choose to quote, you will need to edit your citations: 

If you start your sentence with referencing the authors, you will just need to end your sentence with the page number of the quote: Lorenzetti (2019) states that "chocolate chip cookies are the best" (p. 3). Note that the parentheses with the page number goes outside of the quotation marks and the period goes at the end of the parentheses.

If your reference is at the end of the sentence, your will add your page number to the end of the parentheses: "Chocolate chip cookies are the best" (Lorenzetti, 2019, p. 3). Note that the parentheses with the citation goes outside of the quotation marks and the period goes at the end of the parentheses.

OTHER NOTES 

If you are submitting your work to me electronically, please make sure your name is on the document, not just in the email you send me.

No footnotes or endnotes.

Review some of the Paper Writing Tips I have on the blog -- you will find them helpful. 

Lit Review Process

This is the literature review writing process that I recommend. Not every professor everywhere will use the same recommended process; this is, however, what I recommend to my students. I've found that if you don't walk away from your literature review and you use it as the basis for your writing, you are more likely to come out with a running list of article summaries rather than a coherent argument that you have written using the sources to back up and for context. 

Some Thoughts on "Irregardless"

Hey there kiddos, buckle up. We need to talk.

Many of you shared this image this week with woe and sadness. But there's a big problem with this. Some of y'all really don't understand the deep intricacies of language evolution and it shows.

Language, and therefore grammar, are not static. They are the very foundation of culture, which in itself it's static, but rather is a dynamic societal blueprint that pass on to others to explain how we live. By definition, dynamic means changing, and culture changes. Culture shapes us, and we shape our culture. Culture can be as macro as "western culture" or as micro as the culture of your immediate family (the microsystem, if you will). Therefore, language, as the foundation of culture, *changes as we change it*.

The idea that language and grammar are static and there is a "right" way and a "wrong" way are part of white supremacist culture. I'm not kidding. You can read about it yourself. This is a good resource: https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness. There is a great infographic on there that you can use for more in-depth research.

So before you start in on your, "I'm a grammar nut" (and do not EVEN use the word that evokes images of the Holocaust in that phrase), consider whether or not you are trying to be a more inclusive, anti-racist ally or comrade in arms. If you are, spend some time really sitting on this and recognizing that the push for "correct" and "incorrect" is not just making you complicit in racism and anti-Blackness, but it's also upholding whiteness as an ideal and therefore part of white supremacy culture.

Do not @ me unless you have done the work to be able to support you answers with evidence. Embodied experience with evidence, my friends.

APA Style Notes

This is a quick tip sheet on what I am looking for regarding APA style for your papers. 

The first thing, and most important thing, that I care about is your references. Make sure all of the references in your literature review are in your references list at the end of your paper. Never list a reference you haven't pulled, made sure is accurately represented in your paper, and is in your references list. 

There is no things as citing too much. If you are using someone else's idea, cite cite cite. Even if it feels like you are citing every sentence. You probably are, and that's OK. 

IN-TEXT CITATIONS 

In-text citations should read in one of two ways. If you are introducing the author in the body of the sentence, it should read something like this: 

• Lorenzetti (2019) states that.... (for one author)
• Lorenzetti and Tillman (2019) state that... (for two authors -- be sure to use the word and as opposed to an ampersand [&])
• Lorenzetti, Tillman, and Palmer (2019) state that... (for three to four authors)
• Lorenzetti et al. (2019) state that... (for five or more authors ONLY)

If you are putting the reference at the end of the sentence, it looks like this, with the period coming after the parentheses: 

• Because I said so (Lorenzetti, 2019). (for one author)
• Because we said so (Lorenzetti & Tillman, 2019). (for two authors -- note the ampersand [&])
• Because we said so (Lorenzetti, Tillman, & Palmer, 2019). (for three to four authors)
• Because we said so (Lorenzetti et al., 2019). (for five or more authors ONLY)

REFERENCES PAGE

All of your references should be uniform, with a hanging indent. They should read like this (but with a hanging indent, which is hard to do on a blog):

Last name, first initials with a space between each letter (year of publication). Title of article with only first letter capitalized: Subtitle of article with only first letter capitalized. Journal Name in Italics with All Words Capitalized, Volume(Issue -- non-italicized with no space between volume # and start of parentheses), encompassing page numbers with numbers only.

Lorenzetti, N. L. (2019). One-hit wonder: This is the best article you will ever read. Journal of Awesome Articles, 86(2), 332-335.

Lorenzetti, N. L., & Tillman, W. A. (2019). (For more than one author -- make sure that you put a comma after the first author even if there are only two authors. Use the ampersand here.)

QUOTES 

Avoid quoting when possible. You should only quote when you absolutely cannot put it in your own words. My rule of thumb is no more than one quote for every three pages of (double spaced) writing. Otherwise, it's not your work, but rather a copy-and-paste job. 

If you do choose to quote, you will need to edit your citations: 

If you start your sentence with referencing the authors, you will just need to end your sentence with the page number of the quote: Lorenzetti (2019) states that "chocolate chip cookies are the best" (p. 3). Note that the parentheses with the page number goes outside of the quotation marks and the period goes at the end of the parentheses.

If your reference is at the end of the sentence, your will add your page number to the end of the parentheses: "Chocolate chip cookies are the best" (Lorenzetti, 2019, p. 3). Note that the parentheses with the citation goes outside of the quotation marks and the period goes at the end of the parentheses.

OTHER NOTES 

If you are submitting your work to me electronically, please make sure your name is on the document, not just in the email you send me.

No footnotes or endnotes.

Review some of the Paper Writing Tips I have on the blog -- you will find them helpful. 

How to Read an Academic Paper for Class

I'm going to take some time to touch base on how to read an academic article. Please note that these tips are specific to my courses; if you are reading this blog post from another course or another institution, your professor may have other thoughts as to what they would like you to glean from the readings they assign. 

This is specifically aimed toward reading empirical studies, which are studies that have a Method section and a results section that examine data quantitatively, or using statistics. Qualitative studies (that is, descriptive studies) and white papers (which are laying out a theory as opposed to presenting data) are different and are, in my opinion, a little bit easier to read for the non-statistician. 

One of the many reasons why I prefer for you to read articles instead of textbooks is that I want you to see what's happening out in the world and relate that to your own experience. This being said, the most important parts of the article for my theory courses (research courses are a different story!) are the literature review and the discussion section. 

The abstract is a quick summary of the article -- since you will be reading the article anyway, this is something you can skip for the time being. 

I suggest you start with the literature review. The purpose of the lit review is to summarize what has already been done in relation to the theme, research question, and hypothesis of the article. Hopefully the authors have done a good job of capturing the big themes and the relevant research. Underline words you don't know -- this is completely normal. Unless you are a wizard in academia, these articles will use words that you are unfamiliar with. Don't beat yourself up if you have a hard time understanding a sentence or two -- make a mark next to it, keep reading, and see if you can grasp the meaning from context clues. 

Remember -- you can always ask in class what something means. If you didn't understand it, chances are very high that other people didn't understand it as well. This is a learning process, and there is no shame in your not-knowing game. 

The end of the lit review should contain the research questions for the study (which the lit review justifies) and the hypotheses, which should be directly related to those research questions. 

Next, in the Method section, see if you can get an idea of who the sample was -- age range, sex and/or gender, location of the sample, racial and/or ethnic breakdown. You don't need to memorize this, but it's a good thing to put in the back of your head as you try to get a good idea of what the results of the study mean. If you'd like to read through the measures described in the Method section, go for it! Again, though, don't beat yourself up if you start to find this section confusing. 

The Results section is going to be the hardest to read. You are most likely not a statistician, and the description of the tests and the outcomes might be on the difficult side. This is something that you may very well want to gloss over and head on down to the Discussion section. 

The Discussion section begins with a one paragraph overview of the study. This is a great reminder of what it is the authors were looking for in the first place. Following this will be an overview of the results. It won't be nearly as technical as the Results section, which also means you won't have as much detail. However, for the non-statistician, it's much more clear to read. Also in this area you will have some interpretation of the results, put into the context of the lit review at the beginning of the paper. This section is important to read.

At the end of it is often (but not always!) a conclusion section. This comes after the limitations (there are always limitations to a study -- no study is perfect) and the future directions (because we always have more to learn!). This is a great place to be reminded about everything you just read put into one succinct paragraph. 

Professor Lorenzetti's Paper Writing Tips

It's time for you to turn in your paper, isn't it? I have a few helpful hints below to help you maximize your time and your grade.

• A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. If you wait until the last minute to ask questions or otherwise contact me for help, I may not be available. Plan, plan, plan. 

• Always double space and use Times New Roman, 12 point font. This is not new. You know this.

• CITE CITE CITE CITE CITE. When in doubt, cite. If you present any ideas in your paper without citing them, you are presenting them as your own and that is plagiarism. You may be putting a citation in after every single sentence in your literature review. That is ok, and that is a good thing. 

• Beware of overusing quotes! As a general rule, the number of quotes in any paper should be no more than one quote per page, and even that is pushing it. If you have too many quotes, then you aren't writing the paper -- other people are. Please see the video from the Colbert Report below. Don't be Melania!

•  APA Style is non-negotiable. I have provided you with a handy sheet detailing how to write a paper. For reflection papers, no cover sheet is needed. However, a reference page is always required. Google Scholar will provide you with proper APA citation for your reference page, and you should always cite others' work after the sentence that holds it. For example, Professor Lorenzetti wrote in a previous blog post that she loves cheese puffs (Lorenzetti, 2016). In the event you quote someone, you also must put the page number. For example, in her published manifesto, Professor Lorenzetti expressed, "Cats are the best pets ever" (Lorenzetti, 2016, p. 6).

• Google Scholar is your friend. Use it. Live it. Love it.

• Don't assume that I am a mind reader. Everything in your paper should be explicitly laid out -- do not assume that everything is known or a given. Be clear, and always connect your observations to the theory when writing reflection papers.

• Spell check! Read for run-on sentences! Check for grammar!

• If your paper is due electronically, do not wait until 11:59 PM for a 12 AM deadline. If the server holds your paper up, it's still late.