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. 

Recommended Read: Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience

A book I reviewed about five years ago, Michael S. Gazzaniga, PhD's Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience, always ends back up on my mind when I teach adolescent development. I thought today would be a good day to share my old post on it and encourage you all to take some time to pick it up. 

The blurb I have up in the post: 

Dr. Gazzaniga, the father of cognitive neuroscience, tells his tale in this book. In 1960's, he begins his work on split-brain patients to figure out what happens when the two sides of the brain aren't directly connected. His findings, and his subsequent researched, changed how we understand the brain works. He enumerates his esteemed colleagues, and makes no bones about his conservative leanings and his friendship with William S. Buckley, Jr. He takes us through his journey as a scientist, and while doing this makes us all a little bit smarter and a little more human.

Blog post here.

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.

This American Life: No Fair!

In moral development, we distinguish between moral realism and morality of cooperation, and how these manifest across development.

This American Life's No Fair! is a great episode, but it's the Prologue that is worth listening to in relation to these concepts.

This American Life: Where There Is a Will

This episode of This American Life, "Where There Is a Will," contains a fantastic conversation about free will in Act Two. They interview Dr. Robert Sapolsky, who wrote Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, which is on my bookshelf and an incredible read in understanding the neuroscience behind our behavior and choices. For those who work with adolescents, it's a strong read in understanding what you may believe is the irrationality of teenagers and their poor decision making, but is really a function of their neurology. 

And their lack of free will, which is open to debate after listening to this episode and reading this book. 

Book Review -- Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data

It's hard to find statistics books that are layman-friendly; most are written for an audience of statisticians, even if the goal was to write one for the masses. I loved Charles Wheelan's Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data as one that makes how to read data understandable and clear. It's also an interesting read, full of anecdotes and explanations of how to understand the basics. I highly recommend!