1

Unit 3 Seminar:APA Basic and Reference

Pages

What is APA?2

A format that dictates how a document looks and how sources are credited.Guidelines for creating uniform manuscripts.Rules for punctuation, word choice, and grammar.Rules for font, margins, spacing, and the overall look of the paper.

Why use APA?3

APA guidelines allow writers and readers order within a document.

It is used by professionals in the social sciences and many medical professions.

Focuses attention on who wrote a source and when it was published. Currency becomes an issue for most research as we

want to present the most recent information.Allows writers to use research while offering

the original authors credit.

4

Understand APA basics for giving credit

Using APA to document sources: A source is a person or document from which

you have obtained information you will use for your own writing.

APA format for documentation is widely used by writers in the social sciences, education, business, and psychology.

A way to create uniform manuscripts for publication.

5

Understand the basics

A source is an article, book, or other resource you have used to support you own ideas.

Any idea you get from a source, any idea that is not original to you or from your common knowledge about a topic, belongs to someone else. That “someone else” must receive credit for his or her ideas.

These ideas often are called “intellectual property,” and are considered similar to tangible property.

Paraphrasing and quoting provide two ways of acknowledging source authors.

Failing to give credit to sources is plagiarism.

Choosing Sources6

You can find sources anywhere, but you must determine their credibility.

Credibility can be determined in a number of ways. Look at the following for each source: Currency Original publication and publisher Author and professional or academic credentials Type of source Suffix (if it is a url)

Source Credibility7

Sources can be entertaining, popular, professional, and academic.

You want to focus on professional and academic sources. These include:

Articles from academic databases (ex. Academic Search Premier)

Books and e-books from the KU Library Publications in popular news magazines or newspapers

(ex. Newsweek or The Washington Post) Educational or organizational web sites

What not to use8

Sources that should be avoided and why: Dictionaries: offer basic information that the reader could

find Encyclopedias: offer background that is often easily found Wiki sites: are member run and written and have no level

of editorial review Anyone can post anything at any time. Example: Wikipedia

General web sites: offer information, but it may not be credible, researched, documented, original, or accurate

Popular magazines: offer articles with less research than news sources (ex. Ladies Home Journal, GQ)

Web Site Guide9

Paying attention to the domain suffix can help you determine the credibility of a source.

Basic suffixes and what they mean:Government sites: .gov, .mil, .us,Educational sites: .eduNon-profit organizations: .orgCommercial web sites: .com, .tvNetworks: .net

Web Sites to Avoid10

Be careful of the following types of sites: Personal blogs (web logs) Sites with a number of pop-ups or ads Sites that take you away from their site unexpectedly Sites that do not include the author, date of

publication Sites that are heavily biased or slanted Sites that allow free membership to participants and

do not require log ins for posting or review of material

Creating APA Citations11

Citations are ways to document something Consider parking or traffic violation citations

They document that the driver broke a rule, when it happened, and where

They show the reader where the information came from and are used in the text and on the reference page.

In-text citations are short “keys” to the full citations on the reference page.

Reference page citations include all of the publication information so that readers can access the sources.

Reference Page Citations12

These contain all of the publication information that APA deems necessary.

They are based on the type of document being cited.

To create a solid citation: Determine the type of source you have (ex. Book,

journal article, article from a database) Find the appropriate example citation in the Writing

Center, the APA Quick Reference Guide, or the textbook Fit the source’s information into the sample citation

template

Creating Reference Citations13

Pages 205-206 offer a list of sample citations by type

Choose the citation that best fits your source typeUse the sample citation to format one with the

source’s informationPlace finished citations on the References page in

alphabetical orderDouble space each line, including within the

citationIndent the second and subsequent lines of each

citation on the page

Citation Examples14

A book with two authors:

Wolfinger, D., & Knable, P. (1990). The chronically

unemployed. New York: Berman Press.Article in a scholarly journal with separate

pagination:

Williams, S., & Cohen, L. R. (1984). Child stress in

early learning situations. American Psychologist,

21(10), 1- 28.

The Unit 3 Project

The project will consist of an APA end note citation and annotation for each source. Remember to identify the type of source you are working with prior to working on the citation.

Annotations are short paragraphs written about each source. You will want to discuss the source’s credibility, the key points it makes about the topic, and whether or not it is potentially useful in your paper.

Remember to double space your project and to indent the second and subsequent lines of each end note citation.

15

Looking Ahead16

In Unit 4 we will: Work to create solid thesis statements. Learn about writing modes and how to use them.

What do you notice about this sample?

17

What could we add to this citation?18