American Psychological Association (APA)
Antonecia Daley
Orientation to University Life
Bachelors of Science in Business Administration
University of the Common Wealth Caribbean
Mr. Jerry Craig
June 21, 2018
Abstract
In this study, I have investigated the effects of using American Psychological Association and how it fits into the effective writing of an essay.
In using the American Psychological Association (APA) style, this practice is now being used in schools both locally and abroad and there are rules that are developed to assist students in better understanding this style. This format is normally used to cite sources.
The APA format was founded in the year 1982 by a group of around Thirty (30) men. In using APA style, some basic guidelines must be followed, these would include the Running Head, the Abstract, the main body and the Conclusion, and these headers must always be included in making an essay or presentation successful.
Best services for writing your paper according to Trustpilot
The word plagiarism is a word that must be taken into consideration when using APA style. What is plagiarism, what are the advantages and disadvantages of plagiarism.Plagiarism is a very hot topic that we apply in the academic world and other aspects of our everyday lives. It is recommended that we follow the guidelines as it relates to plagiarism.
We will now take a short journey into the lives of American Psychological Association (APA) and the components in avoiding plagiarism.
What is American Psychological Association (APA) Reference Style?
American Psychological Association can be defined as the way you acknowledge sources used in writing, it can also be defined as how you present a statement or quote when using someone else’s ideas, opinions or theory. When using reference style you must always acknowledge your source.
An example of reference style would be: if you plan to use the name of an author(s) in reference writing, then the year of publication, the author(s) last name must be at the end of the sentence, also a summary of the source must be in your own words on a reference page. In using American Reference Style there are several elements of citation. For the purpose of this research the following will be examined: In-text citation, direct quotes, paraphrasing, reference list, website, books, journals and news paper article.
General American Psychological Guidelines
According to The Owl Purdue Online Writing Lab, (1995-2018), “all essay that is being typed and double- spaced should be placed on double sized paper (8.5 x 11″) with 1 inch margins on all sides. You should use a clear font that is highly readable. American Psychological Association recommends 12pt. Times New Roman font. It should also include a page number which is always known as the running head at the top of each page, to also create page numbers flush right”.
In-Text Citation
In –text citation is when the author’s last name and the page number from which the quote or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text and a complete reference must appear on the cited page. According to The Owl Purdue Online Writing Lab, “all documents must have a quotation mark around the title of shorter books such as Gulliver’s Travel, television series or documentaries”. It also means that the work of others whose idea, theories, findings or works have influenced your work. To avoid plagiarism take careful notes of each source that you use.
Each reference cited in text must appear in the reference list, and each entry in the reference list must be cited in text.
In APA Style, references are cited in text with an author-dated citation system and they are listed alphabetically in the reference list.
To insert a citation in text, include the author’s surname and the year of publication. For a direct quotation, include the page number or specific location of the phase or sentence in the original work.
Direct Quotes
Direct quotes can be defined as someone using the exact words of someone and put into their writing. It can be a special quote taken from a written piece or a speech used to make the writing come alive. Alternatively, if the quoted source is cited in the sentence introducing the block quote (e.g., “In 1997, Purcell contracted this view…”), only the page number is needed at the end of the quotation. according to “Chelsea Lee a direct quotation reproduces the words of another writer and is displayed in quotation marks(if the quotation is fewer than 40 words) or as a block quotation is 40 words or more. When you include a direct quotation in a paper, include the author, date and page number on which the quotation can be found”.
How to cite quotations by Timothy McAdoo, he has listed some examples or how to list quotations in the right way and they are as follows:
-According to Palladino and Wade (2010), “a flexible mind is a healthy mind” (p.147).
– In 2010, Palladino and Wade noted that “a flexible mind is a healthy mind” (p.147).
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is the expressing of information that you have learned from an outside source that was written but using different words to achieve the idea. A good paraphrase conveys the meaning and quote and contributing it correctly paraphrasing also lets you share the author’s idea without using direct quotes. If you refer to the author’s name in a sentence you do not have to include again as part of your in-text citation, instead include the year of publication following his/her name for example Hunt(1993) noted that mother-infant attachment became a leading topic of developmental research after the publication of John Bowlby’s studies. Also incorrect paraphrasing can be noted as the homeless come from families with problems. Frequently, they have been physically or sexually abused, or have lived in group homes. Usually no one cares for them or knows them intimately (Rokach, 2005). This example shows that the writing is similar to the original source.
Reference List
A reference list is a list of all the sources that has been referred in the main part of an assignment that must be included at the end of any assignment before a bibliography is done. The word reference should appear in upper and lower case and be centred at the top of the page. All references should be double-spaced and all references should be in a “hanging indent” format. A bibliography is different from a reference list as it lists all the sources used during the findings.
Example of a Reference list can be seen below:
Title Include the title ‘References’ (one word, beginning with a capital letter, centred, and not in italics
Indent Hanging indent your references (space bar in 5 – 7 spaces for the second and subsequent lines of each reference)
Space between references In general double-space between references
Ampersand Use for 2 – 6 authors, use “&” before the final author
One author, two publications Order by year of publication, the earlier one first. Same year of publication for both – add ‘a’ and ‘b’after the year, inside the brackets. Include this in the in text citation. Example: Baheti, J. R. (2001a).
URLs Remove the underlines from URLs so that any underscores ( _ ) can be seen
Same first author, different second author Order alphabetically by second or subsequent authors
Upper case letters (capital letters) Journal title – use headline style; i.e. capitalise all the words, except articles and prepositions
Book title or article title (in a journal, magazine or newspaper) – use sentence style; i.e. capitalise the first word of the titl e, and subtitle (after the colon), and any proper names
Place of publication USA publishers give the city in full and the abbreviation for the state. New York, NYSpringfield, MA
Publishers outside the USA: Give the city in full and the country in fullLondon, EnglandAuckland, New Zealand
Page range Use an en dash, NOT a hyphen, for page ranges: e.g. 21–27.
No gaps between the page numbers and the en dash.
How to add an en dash in Microsoft Word:
Holding the Control key and type the minus sign on the small numeric keypad.
Websites
This is the fastest and easier way to garner information is via this medium the website, however when using this source of information you must always include the details of authors, publication date, the title of the document and finally the source URL.
Example
Hibbert, C., & Simpson, H. (2001, July 17). All about Springfield. Retrieved from http://www.sfnet.org/about .html.
Example
The Turning Page Bookshop. (2000). Business profile. Retrieved from http://www.theturningpagebookshop.com.au/
Books
Books- Whenever a reference is being cited from a book there are a few details that is required to indicate to the reader that the citation is coming from a particular book. The details that is required is the name of the author, the year when the book was published, the title of the book, where the materials is taking from in exact details such as the chapter and finally the publisher of the document.
Example
Mitchell, D.N., & Ruff, D.Y (1925. The menace in your neighbourhood (5th ed.) Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill
Example
Chan, M.T., Wong R.H & Cheng, K.S. (2012). The Child Examiner. Hong Kong: Blacksmith Books.
Journals
Citation from journals may appear to be rather difficult when ascertaining the details of reference this is so because the articles are subdocuments of another. The American Psychological Association has provided a simple format in casting the information. The Authors name, publication date, title of work and the publication data is required.
Example
Mikulincer, M., Gerber, H., & Weisenberg, M. (1990). Judgement of control and depression: The role of self-esteem threat and self-focused attention. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 589-608.
Newspaper Articles
This is a very informative medium however as many may say it is difficult to read the information as it is sometimes very lengthy whenever ascertaining information from this medium, the name of the author or authors, year and publication date, title of article, the title of the newspaper and the page number should be given. The format for the name of the author is normally written with surname first followed by first initial or initials; in some cases the website will be given also the title of the newspaper should be in italics, please see examples below:
Example
Mullings, D. (2017, September 25). Boosting learning with technology. The Gleaner, p. B8
Example
Wentworth, W.C. (1984, January 24). Why we need a permanent base on the moon. The Sydney Morning Herald, p.11. Retrieved from http://archives.smh.com.au/index.php
What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism can be defined as someone taking someone else’s work and passing it off as their own. According to the Wikipedia, plagiarism is also defined as act of academic dishonesty and a breach of journalist ethics. According to the Wikipedia the word plagiarism was derived from a Latin word that mean (kidnapper) stealing someone else’s work and making it their own. There are penalties that are attached to this type of act that would result in a student been suspended or even expelled from an institution. Plagiarism has real legal implication, to avoid plagiarism, take careful notes of each source that you use.
There are Eight (8) main components in avoiding Plagiarism. These are as follows:
Citation – Ensure that citations are inserted when the paper is been written. If the citation is not done right away it can be forgotten and then you may not remember where the information came from.
Avoid Copy Pasting – it is better to change and use someone else ideas and make it create it in your own words (paraphrasing) and provide a citation to the original source. If you want to quote the original author, immediately insert the quotation marks around the text you copy past a followed by the citation.
Using of Quotations – when inserting a quotation, ensure that the entire quotation is not entered in the paragraph. Limit the amount of quotation to at least one or two key sentences.
Permission must be seek from the Copy Right Holder- it is always best to ask the copy right holder for permission when copying small parts of a work for it to be transform and that you do not fall under the fair use.
The copying of Images and Photos is also referred to as Plagiarism- if anyone wants to re-use images in their paper, make sure written permission is seek from the copyright holder always follow the guidance of the copyright holder in relation to the wording of use.
Always Inform the Co-Authors and Students – all students and co-workers must always follow the best practices to avoid plagiarism.
Avoid Self-Plagiarism- when persons re-use their own work this often leads to self-plagiarism. It not a good practice to re-publish work that is available elsewhere.
The question that is asked by almost every lecturer is why do people plagiarise?. People plagiarise because it seems to be an easy way out of down and reading and doing a thorough research and try to understand what the concept of the statement is saying and trying to put it in their own words. People do it for a number of reasons
All of these reasons give no one a basis to copy the words of another person without giving credit to the author. Even though plagiarism might appear uncontrollably, there are consequences attached.
Conclusion
It is required to reference the sources using an appropriate referencing style. When referencing your sources, a reader of the work can find those sources and see what the arguments are based on. Referencing correctly involves using appropriate in-text citation, and includes a complete reference list. The custom of citing references is a form of professional honesty and courtesy that is based on a regard for the responsibilities that writers have to readers and to other writers to indicate when they have someone else’s ideas or words.
One of the reasons a great deal of attention is paid to plagiarism is that the internet makes plagiarizing easy to do. Identifying your sources helps to avoid plagiarism by attributing the contribution of others to your work.
Reference List
BIBLIOGRAPHY
American Psychological Association . (2010, March 25). Retrieved from APA Style : http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/03/how-to-cite-direct-quotations.html
APA Referencing Style Guide. (2018, June 18). Retrieved from APA Referencing Style Guide: http://aut.ac.nz.libguides.com/APA6th
Citing and referencing. (2018, June 8). Retrieved from Monash Universisity: Guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/apa-sample-reference-list
Ediqo Blog Research matters. (2016). Retrieved from Ediqo: https://www.edigo.com/blog/8-simple-rules-to-avoid plagiarism
How to Cite Direct Quotations. (2010, March 25). Retrieved from APA Style: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/03/how-to-cite-direct-quotations.html
Purdue Online Writing lab. (2018). Retrieved from Owl Purdeue Online Writing lab: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/’resource/560/1/
