Writing for Scholarly Purposes Using APA Style

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Writing for Scholarly Purposes Using APA Style

• Denise Dedman, MSW, Ph.D.
• Assistant professor, Social Work
  Department,University of Michigan - Flint

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Colleges are places of dialogue.

• When we are dishonest, the conversation is
  damaged.
• Inventing results to a research study is
  dishonest and puts false information into the
  dialogue.
• Using someone elses words or ideas as your own
  breaks down trust and causes confusion in the
  dialogue.

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Plagiarism

• If you turn in work as though you had written all
  the words yourself, but they are someone elses
  words, thats plagiarism.
• If you use someone elses ideas but dont give
  them credit, thats plagiarism.
• If you buy or are given a paper and you turn it
  in as your own it is plagiarism.

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Avoiding Plagiarism

• If you use someone elses exact words you must
  quote them.
• If you read someones ideas and put them in your
  own words, you are paraphrasing and you must give
  them credit in a citation.

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Buying or downloading

• You know this is cheating.
• Software available to check for this includes
  both internet searches and searching databases of
  papers previously turned in on your campus.

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Copying

• Exact wording of documents, paragraphs and
  sentences.
• Word substitution
• Taking a word here and there and changing it,
  leaving most of the text as it was.

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Example of substitution

• Institutions should spend time in dialogue
  between departments regarding when and how
  adjunct faculty should be used. The unique needs
  of each department should determine its plan for
  adjunct faculty (Dedman Pearch, 2004, p. 7).

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Example of substitution

• Colleges should spend time talking between
  departments regarding when and how part timers
  should be used. The unique needs of each unit
  should determine its plan for part timers
  (Dedman Pearch, 2004, p. 7).

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Paraphrasing

• So closely parallel to anothers thoughts that it
  does not reflect your own thinking process.
• If you borrow someone elses ideas, you must give
  them credit in a citation.

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Synthesize!

• Read, comprehend, and give credit if you do
  summarize or paraphrase.
• When you write an essay or paper, dont just
  quote or paraphrase the text (or journals). Make
  the ideas come alive within the context of your
  own experience.

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• Finding your way through the APA Style Manual,
  5th ed.
• Denise Dedman, MSW, Ph.D.
• Assistant professor, Social Work
  Department,University of Michigan - Flint

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Issues addressed by this presentation

• A walk through the Manual, important places
  youll want to mark
• Reference styles
• Citation styles
• Quotations
• General writing issueschapter 2 is a wonderful
  source of help on how to write, especially in
  avoiding bias in your writing style!

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• Rememberthe purpose of all this APA stuff is to
  help promote honesty and clarity in the scholarly
  dialogue.
• Citations
• If you use someone elses words there are rules
  for quotes.
• If you talk about someone elses ideas there is a
  way to give credit (cite) for a paraphrase or
  summary.
• References help your reader find the source you
  cited.

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Word usage

• Spell checkers give us false security
• Many words sound alike but are spelled
  differentlycheck the usage
• sight to see
• site a location/place
• cite refer to a source

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Vital tabs for your APA style manual

• p. 111 Headings (youll want to use these to make
  your papers better organized)
• p. 117 Quotations
• p. 207 Citations (within the text of your paper)
• p. 223 References (general form)
• p. 268 Electronic media references (if you used
  an internet source)
• Also check http//www.apastyle.org/elecref.html
• p. 397 Legal materials (how to cite a court case
  or law)

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Online help for general questions

• http//www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.as
  px?doc_id796
• http//www.apastyle.org/styletips.html
• Examples of official APA style
• www.apa.org/journals
• (look up the references in an article)

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Paper template!

• To download a Microsoft Word template of an
  APA-style paper, go to http//www.vanguard.edu/emp
  library/files/psychapa.doc
• www.vanguard.edu/emplibrary/files/psychapa.doc

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References

• General elements of a reference in p. 215-231.
• Specific types of material (what kind of thing is
  this?)
• Periodicals (A)
• Books, book chapters (B)
• Tech research reports (C)
• Conference proceedings (D)
• Dissertations theses (E)
• Unpublished works (F)
• Reviews (G)
• Audio visual media (H)
• Electronic media (I)

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Book- one author

• Brooks, R. L. (2004). Atonement and forgiveness
  A new model for Black reparations. Berkeley, CA
  University of California Press.

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Book- one author

• Brooks, R. L. (2004). Atonement and forgiveness
  A new model for Black reparations. Berkeley, CA
  University of California Press.
• Lastname, F. M. (date). Title in sentence case
  Italicized, but not underlined. Place Publisher.

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• Karger, K and Stoesz, D. (2002). American
  Social Welfare Policy.(4th edition). ?
• Karger, H. J., Stoesz, D. (2006). American
  social welfare policy A pluralist approach (5th
  ed.). Boston, MA Allyn Bacon. ?

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Book- multiple authors

• Weinbach, R. W., Grinnell, R. M., Jr. (2004).
  Statistics for social workers (6th ed.). Boston,
  MA Allyn Bacon.

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Book- organization as author

• American Psychological Association. (2001).
  Publication manual of the American Psychological
  Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC Author.
• Council of Social Work Education.
  (2001). Educational policy and accreditation
  standards. Alexandria, VA Author.

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A chapter in a book

• Houle, C. O. (1970). The educators of adults.
  In R. M. Smith (Ed.), Handbook of adult
  education (pp. 109-119). New York, NY The
  Macmillan Company.

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Journal article

• Papacharissi, Z., Rubin, A. (2000). Predictors
  of Internet use. Journal of Broadcasting and
  Electronic Media, 4(2), 175-196.

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On-line journal article

• Witmer, D. F. (1997). Risky business Why people
  feel safe in sexually explicit on- line
  communication. Journal of Computer-Mediated
  Communication. (2) 4.Retrieved March 4, 2004 from
  http//www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol2/issue4 /witmer2.h
  tml

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Citations

• Citation is within the sentence. The period comes
  last.
• ?Their child can become a crown ward or society
  ward.(Pearson, 2005)
• ? Their child can become a crown ward or society
  ward (Pearson, 2005).

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Citations within text

• Rick Lavoie (1994) states that children with
  learning disabilities have difficulty in social
  situations.
• In their study of the development of
  relationships on-line, Parks and Floyd (1996)
  found that their participants reported moderate
  to high levels of depth in their on-line
  relationships.

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Secondary citations

• According to Turkle, the state of communicating
  while seeming to be alone leads to a greater
  sense of self-awareness (as cited in Murray,
  2000).

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Quotations

• This suggests that the more often and longer
  each session students use ICQ, the more likely
  students would intimately disclose their personal
  feelings when chatting on ICQ (Leung, 2002, p.
  248).

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Quotes over 40 words

• As Palloff and Pratt (2003) stress, students are
  required to take responsibility for their own
  learning in a virtual environment
• Students need to understand that the instructor
  helps them begin a journey of discovery and that
  it is then their responsibility to follow the
  map to reach whatever destination is contained
  in the learning objectives for the course. (p.
  69)

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Quotes within quotes

• The new perspective challenges the belief that
  internet relationships appeal to the reclusive.
• Researchers are finding that the internet is
  not mostly a social outlet for those who have
  infrequent or superficial social contacts
  (Birnie Horvath, 2002, p. 19), refuting earlier
  claims that the internet was used as a substitute
  for f2f sic social interaction. (Dedman
  Samuels, 2005, p. 3)

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General writing issues

• Everything is double spacedeven the indented
  long quotes. Yes, even the reference section.
• Never put 2 spaces after a period. That was only
  for typewriters.
• In a longer (10) page paper youll need to use
  headings and subheadings.
• Proofreading really matters!

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So how do I find something to write about? Search
and Research

• Denise Dedman, MSW, Ph.D.
• Assistant professor, Social Work
  Department,University of Michigan - Flint

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Critical thinking evaluation of web sites

• The internet seems to be the preferred tool for
  searching/finding information
• It is readily accessible, fast and easy
• Is it a good tool?
• You bet!
• But you have to be a good consumer of
  information not everything is accurate, some
  sites are deliberately biased, some content is
  betteror worse!

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Critical thinking evaluation of web sites

• The library at Cornell University provides a
  rubric for evaluation of web site content
• Accuracy
• Authority
• Objectivity
• Currency
• Coverage
• www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webc
  rit.html

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Critical thinking evaluation of web sites

• The University of Michigan library provides a
  similar rubric
• Intention
• Relevance
• Reliability
• www.lib.umich.edu/ugl/guides/evaluation/
• The psych dept also has a good tutorial on
  online research
• www.lib.umich.edu/ugl/psychnew/anntutor/intro.html

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Sources of information

• Books
• Single author
• Edited volume
• Encyclopedia
• Periodicals
• Unpublished works
• Internet sources

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"Wise Words on Wikipedia"

• (6/2006) Kairosnews has printed a policy
  statement -- drafted by Alan Liu,a professor of
  English at the University of California at Santa
  Barbara -- that tries to lay down the law on a
  tricky question When is it okay for students to
  cite Wikipedia in their scholarly work?
• Some professors might wish the Web site's name
  never turned up in students' papers, but Mr. Liu
  argues that Wikipedia can be a useful, if
  limited, source  A Wikipedia citation can be
  an appropriate convenience when the point being
  supported is minor, noncontroversial, or also
  supported by other evidence. In addition,
  Wikipedia is an appropriate source for some
  extremely recent topics (especially in popular
  culture or technology) for which it provides the
  sole or best available synthetic, analytical, or
  historical discussion. But that should be about
  the extent of it, Mr. Liu suggests.
• Wikipedia should never be used as the primary
  source for information on "anything that is
  central to an argument, complex, or
  controversial," he says. And he makes a good
  point about the ephemerality of the site Since
  articles are continually contested and changed,
  citing a Wikipedia entry without noting the date
  on which it was viewed is "meaningless," he
  argues. --Brock Readhttp//chronicle.com/wiredcam
  pus/index.php?id1395

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Librarieshome of books!

• Even though the dust mites live there, do not be
  afraid!

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Dewey Decimal Classification

• 000 General Knowledge
• 100 Psychology Philosophy
• 200 Religions Mythology
• 300 Social Sciences Folklore
• 400 Languages Grammar
• 500 Math Science
• 600 Medicine Technology
• 700 Arts Recreation
• 800 Literature
• 900 Geography History

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Library of Congress Classification System

• A - General Works B - Philosophy, psych.
  religion C - Auxiliary Sciences Of History D -
  History (General) And History Of Europe E -
  History America F - History America G -
  Geography. Anthropology. Recreation H - Social
  Sciences J - Political Science K - Law

• L - Education M - Music N - Fine Arts P -
  Language Lit.Q - Science R - Medicine S -
  Agriculture T - TechnologyU - Military Science
  V - Naval Science Z - Library Science.
  Information Resources

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Sources of information

• Periodicals
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Trade journals
• Professional journals

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Sources of information

• Unpublished works
• Conference proceedings
• Papersincluding your own term papers!
• Its not o.k. to use the same paper (or parts of
  it) in several different classes
• Letters, other communications

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Sources of information

• Internet sources
• Web version of published text
• On-line books/journals
• Web pages
• Blogswhile not great resources for scholarly
  writing they may contain references to
  authorities you should look up

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Sources of informationInternet sources

• Web version of published text
• full text in html or doc or pdf
• The pdf version gives page s
• On-line books/journals Web pages
• Often difficult to provide the location of exact
  quotes because they lack page s
• Still must ital. the title, look for date (or
  n.d.), look for author

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ERIC

• Educational Resources Information Center
• Since the 1960s has indexed journals
  publications in education other social sciences
• Can access through public channels,
• But you have better access through our librarys
  web site

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Using the library databases

• Start at UM Flint homepage
• Go to the library link
• Select the database youd like to use
• Social Science Abstracts
• Social Service Abstracts
• Social Work Abstracts
• Publishers databases often contain full-text
  articles
• Blackwell Synergy, Wiley, Springerlink

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Google

• Google is fast, simple and a good starting place
• Look up a definition
• Search for information on general topics
• Academic search using Google Scholar
• Policy/legislation search using
  Google.com/unclesam

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Search broadlythen deeply

• In your first searches, look for additional
  sources by noting who the people in the article
  you are reading use as sources.
• Pay particular attention to names that keep
  occurring, especially if several authors refer to
  the same persons work.
• Use the references of one paper to help identify
  more sources.
• This is also a source for keywords

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Law resources

• Public policy is often impacted by legislation
  and court decisions
• The Avalon Project (Yale) for constitutional and
  other federal issues
• http//www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
• Lexis/Nexis for court cases
• Thomas (as in Jefferson) is the LOC site for
  legislation
• http//thomas.loc.gov

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Search techniques

• LogicBoolean Logic
• Boolean logic consists of three logical
  operators
• OR (lots of hits)
• AND (refines the field)
• NOT (reduces hits)