APA offers an online class to help you use the APA manual. Basics of APA Style: An Online Course "follows the organization of the manual and offers an in-depth overview of the types of articles used in psychological and social research, manuscript elements, heading style, reducing bias in language, punctuation, capitalization, italics, numbers, tables, figures, citing references in text, creating a reference list, and reference templates and examples." The class is $60 for APA members and $80 otherwise. It offers 4 CE credits.
If you're looking for less detail, APA also has a FREE tutorial "which shows you how to structure and format your work, recommends ways to reduce bias in language, identifies how to avoid charges of plagiarism, shows how to cite references in text, and provides selected reference examples."
The American Psychological Association is offering webinars on how to get the most out of APA databases. These webinars are designed to allow students to
• become familiar with the APA research databases and the EBSCO features • manage your results • create alerts • set up personal accounts • craft searches that make use of controlled vocabulary and natural language • use database fields and limits
Knowing how to use the APA databases on EBSCO can make your searches faster and more productive. The webinars for the EBSCOhost platform are on Wednesday, March 9 from 11 am-12pm PST and on Tuesday, April 12 from 10 am to 11 am PST. The webinars are online and can be viewed from your home or office.
If you think you're not a beginner anymore, there are advanced webinars being held on Thursday, March 10, from Noon - 2 pm PST, Friday, March 25, from Noon to 2 pm PST, and Tuesday, April 12 from 7 am-9 am PST (a little early for some, convenient for others).
Sign up on the APA website if you're interested in any of the webinars or for more information.
Ever wonder how to reference a quote you’re using when the quote contains a reference to another quote? The APA blog explains it all and clarifies what to use as a reference and what to leave out.
Ever wonder how to reference a quote you’re using when the quote contains a reference to another quote? The APA blog explains it all and clarifies what to use as a reference and what to leave out.
Found some cite worthy information on a webpage but don't know how to cite it? The APA blog has a post on how to cite information you find on a webpage.
The APA blog has tips on helping you order references when you’re citing several by the same writer. Frequently, an important author on a subject will author articles alone or with different co-authors sometimes in the same year. How do you order them and how do you differentiate them in the in-text citations? Check out the blog for some answers.
The APA blog this week provides some tips on how to order your reference list when two authors have the same last name and almost the same initials. Are you even sure it’s not the same person in which case the order would change?
The APA Blog has two articles on using the en dash – the short dash – and when to use the longer dash — the em dash — in your writings
The em dash is mostly used to set off a comment you want to make on the surrounding material.
Em dash http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/09/computer-editing-tip-em-dashes.html
The en dash is used for ranges, such as page ranges or dates.
En dash http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/09/computer-editing-tip-en-dashes.html
Both posts show you how to create the two dashes in Word.
The APA blog has two articles that might be helpful in your paper or dissertation writing.
The first article reveals a tool in Word, Paste Special, that helps you format information you copy from the Web into your document. If you use Paste Special, the imported material should adopt the same formatting as your document, saving you the time to reformat everything.
The second article provides tips on how to alphabetize names that are in different alphabets.
The APA style blog has a helpful post on how to choose a title for your dissertation or paper. Keep it short, summarize the main idea and (yes!) give away the ending!
