I am an RN working on my BSN. This is a vent. Oh how I hate APA, if I never get my BSN it will be because of APA. It's not that I don't understand the need for information to be organized in a uniform fashion so that other's can easily access your resources, or it's not that I have difficulty using it. I got it down.
But...I absolutely hate it. It's tedious, even if I feel passionate about the topic, I get stuck on the stupid APA. I just don't wanna do it. I hate it. I know, I should be doing it instead of complaining about it, but Oh how I hate it. I have great ideas about nursing, things that should be researched to improve evidenced based practice, but nobody will ever get to see what's on my mind, (Sorry American Journal of Nursing) because of stupid APA.
i will never have to worry. I can not bring myself to do papers. The research is fine. Just can not put to paper, to be judge....Just. Can't. Do it. ......so no more school, and no worries about APA!
I much perfer MLA....HATE APA....HATE APA! We wrote about 10 papers last semester and I got dinged for the dagone APA on nearly every paper. I enjoy doing the research and everything...even the typing, but I always make at least one stupid mistake somewhere in citing or references. Just looking at my calendar and I have a paper due late next week :-(
I just started classes again this semester and one of them is "online-enhanced" -- meaning we have discussion postings, etc. as part of a grade for reduced class time...and I just did my first discussion posting last night. Get this -- some of my classmates are putting an APA citation at the bottom of their discussion posting (referencing our class text)!!!!! I just want to barf!!!!! Seriously?
I sent a message to my instructor about it, and she said that she actually prefers the citations (in a glorified, academic chat-room, which I think is total BS!!!!!!), as we are working on a "professional" degree, etc. (MSN program) -- so now, APA is required to be a "professional"? I wonder if the APA knows how many headaches they make.
I'm just a school-hater in general though, it's not just APA. I hate the hoops and all the academic language and the whole culture of it. I can't wait to be done FOREVER.
Nah, I'd rather do APA than MLA. Sheeessssh, I begged my politics teacher to let me do APA instead of MLA. She allowed me, thank freakin' goodness. I still don't like APA.
I just started classes again this semester and one of them is "online-enhanced" -- meaning we have discussion postings, etc. as part of a grade for reduced class time...and I just did my first discussion posting last night. Get this -- some of my classmates are putting an APA citation at the bottom of their discussion posting (referencing our class text)!!!!! I just want to barf!!!!! Seriously?
I sent a message to my instructor about it, and she said that she actually prefers the citations (in a glorified, academic chat-room, which I think is total BS!!!!!!), as we are working on a "professional" degree, etc. (MSN program) -- so now, APA is required to be a "professional"? I wonder if the APA knows how many headaches they make.
I'm just a school-hater in general though, it's not just APA. I hate the hoops and all the academic language and the whole culture of it. I can't wait to be done FOREVER.
That's not all that unusual in my experience. Many of my classmates do so in my classes. I do so when the post is more formal, like a required response to a reading or topic, as opposed to a quick reaction to a classmate's post. I've done citation stuff for so long, so it doesn't really bother me one way or another (although Turabian/Chicago used to irritate me a little back in the day). I just wish there were one overall citation format. Switching from one form to another depending on the prof and/or the type of class is annoying! Most of my major classes require APA, but every once in a while I have a prof who'll throw me a changeup.
Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.
I have one class down in my ADN-MSN and I think APA is starting to grow on me. I use citation machine as well and PERRLA, so I am basically getting better at finding the information that I to plug in.
Before spending money on a program to handle APA for you, check with your library. Often university library's have a site license for these programs that are available to all students. I know my school uses RefWorks, I haven't written a citation since the first week of school, RefWorks pulls it straight from the library database, or from the website I'm on. Definitely decreases the frequency of APA induced headaches ;-)
I just started classes again this semester and one of them is "online-enhanced" -- meaning we have discussion postings, etc. as part of a grade for reduced class time...and I just did my first discussion posting last night. Get this -- some of my classmates are putting an APA citation at the bottom of their discussion posting (referencing our class text)!!!!! I just want to barf!!!!! Seriously?
I sent a message to my instructor about it, and she said that she actually prefers the citations (in a glorified, academic chat-room, which I think is total BS!!!!!!), as we are working on a "professional" degree, etc. (MSN program) -- so now, APA is required to be a "professional"? I wonder if the APA knows how many headaches they make.
I'm just a school-hater in general though, it's not just APA. I hate the hoops and all the academic language and the whole culture of it. I can't wait to be done FOREVER.
We're required to cite in our blasted forums. We don't get credit for the posting if we don't.
You're very nice to post this. But, if I had to actually format something in APA by following either the APA manual or something like the OWL site.....well, I'd still be writing my first nursing school paper from September '08
I really appreciate the software that does it all for me!!
We're required to cite in our blasted forums. We don't get credit for the posting if we don't.
I'm sorry, that is so f@#%ing stupid, it makes me want to die. And stab my professors. And burn my textbooks. And throw my computer against the wall, except I like allnurses too much.
Why do they have to make everything so damn difficult? Opinion alert: I think it would contribute to my learning much more if I actually had to read the text and synthesize some information in a discussion posting, not frantically look for an applicable quote for my posting and cite my text.
SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN
10,263 Posts
I like MLA. Hate APA. Bought PERRLA.