APA Rant by RN

Nursing Students ADN/BSN

Published

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.

There it's off my chest. Now, back to work.

BTW...yes, it's laziness.:smokin:

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

Our school's subscription to a journal service has a handy-dandy button that you click and get the citation in all formats. Cut and paste, and my reference page is mostly DONE! I just have to deal with the in-text citations, but they are generally not too bad.

I have the biggest issue with citations for government sites, like the WHO, CDC, and various NIH departments. Ugh.

It has been a few years so I do not know anyone will read this. Below is what I wrote to give to two of my class professors that require APA. (I care nothing about the grades, so I will break every rule I am opposed to.)

APAI Format (American Psychological Association Insanity)

I understand why you are taught and maybe required to instruct use of APA format for assignments. It does have some advantage, like double line spacing makes it easier to read, but 1.5 is sufficient, and saves paper space. Also, if students all have the same format, grades are easier to determine. However, best long term results must include new ideas, not old rules.

The best work of any subject, except science, is accomplished by independence and personal design. It is absolutely horrible if we all have to do everything the same no matter how stupid it is. Instead of forcing on us a ridiculous rule, we should be taught and rated by results like:

  1. Easy to read and understand quickly.
  2. Organized with the basic subject description at the beginning.
  3. Make each paragraph match the meaning of its section title.
  4. Verify all facts and determinations, and state the source in footnotes and/or reference page. AVOID parenthesis information not directly part of the sentence.[1] It is vital to focus on the subject without interference![2]
  5. Times New Roman is good for most things, but choose any text format you want. They can be a lot more understandable according to the subject. For example:

(I showed several different formats here, but they could not be used on this display)

  1. It is better to have blank lines near the bottom than splitting paragraphs between pages. It is easier to understand and think about one paragraph together, especially if it contains a list.

The greatest success always requires breaking rules!

How did the United States of America, and later the slaves we had, ever obtain freedom from which we became the greatest power on earth? Now we have a ridiculous list of rules, along with greed and wanting things cheap, causing our nation to be demolished.

marvinlzinn

[1] When I see something written like this I will very likely throw the entire document into the trash.

[2] If this is required for computer reading or copying equipment, then change the computer program and/or technical equipment, NOT the writing/reading format. I will not be a slave to

computers!

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.

The purpose is not to make you have to look for a quote and cite it, the purpose is to get you used to using APA citations. That way you can practice doing it in a forum and get feedback, and then when you need to use it on a paper you've already done it a few times.

In situations where you cite the same book every time, you can save the basic citation in a separate word document and then change the page numbers, title of article, etc, each time you need to use it. For my careplans (which required an APA bibliography) I saved a template that had "--------." in all the blanks where I would need to change information, and all the dates, publishing info, etc already filled out for my most common sources - Davis drug book, textbook, careplan book, pharm book, and at least one online source. After you turn it in once, you'll see what formatting issues you have - change it in your template and then it's correct every time. That also gives you examples to work from when you need to add a new source.

Of course, where this doesn't help, is when Teacher A interprets the APA guide one way, and Teacher B interprets it another way, and then your citations are all correct for A's class and all incorrect for B's class! That got frustrating really quickly.

We're required to cite in our blasted forums. We don't get credit for the posting if we don't.

Same here. We're also required to have sources to relate to in our posting, not just spout off all our own experiences and opinions. And if you are using those sources you have to cite in order to avoid plagiarism. I write all my post up in word so I can properly cite, then copy and paste.

My research expert and I just had a brief exchange when I sent the info on some of the programs for generating citations to my committee. He sent me back the following, which I commend to everyone's attention.

"One can also search titles of articles and books in Google Scholar and if one finds that work listed, usually the top item in the results, click on CITE on the last line of the entry for the item in Google Scholar and get back the MLA, APA and Chicago Manual of Style citation formats.

"Sample Citation

Understanding and Supporting African Americans' Perspectives of End-of-life Care Planning and Decision Making

Author: Waters, C M

Journal: Qualitative health research

ISSN:1049-7323

Date:05/2001

Volume:11

Issue:3

Page:385 - 98

PMID:11339081

"Google Scholar CITE listing for This Publication

"MLA:

Waters, Catherine M. "Understanding and supporting African Americans' perspectives of end-of-life care planning and decision making." Qualitative Health Research 11.3 (2001): 385-398.

"APA:

Waters, C. M. (2001). Understanding and supporting African Americans' perspectives of end-of-life care planning and decision making. Qualitative Health Research, 11(3), 385-398.

"Chicago Manual of Style:

Waters, Catherine M. "Understanding and supporting African Americans' perspectives of end-of-life care planning and decision making." Qualitative Health Research 11, no. 3 (2001): 385-398."

MLA is far far worse than APA, but that is only my opinion.

I wholeheartedly agree!

Quote from ScottE,RN

MLA is far far worse than APA, but that is only my opinion.

I wholeheartedly agree!

Seriously? Look at those three examples of how to cite an article and tell me what, exactly, is so hard about that?

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Seriously? Look at those three examples of how to cite an article and tell me what, exactly, is so hard about that?

I've had to write papers with MLA and Chicago something or other; way, way easier than APA.

I've had to write papers with MLA and Chicago something or other; way, way easier than APA.

Gee, I dunno, they all look pretty similar in complexity to me, and none of them is that complex.

Perhaps this (or something similar) has been posted before, but I wanted to share an online resource that I use rather frequently. It's got everything I need in a relatively user-friendly format.

Purdue OWL: Online Writing Lab | APA Style

And I still say APA > MLA. :up:

Specializes in ICU.

All I can say is I am so glad to be thru with all that! Back in the dark ages, we didn't even have computers, let alone fancy stuff like you guys describe here. I had to drive one hour (each way) to use the health/science library, look everything up manually, and use a type-writer, with correction ribbon and white-out. It seems so easy today.

Specializes in MICU - CCRN, IR, Vascular Surgery.
The purpose is not to make you have to look for a quote and cite it, the purpose is to get you used to using APA citations. That way you can practice doing it in a forum and get feedback, and then when you need to use it on a paper you've already done it a few times.

In situations where you cite the same book every time, you can save the basic citation in a separate word document and then change the page numbers, title of article, etc, each time you need to use it. For my careplans (which required an APA bibliography) I saved a template that had "--------." in all the blanks where I would need to change information, and all the dates, publishing info, etc already filled out for my most common sources - Davis drug book, textbook, careplan book, pharm book, and at least one online source. After you turn it in once, you'll see what formatting issues you have - change it in your template and then it's correct every time. That also gives you examples to work from when you need to add a new source.

Of course, where this doesn't help, is when Teacher A interprets the APA guide one way, and Teacher B interprets it another way, and then your citations are all correct for A's class and all incorrect for B's class! That got frustrating really quickly.

This is working smarter, not harder, and I do the same thing. Why type something a million times when you can copy and paste? I did it all through my ASN and BSN. My "blank" care plans had so much already filled in that I saved a ton of time!

Also, I've been using NoodleTools : MLA / APA / Chicago Bibliography Composer, Notecards, Outlining throughout both programs, and have never missed a point on APA formatting thanks to them and the Purdue OWL. I always cited my discussion board posts because I wasn't going to take the chance on missing even a tiny point where it could be avoided. Now that I've finished my BSN, I'm the APA proofreader for several of my coworkers :)

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