Teaching students to write in APA format

londonflo · Feb 28, 2023

chare said:

During my post master's program the faculty placed much more emphasis on formatting than content.

I would hope that your content was much better than format. And for a Post Master's it would/should of been. But if everyone wrote their study and endnotes/ bibliography as they talked/thought/wrote we would be in a world of facebook studies/papers.

Think about those of us who didn't have a computer word programs. We had to retype every version (one typewriter) ...but we were fully engrossed in our study, methodology, results and conclusions.

JKL33 · Feb 28, 2023

chare said:

Additionally, depending on which plagiarism checker being used, this might create an alert.

You may know more about this than I do, but with the product I used I felt comfortable that I was neither plagiarizing anything at all nor in danger of being suspected of such. The program did nothing with the context/content of my paper, nor was it intended to; it was not capable of that. It just had the proper margins set, the double-spacing, the basic formatting and was supposedly up-to-date on the latest rules regarding APA formatting.

Examples of things it did: If I wanted a new heading or subheading I would type the words to be used for such, highlight them and then click on "heading" or "subheading" and it would put it in bold and position it according to APA's specification for those categories. I had to enter my own sources that I used and choose the correct source type and then when brought into the paper it would format it according to APA. It did spit out my reference list in the proper format according to what I had told it. As I was citing sources throughout my papers I could click on the source that I had already added to the list of sources for that paper and it would add the correct in-text citation format. Of course I had to write the entire contents of the papers myself, which I did.

Just as I can create a new document by choosing the "MLA style paper" template in Word, that's basically what this thing did.

JKL33 · Feb 28, 2023

londonflo said:

You have complained about the APA issue before.

I am not ashamed that this isn't my first time giving my $.02 on this.

I actually enjoy writing and as you may notice I have plenty to say. I don't think I'm too shabby at stringing words together. I also enjoy when things are done properly and professionally. I have no problem with APA, I have no problem with the expectation that professional nurses be able to write in a professional manner. And yet, it was a disappointing experience. So, fair warning: It may not be the last time I mention it. ??

londonflo · Feb 28, 2023

JKL33 said:

Examples of things it did: If I wanted a new heading or subheading I would type the words to be used for such, highlight them and then click on "heading" or "subheading" and it would put it in bold and position it according to APA's specification for those categories. I had to enter my own sources that I used and choose the correct source type and then when brought into the paper it would format it according to APA. It did spit out my reference list in the proper format according to what I had told it.

I would have given anything to have something like this in graduate school.

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As I was citing sources throughout my papers I could click on the source that I had already added to the list of sources for that paper and it would add the correct in-text citation format.

I discovered this in Microsoft Word when I was writing a paper for a class at Oxford University. What a wondrous thing!

And Footnotes are gone! With a manual typewriter, it was hell knowing when to start them at the foot of page.

chare · Feb 28, 2023

JKL33 said:

You may know more about this than I do, but with the product I used I felt comfortable that I was neither plagiarizing anything at all nor in danger of being suspected of such. The program did nothing with the context/content of my paper, nor was it intended to; it was not capable of that. It just had the proper margins set, the double-spacing, the basic formatting and was supposedly up-to-date on the latest rules regarding APA formatting.

[...]

It was not my intent to suggest I thought you were, and my apologies of it was taken that way.

JKL33 · Feb 28, 2023

chare said:

It was not my intent to suggest I thought you were, and my apologies of it was taken that way.

Not at all--you did not suggest that and no apology necessary! ? Just wanted to be clear that I would be against flirting with plagiarism at all and my thought at the time was that the program qualified as a tool that wasn't really capable of that (hope I was right ?)...

**CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN** · Mar 1, 2023

JKL33 said:

(Former/recent) student perspective

That said, with regard to nursing education specifically I feel this easily qualifies as a forest vs. trees issue. I can't even fully explain the inappropriateness of the level of preoccupation with this in two well-regarded (State U.) nursing programs from which I earned degrees.

Seconded. I am getting my MSN, so of course I understand that more academic writing is required than in a BSN program. But my current course, while it is an in-person course, requires discussion posts weekly. They must have citations in APA format. What annoys me is that each week, I spend quite a long time writing these posts/essays; then the professor's feedback is always about APA format. One week it was "be sure you use headings”; the next it was the capitalization of my reference citation. Both of which are fine things, but I've received zero feedback on the CONTENT of what I write. I always think "Okay, so... I need to cite properly. But did my post make sense? Am I understanding the material? Have I made any good points?” The instructor is, so far, exclusively interested in my APA formatting.

allnurses Guide · Mar 1, 2023

Sam_Rabbit said:

Hello to all,

Do you have a specific course that addresses how to write correctly in APA 7th edition format or do students just learn it by trial and error throughout the curriculum? Do you offer any type of handouts or "writing bootcamp" during orientation? Finally, do you have any apps that you recommend to students to help them with APA formatting?

Thank you in advance for your responses!

I have used Citation Machine in the past it formats your citation and has function that checks your paper for possible plagerism.

londonflo · Mar 2, 2023

JKL33 said:

but with the product I used I felt comfortable that I was neither plagiarizing anything at all nor in danger of being suspected of such

I learned from some other faculty that if your paper was run again through the same plagiarizing sensor, it may pop up. Of course that is easily explainable

beachynurse, ASN, BSN · Mar 2, 2023

Rose_Queen said:

My English classes focused on MLA formatting. And can't blame them- so many different areas use different methods.

I had to use all 3 formats in my BSN program. History classes use Chicago Tiburon. It was not fun having to learn how to use all of them. When I initially started school in what my daughter calls the prehistoric ages (1980), there were no formats. You wrote your paper, footnoted, made a bibliography, and cover sheet, paper done...

londonflo · Mar 2, 2023

beachynurse said:

When I initially started school in what my daughter calls the prehistoric ages (1980), there were no formats. You wrote your paper, footnoted, made a bibliography, and cover sheet, paper done...

This is a format...how to footnote, create a bibliography, cover sheet.

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footnoted, made a bibliography, and cover sheet, paper done...

This is a format.

beachynurse, ASN, BSN · Mar 2, 2023

londonflo said:

There were many formats done. And I know because of doing undergraduate and graduate education in the 70's and early 80's. She just dodged a Bullitt.

I still have some of my papers from then, and a few books. There were no real formats that I saw or used.