Hi On Thu, 1 Nov 2001, Payam Heidary wrote: > Let me ask you a question. Do you teach or have you > taught any class where you have to teach students to > write APA style papers? My assumption is that you have > not based on your response.
This is extremely presumptious. Payam, if you want to convince people that you are one of the MAs who have an education of exceptional quality, you had better learn how to write in a more sensitive and intelligent manner. Also, if you act at all with students like this (which I appreciate is not necessarily the case), you might have another explanation besides apathy for why they do not come to office hours. If you have you would know > that margin sizes and spaces between text are all APA > RULES of writing papers and not mine. These are APA > "trivial events" that I have to teach and make sure > that students follow. No you don't, unless you want to teach students that trivial events are important. Does anyone know of an example where a paper of merit was rejected by an APA journal because the margins were the wrong width? You want to teach students that there are a number of conventions that they should try to follow, but that it is not a life and death issue if they miss some of them. You would also know that inside > the APA manual there is specific information on format > and structure including margin sizes, spacing, etc. > These are critical aspects of APA style and are not my > critical wants! They are NOT critical. They are trivial aspects of writing a manuscript that students should attempt to adhere to. My own impression is that students need a lot of help with aspects of writing that are far more important (e.g., organization, expressing information in a clear manner, grammaticality, ...). The students have the book and I > repeat what is in the book to them as well. So why is > there a need to provide or do anything else? You still > suggest to provide a checklist of some sort? Could it be because you said that what you were doing wasn't working! Why not > just say to also write the paper for them? You don't see any difference between giving a checklist and writing the paper? Also, aren't there checklists in the APA manual? Anyway, if you don't want to give them a checklist, tell them they have to create one themselves and include it with the paper. Our job is > to teach students how to hold their spoons straight so > they can feed themselves and not to actually put the > spoon in their mouth and feed them like little > children. These are adults. These are college > students. They should follow instructions > appropriately especially when you give them several > chances and opportunities and they still fail to > follow the most basic and simple instructions. Only in some cultures is obedience a major goal of parenting. Other cultures want to promote the development of independence and perhaps even some critical thinking skills. The latter in my view is more appropriate for university. And not blindly and obsessively following rules is one thing they should definitely be taught! Just to save you the trouble of insulting me as well ... yes, I have been teaching various aspects of research methods and statistics, including writing, for 20 or more years; no, I do not give students checklists; no, I am not perfectionistic about APA style; and yes, I have published a number of papers, most of which probably violated some aspect of APA's ever-changing, so-called writing requirements. Best wishes Jim ============================================================================ James M. Clark (204) 786-9757 Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax University of Winnipeg 4L05D Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED] CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark ============================================================================ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
