Along the lines of Mike's proposal that students don't need to produce certain portions of APA documents, I do the following.
Note, I probably qualify as fairly OCD when it comes to particulars of APS Style. For nearly all of my courses I allow a 'minimal APA style' that I've written. It allows some variance on margins, spacing between paragraphs, method of presenting references, etc. But, I think it captures about 75% of what the APA is about, more or less. It is a 6 page document that I'm pretty sure nearly none of my students read. <grin>. For my research methods courses and my capstone courses I require a 100% APA Style compliant document with the following exceptions: 1) no keywords, 2) location of tables and figures, along with their captioning, to be within the body of the text, 3) no author notes (though occasionally students will put in humorous biographies in that space). I'm considering removing the double-spacing requirement because I now read all my papers electronically, they are in Word and I use commenting features to evaluate them. Therefore, the need for space to write comments is reduced. It does aid readability, however, so I think I'll keep it as a requirement. I think there is value in teaching APA Style fairly rigorously, even the parts that make no damned sense. I think the reason is this (and I tell my students this): No matter where they go to work they will very likely be required to write. At that location there will be a mandated style, be it APA, MLA, or an in-house corporate standard. Learning what a style deals with in terms of style of writing, manner of expression, mechanics of production of manuscript, etc. are all valuable to learn because it prepares a student to face those issues when it is encountered in the workplace. Even if the style they deal with is different, they will have better insight into the process. However, I think that Mike is on to something with the idea of something like a Student's APA Style. Possibly a symposium at NITOP or other meeting to discuss "What Is Really Needed for Students in APA Style" might be useful. Paul C Bernhardt Frostburg State University Frostburg, MD, USA pcbernhardt[at]frostburg[d0t]edu On May 15, 2011, at 11:26 AM, Mike Palij wrote: > On Sun, 15 May 2011 07:28:26 -0700, Blaine Peden wrote: >> I am in the process of scoring research reports and reviewed the >> Publication Manual first. I could find little guidance on key words >> that appear on the abstract page. I am curious as to what other >> advise their students to do on key words. Any comments or >> suggestions welcomed. > > A few points: > > (1) I assume that the "geniuses" who put together the 6th edition > of the APA Publication Manual assumed that one would be using > the official APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms (currently > in the 11th edition) which the APA will happily sell to you for $90 > if you are not an APA member and $80 if you are; see: > http://www.apa.org/pubs/books/3100084.aspx > Presumably you'll find websites which will provide some of the > keywords but, because I assume that the keywords are part of > a publication that APA holds the copyright to, will only contain > lists that are allowable under "fair use" provisions. I am open > to correction on any of these points. Otherwise one might have > to spend some time in the reference room of the library to check > out which terms should be used (assuming your library has a > copy of the thesaurus). > > (2) Whether one should use keywords or other features of APA > style that is appropriate only for manuscripts that are actually going > to be submitted for publication (in contrast to students papers) really > depends upon how much of a fetish one has made of APA style and/or > one is anal-retentive or suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder > concerning APA style. When I cover APA style in a lab course, I > point out that there is a keywords section on the Abstract page, I point > out why it is there (i.e., to aid in locating related publications in > PsycInfo), > and how one would find appropriate keywords (i.e., the APA thesaurus). > And then I tell them not to bother with keywords because they really > won't know enough about the topics they'll be writing about to select > the correct keywords (NOTE: has anyone ever conducted an empirical > study to determine the accuracy of keywords used by students for > a papers in APA style and compared it to the keywords selected by > a professional librarian that specialized in the social sciences?). > Anyone remember when access to PsycInfo was restricted only to > librarians because one had to access it on a mainframe computer or > on early versions of Sliverplatter -- access by a librarian was in part > due to the possibility that a librarian would be more familiar with the > keywords and produce more efficient (i.e., less time/less cost) searches? > The problem today is that people may use keywords that appear to be > relevant and intuitive given the content of the paper but inconsistent with > the "official" keywords used by APA. > > (3) Some time back I had suggested on the Psychteacher list that the > STP or another group develop guidelines for using APA style in student > papers. There are certain things that have to be in a manuscript that will > be submitted for publication but make no sense in the context of a student > paper. For example, consider the role of the "Running head", quoting > from p229 6th ed, 4th printing, APA Publication Manual: > > |The running head is an abbreviated title that is printed at the top of > |the pages of a manuscript or published article to identify the article for > |readers. > > In the 5th Ed, 2nd printing, of the APA Publication Manual, there is > this additional information (p12): > > |The running head is an abbreviated title that is printed at the top > |of the pages of a published article to identify the article for readers. > > Now, why would one want a running head on every page in a student > paper? Wouldn't the old convention of typing a few descriptive words > or from the title in front of the page number be more appropriate (as was > done in the 5th ed)? I put keywords into a similar category: if you're > going to publish, use them otherwise don't bother. Similarly, given the > power of word processing programs, why should tables and figures be > put at the end of the paper instead of at an appropriate location within > the text? And so on. The unofficial response I got was that that wasn't > something that the STP was concerned with but if I came up with a > proposal for "APA style for student papers", they'd look at it. I have > declined the honor. But maybe someone else or a group of people > might consider doing something in this area. > > -Mike Palij > New York University > [email protected] > > > > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=10587 > or send a blank email to > leave-10587-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=10590 or send a blank email to leave-10590-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
