How to Get Your Name in the APA Manual

By Jeff Zuckerman, Dissertation Specialist

Having all but given up on winning the Nobel Peace Prize, I was gratified a couple of years ago when I achieved another lifelong dream: My name appeared in the preface to the sixth edition of the APA style manual.

It’s true. It’s right there on page xvi: “For taking their time to share their recommendations, we are most grateful to [a bunch of people no one cares about] and Jeff Zuckerman.” Next time you’re at my house you’ll see the page blown up as a 3 ft x 4 ft poster on my refrigerator.

When the style manual was released, several Walden faculty members thanked me “for writing the new manual.” I considered confessing that all I did was send the editors a few nasty messages complaining about the preceding edition of the publication. But why bother? Who was I to tell a group of PhDs how wrong they were?

So that’s the whole story. Over the last 6 years, I did contact the APA editors on a number of occasions to discuss certain ambiguities in the fifth edition, as well as certain conventions that had been driving our students and faculty crazy. I built up a relationship with one of the editors—yes, they are real people, in Washington, DC—and, in fact, she and I met over coffee in early 2009 when she was visiting my hometown of Minneapolis.

More interesting than my involvement is what I learned from this editor.

The APA style manual is written by a committee of editor-types and psychologists. During the writing process, at times the discussions were passionate. At times the discussions were inane. Fascinating to me was that the psychologists tended to get the final word in over the editors. That might explain why a few things that bug me, such as how numbered lists are formatted and the exclusion of the journal issue number in most references, survived the final cut.

We did “win” clarification on the acceptance of first person. In the second printing, we also won single spacing after a period.

One specific rule I argued for was single line spacing of block quotes and reference lists. The fifth edition was ambiguous about it, which led to a lot of, um, discussions with faculty over spacing guidelines. The sixth edition clarified the rule, so now double spacing is required. That ended the arguments, all right, but I still think double-spaced block quotes are hard to read.

In any case, that’s all there was to it: a few phone calls and respectful email messages. Next on my list is the Congressional Medal of Honor, and I’ve already sent a few messages on my behalf to my close personal friend Congressman Keith Ellison. Stay tuned!