APA Citations: The Method to the Madness
Does it ever feel as though the American Psychological Association made
its formatting rules especially complex, just to frustrate poor students like
you? Often, it’s hard to understand why italicizing
this line or capitalizing that word is so important. Shouldn’t you be spending
more time and energy on the content of
your writing—your ideas?
Believe it or not, there are clear
reasons for these guidelines that are directly related to the content of your
work. APA rules are actually designed to help you communicate your ideas more
clearly. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through a Q & A based on a reference
in APA style, highlighting how APA formatting rules are designed to help social
scientists communicate.
First, take a look at this sample
article reference. (This source is made up, so don’t go looking for it in the
library!)
Kallman Arneson, B. (2012). Chocolate as a critical
component of effective paper-writing. Journal of Writing and Dessert, 5(2),
12-16. doi:10.1027/0269-8803.20.4.253
Q: Why does APA
require only the author’s last name and first initial to be listed?
A: This rule directly reflects the role of the author in
social science writing. Social scientists must remain objective and unbiased,
so a social science author’s identity is less critical to the studies they
produce than, say, a novelist. Unlike in the humanities, in the social sciences
the data a study produces are more critical to the ongoing
conversation than who conducted the study.
Q: Why is the publication year listed so near the
beginning of the reference in APA, but near the end in some other citation
styles?
A: In the social sciences, when a study was
conducted is more important than who conducted it. Knowing how recent a study
is can help you evaluate its usefulness in drawing conclusions in your own
research. So, after the author’s last name and first initial, which helps
organize sources alphabetically, the year the study was published is the next
most important information in APA style.
Q: Why does APA require article titles to be listed in
sentence case, meaning that only the first word, the first word after a colon,
and proper nouns are capitalized, even
if it is formatted differently in the original source?
A: Unlike the title of a work of fiction, the purpose of
an article title is to describe the content of the study. The reader should be
able to assess the relevance of the article to his or her own research simply
by reading its title. Therefore, it makes more sense to print the titles in
sentence case, so the reader can scan them easily for information, just like a
sentence.
Q: What is the purpose of URLs and DOIs? Why can’t I just list the database where I found
the article?
A: APA requires DOIs or URLs to the journal website,
rather than a database, in order to make the resources in your reference list
as universally accessible as possible. A DOI, or digital object identifier, is
the ideal retrieval information for a source, because it is guaranteed not to
change. However, some online articles do not have DOIs. When this is the case,
readers are most likely to be able to locate and access the article on the
journal website, no matter what kind of database access they have.
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An excellent guide on APA formatting.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Emilia!
DeleteThanks so much
DeleteThank you for the bit on sentence case! I had not gotten that subtlety yet :)
ReplyDeleteSure thing! That's what we're here for!
DeleteHello, I have an in-text citation, but I'm confused how to cite, first author 2002, and second author 2021 . Example "Albert et al., 2002 as citied in Kunhenrither, 2021" how would I cite this correctly
ReplyDeleteGreat question! First off, we always recommend trying to use the primary source if possible. If you can locate a copy of Albert et al.'s 2002 article, you can ensure Kunhenrither used their information/wording correctly and with adherence to the original authors' argument. If you can't find the 2002 article, you would create what we call a secondary source citation. You can find information about secondary sources on our website Here: https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/apa/citations/secondarysources Thanks for reading and commenting!
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