Forget You Read This: Your APA Bookmark
When new students (either undergraduate or graduate) begin their academic work at Walden, the one thing they I always hear about is APA. Some students are already familiar with APA, while it’s completely new to some. If so compelled to search on Google or within some of Walden’s own websites, APA is revealed to be a “set of rules” one must usually apply to academic papers to ensure they are written “properly” within the guidelines of all of Walden’s coursework. Beyond this brief introduction, there are also tales (horrific tales?) that APA contains hundreds of rules about formatting, headings, citations, and other strange rules that every student – especially you! – must commit to memory if you’re to succeed in your coursework. APA, you may have also heard, is impossible to learn, containing so many rules no one person can ever know it all.
If this is what you’ve heard, you now have my permission to forget all of it. I might even encourage you to forget this blog post.
While a small portion of it is true – Walden students do need to be familiar with APA – the horror stories of having to commit all of it to memory couldn’t be further from the truth. The happy ending to this story - the big reveal before the curtain goes down – is that everything you need to know about APA is located on the Writing Center website.
Now, it is true that APA gets easier the more you apply it to Walden coursework, committing the rules of APA to your memory is a naturally occurring process that occurs gradually over time. There is no APA-Olympics that will ever require you to take a timed “APA test” on which you will write down every APA rule under penalty of being removed from Walden. If this is an academic nightmare you’ve ever had, it is finally time to wake up. Your teachers at Walden absolutely understand how and why APA may be new to many of you, and the inherent challenges associated with applying (and thinking in) this new style of writing.
So, before you forget you ever read this blog post, here’s one final thought. Yes, APA will be a part of your academic writing while at Walden, and it contain rules you’ll need to learn over time. The good news is you never need to worry about learning all the rules or having them crammed in your brain all at once. The Walden Writing Center website is designed to be your “APA brain away from home.” We wrote all the rules down for you so they’re there when you need them.
When applying APA to writing Walden papers there are a few basic rules one needs to remember: the basic template of APA papers, how to use headings, and how to use citations, all of which are clearly revealed on our website. Bookmark our site (https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/home) and commit its URL to memory.
And –if you can’t do that—try a Post-It for your wall!
James A. Horwitz is a writing instructor in the Walden University Writing Center. James received his MA and MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, having first earned undergraduate degrees in both English and Psychology. James has taught at the college-level for over 13 years and is passionate about student-learning, mentoring, and student writers developing their work.
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Writing About COVID-19
COVID-19 is inescapable for us all in the year 2020 as a pandemic that has resulted in widespread economic, social, and political consequences. As a Walden student committed to research for social change, you may find yourself interested in researching and writing on topics related to the pandemic. Here are some definitions and tips on writing about COVID-19 to provide you some initial guidance.
The World Health Organization (WHO) as an international public health leader named the disease and the virus that causes it in February 2020:
- The disease is named coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
- The virus that causes COVID-19 is named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
The term “COVID-19” refers to the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. However, it also has wider application. The term is also used to refer to the pandemic resulting from widespread infections of that virus, as well as to the consequences of lockdowns and policies meant to limit the spread of COVID-19. For greater specificity, use “COVID-19” as a modifier for the specific aspect of medical, social, political, or economic consequences being addressed, as follows:
- Executive orders that prohibited public gatherings caused COVID-19 closures, resulting in the closing of local libraries. People who contract SARS-CoV-2 can have a range of COVID-19 symptoms, from little to no symptoms (asymptomatic) to severe respiratory issues.
- Following APA style guidance, look to a standard collegiate dictionary such as Merriam-Webster for spelling, which uses “COVID-19.” Note that you will see many variations on spelling and capitalization of the term in different publications, especially since the term is so new.
Although COVID-19 is an abbreviation for “coronavirus disease,” because it is listed as a term in the dictionary, it does not need to be introduced via abbreviations in your writing (see Section 6.25 in APA 7).
Other names for COVID-19 circulate fairly widely in political discussions, but many of these terms are explicitly racist and xenophobic and thus should not be used in research writing except as quotations or in discussions of the problematic nature of such terms. These names include terms such as “Wuhan virus” or “China virus” that name the location where the virus was first identified in an attempt to lay blame for the pandemic on a people, country, or government. For more information, consult the guidance issued by the United Nations (UN) on combatting COVID-19 hate speech.
For some examples of how psychology, health care, and public researchers and journalists discuss COVID-19, see the American Psychological Association’s page on APA COVID-19 Information and Resources.
As you consider different aspects of COVID-19 for research, keep in mind that as the pandemic is currently active, there is a lot of ambiguity about terminology along with heated political debate about the meanings of specific terms. Here are some examples of terms in wide circulation today that should you should carefully chose and define in your writing:
- social distancing
- quarantine, lockdown, stay at home orders, mask orders
- personal protective equipment (PPE)
- face masks, face coverings, cloth masks, respirators, N95 masks, surgical masks
As always, please email or chat with Writing Center staff if you have additional questions about how to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic accurately, clearly, and objectively in your writing.
Paul Lai, Manager, Website and Information Resources
Paul Lai manages the Writing Center's website. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with his partner and their two dogs.
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The Five Es of Development in Scholarly Research Writing
A complete piece of writing is a developed piece of writing, and well-developed writing relies on the inclusion of relevant and plentiful details. But what counts as details? In today’s blog post, I would like to present the idea of the “Big Es” that I use to encourage Walden University writers to more-fully develop their ideas.
Evidence
Evidence includes details you have found in your research that are related to your topic, interesting, and that spark a response in you. These include statistics, data, or proof of some sort. Remember, you will be commenting on the research in some way, which is why it is important that this data or evidence means something to you.
For example, in a paper about emergency room safety, a writer would want to include statistics that prove how safe (or unsafe) that environment is. If the writer wanted to prove that the emergency room in their city was unsafe, statistics and data showing a high rate of post-visit infections would do a lot of support that claim.
Experts
Expert opinion can be a useful detail as it gives you a chance to engage in a conversation with the leading voices in your field. As a student writer, you are working on becoming an expert in your field. Eventually, you will be interacting with other experts. You can practice this in your course work by including expert opinion and then responding to it. Do you agree? Disagree? How does it relate to other content you have read? Additionally, it is possible to use experts to bolster your own opinion. It can be powerful to include expert opinion when that expert agrees with you. While we can’t solely paraphrase and quote experts over and over and expect that to develop our writing, if you find an expert who agrees with you, it is possible to point to them as proof that your thinking is sound.
For example, if a writer was proposing a new health regulation, they could base their regulation on suggestions made by experts. It isn’t possible to be an expert on everything, so if this writer is an expert in legislation, they would need some help from experts in other fields to craft proposed bills, laws, and regulations.
Examples
An example is helpful because it shows your topic in action. Examples are short summaries of something that happened at some point in time. They illustrate complex theories or ideas that are hard to see otherwise. If you are writing a narrative or personal reflection, you will likely want to include some examples from your own life and work. As you describe what happened to you, you will then be able to follow it up with analysis about why it is important, what it reveals, or how it inspired you. Note that you can also include examples that you read about in your research; case studies are common examples writers include.
For example, in a paper that looks at the pros and cons of different instructional strategies, the writer may want to use examples from their own classroom to illustrate the challenges and benefits they saw. These examples could be paired with other examples and results found in the research as well, which would work together to develop a comprehensive look at those instructional strategies.
Explanation
For example, in a paper about how organizational leaders can capitalize on the strengths of their teams, the writer would likely define what it means to capitalize on strengths, present research and expert voices on this strategy, and perhaps even share examples of how they have done so in their own work. Following this, the writer could explain why it is important to capitalize on strengths in that way. Explaining how and why can help your reader follow along.
Energy!
For example, if a student has to write about counseling strategies they could use with a specific hypothetical client, the student could see if they can choose which client to write about. They could also review all of the counseling strategies to pick the one(s) they feel the most passionate about. Either of these would help bring more of their energy and excitement to the writing.
These Big Es can help remind you of all the content out that that you can include as details or evidence in your paragraphs. Feeling stuck in the middle of drafting can be frustrating, so turn to this list to see if inspiration hits in terms of finding a new type of detail to include. If you want to spend more time thinking about your paragraphs and development, consider working on our paragraph development module or watching our webinar on building and organizing academic arguments.
Melissa Sharpe is a Writing Instructor in teh Walden University Writing Center. Her favorite part of working with writers is helping to facilitate the writing process.
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WriteCast Episode 51: Using Evidence In Academic Writing
Visit the Writing Center's WriteCast page for our episode archive and transcripts. Happy listening!
WriteCast: A Casual Conversation for Serious Writers is a monthly podcast written, produced, and published by staff in the Walden University Writing Center. Join us each month for a dialogue between two experienced and helpful writing instructors. Possible episode topics will always be considered from listeners--share your questions and suggestions in the comments.
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Foundational Concepts for Transitioning Writers: Using Evidence
Are you returning to school for the first time in a long time? Or maybe you’ve just completed one degree, and you’re seamlessly entering your next program of study. If you’re like many Walden University students who are just starting their first term in their degree program, you probably have many questions about what it means to engage in scholarly academic writing. To help make the transition into scholarly writing as seamless as possible, over the next few weeks we here at the Walden University Writing Center would like to share some of the Foundational Concepts for Transitioning Writers. Enjoy!
What is Evidence?
All Writing Instructors at Walden drink a lot of orange juice. They drink more orange juice because it gives them energy and makes them more intelligent.
Claire Helakoski is a Writing Instructor at the Walden Writing Center and holds an MFA in Creative Writing. She has taught writing and Composition as well as acted as a writer and editor in a variety of mediums. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and enjoys reading, writing creatively, and board games of all kinds.
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Narrative Writing: Scholarly Narrative Overview
In the coming weeks on this blog, our Blog Team will take an in-depth look at a common (yet complex) type of academic writing that Walden University students are often asked to write: Scholarly Narrative Writing Assignments. Narrative writing is mostly associated with creative writing and other forms of informal prose. However, as scholar-practitioners, Walden students must be prepared to share their professional and academic experiences in a variety of scholarly contexts. With that in mind, over the next few weeks this blog will feature expert advice to help writers strike that perfect balance between formal exposition and personal descriptive writing. We hope you learn and enjoy!
Michael Dusek is a Writing Instructor in the Walden University Writing Center. He has taught writing at universities in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, and enjoys helping students improve their writing. To Michael, the essay is both expressive and formal, and is a method for creative problem solving. In his personal life, he enjoys the outdoors, books, music, and all other types of art.
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