Joe Giampalmi, EdD, is a Hall of Fame educator with 50 years of experience. During his two decades at Rowan University, Dr. Giampalmi has taught more than 100 APA-style composition research courses. He has presented countless workshops to high school and college faculties and modeled more than 1,000 writing lessons for elementary and high school students.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Conforming to Standards: APA and the Academic Environment 5

Chapter 1: Capitalizing on Consistency: APA and the Academic Classroom 7

Understanding APA and Academic Standards 8

Standardizing how you handle topics 10

Respecting the academic environment 10

Comparing APA and MLA 13

Identifying Your Role in Academic Process 15

APA and high school classrooms 16

APA and college courses 17

APA and comp courses 18

APA and content courses 19

APA and online courses 20

Confronting Cultural Differences — APA and Nonnative English Students 21

Seeking a professor who supports language learning 22

Understanding that English isn’t easy 23

Making the transition seamlessly 24

Chapter 2: Updating and Debugging: APA Seventh Edition 27

Transitioning from the Sixth: APA for Today 28

Focusing on the Title Page and Page Organization 29

Running heads 30

Period spacing 30

Levels of headings 30

Font options 30

DOI and URL Formatting 31

Paper length 31

Bold section headings 31

Writing improvement plan 31

Page order 31

Eyeing the Changes with Citations and References 32

Addressing Bias-Free Writing Style and Updated Mechanics 34

Approaching APA Updates: Mindset 35

Student Publishing: Your Goal As a Serious Writer 37

Chapter 3: Understanding Expectations: APA and Discourse Communities 39

Understanding Academic Expectations in College 40

Figuring out what you want to achieve in college 41

Fulfilling your professors’ expectations: Your needs 42

Examining APA Expectations 47

Overcoming Adversity 48

Identifying Discourse Communities You’ll Encounter in College 49

College communities 50

Course communities 52

APA community 53

Graduation community 53

Chapter 4: Protecting Scholarship: Plagiarism 57

Academic Integrity: Get Your Sheepskin 58

Defining academic integrity 58

Looking at the research 59

Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty: You Know Better 60

Cheating 60

Self-plagiarism 60

Patchwriting 61

Conflicts of interest 61

Unauthorized collaboration 61

Falsification 61

Plagiarism 62

Avoiding Plagiarism: Your Responsibilities 63

Manage your time wisely 63

Advocate academic integrity 64

Identify assignment limitations 64

Detail your research 64

Practice responsible citing 65

Utilize APA feedback resources 65

Steer clear of unreliable strategies 66

Closing Cultural Gaps: APA Strategies for Nonnative English Students 68

Grasping cultural differences in education 68

Utilizing additional APA strategies for non-native English students 69

Part 2: Earning Applause: APA Writing for the Academic Audience 71

Chapter 5: Writing for Success: APA Writing Style 73

Focusing on the Why and How: Audience and Purpose 74

Academic and assignment audience 75

Purpose 76

Zeroing In: Assignment Approach and Focus 77

Approach 78

Focus 79

Smooth Sailing: Transitions and Flow 80

Organizational flow 81

Transition strategies 82

Writing with Attitude: Tone 83

Recalling Sandbox Lessons: Respectful Language 86

Racial and ethnic references 87

Age and disability references 87

Gender and sexual orientation references 88

Socioeconomic references 90

Chapter 6: Creating a Foundation: The Principal Parts of Speech, Structure, and Usage 91

Shining the Spotlight on the Stars of the Show: Action Verbs 92

Using your voice 92

Being in agreement 94

Focusing on tense 95

Avoiding Anonymity: Nouns 96

Designating Replacements: Pronouns 97

Staying in agreement 97

Eyeing APA person preferences 98

Using the singular “they” 99

Building Basics: Structures 99

Sentences and paragraphs 100

Parallelism 101

Reducing Confusion: Problem Pairs 103

Problem pairs 103

Problem pronouns 104

Misplaced description 105

Chapter 7: Navigating Pages: Conventions of Style 107

Marking Cadence: Punctuation 108

End punctuation and spacing 108

Comma 109

Semicolon and colon 109

Dashes and slashes 111

Quotation marks 112

Parentheses, brackets, and ellipses 113

Seeking Attention: Special Conventions 115

Italics 115

Abbreviations 116

Numbers 117

Perfecting Appearance: Spelling 117

Spelling strategies 118

Possessives 119

Foreign forms 120

Hyphenation 120

Standing Tall: Capitalization 122

Proper nouns 123

Titles and headings 124

Chapter 8: Covering All Bases: Three-Level Revising 127

Revising: Why Rewriting Is So Important 129

Seeking feedback when revising 130

Rewriting in action: A real-life example 130

Streamlining: Structural Organization 133

Opening: Working title, first sentence, and introduction 133

Middle 137

Closing 137

Paring: Paragraphs and Sentences 140

Sentence starters 141

Spoken-language wordiness 142

Wordy phrases and clauses 143

Whittling Words 144

Unnecessary and overused words 144

Verb and ly-adverb combinations 147

Superfluous verb endings 148

Chapter 9: Achieving Your Personal Best: Student Improvement Plan 151

Understanding What Makes a College Reader 152

Developing Lifetime Literacy Skills: Reading for Success 154

Reading to learn 154

Improving your reading plan 158

Writing As a Skill for Lifetime Success 162

Developing Lifetime Literacy Skills: Writing for Success 163

Writing to learn 163

Putting together your writing improvement plan 165

Part 3: Practicing Safe Cites: Writing and Citing Sources 169

Chapter 10: Gaining Insight: To Cite or Not to Cite 171

Crediting Sources: General Guidelines 173

Full and partial quotations 174

Block quotations 174

Summarizing and paraphrasing 175

Statistical data within the context of research 176

Terms specific to a field 176

Tables, Internet images, and clip art 176

Facts and figures that aren’t common knowledge 177

Controversial information that contradicts generally accepted truths 177

No citations required 178

Coordinating Citations: Common Elements 178

Citing author-date format 179

Citing repeated narratives 180

Sections of a source 180

Citing an unknown author 181

Citing numerous authors 181

Citing same author, same date 182

Citing authors with the same surname 182

Citing organization authors 182

Addressing Special Approaches: Personal, Authoritative, and Legal 182

Personal communication 183

Academic authorities 183

Legal reference 183

Citing Electronic Sources: Websites, Periodicals, Software, and Visuals 184

Evaluating Sources 185

Determining what makes a reliable source 185

Assessing the quality of the sources cited 186

Chapter 11: Preparing for Conflict: Source Engagement 191

Pre-Gaming: Gathering Sources 192

Rehearsing: Preparing Sources 193

Using signal phrases 195

Summarizing and citing correctly 196

Paraphrasing and citing correctly 197

Quoting and citing correctly 198

Synthesizing: Engaging with Sources 199

Author and source 200

Source and source 201

Source, source, and author 201

Source, source, and source 202

Primary sources as engagement 202

Post-Gaming: Verifying Information 203

Chapter 12: Formatting Last Impressions: Reference List 205

Playing by the Rules: General Guidelines 206

Coordinating Reference Elements: Author, Date, Title, and Source 208

Author 209

Date 210

Title 211

Source 212

Clarifying Elements: Reference Conventions and Abbreviations 213

Punctuating your references 213

Capitalizing references 214

Playing by the Rules: Specifics for Formatting Periodicals 215

Seeing Is Believing: Real-Life Reference Items 216

Books and reference works 217

Edited book Chapters and works in reference books 218

Periodical and journal articles 219

Reports 221

Audiovisual media and works 222

Online media 224

Conferences and presentations 225

Webpages and websites 225

Legal reference 225

Extending References: Annotated Bibliography 226

Part 4: Perfecting Presentation: Beginnings, Endings, and Other Writings 227

Chapter 13: Preparing Appetizers and Desserts: Front and Back Materials 229

Opening Impressions: Formatting Front Matter 230

Previewing your paper: Table of contents 231

Listing figures and tables 232

Focusing on abstracts 234

Including an executive summary 236

Closing Remarks: Formatting Back Matter 238

Wrapping up with appendixes 238

Ending with a glossary 239

Including footnotes and endnotes 241

Chapter 14: Acing a First Impression: Formatting Title Page and Page Layout 243

Naming Writes: Title Page and Titles 244

Recognizing title page elements 245

Strategizing for writing titles 247

Packaging Appearance: Formatting and Organization 249

Page formatting: Consistency is key 249

Page organization: Sequence is essential 251

Chapter 15: Understanding First Year Writing: APA Essays and Reaction Papers 257

Conquering College Comp: Essay Basics 258

Differentiating essays from research writing 258

Identifying the fundamentals of writing an essay 259

Focusing on Essay Structure and Formatting 262

Writing a memorable essay title 263

Starting your essay with a bang 263

Giving the body what it needs: Figurative language 265

Avoiding crash endings 266

Formatting your essay 266

Formatting your essay citations 267

Implementing Essay Variations: Common College Essays 268

Narrative 268

Cause and effect 269

Comparison and contrast 270

Expository 270

Persuasive 271

Descriptive 272

Reading and Responding: Reaction Paper Basics 272

Writing a successful reaction paper 273

Organizing a reaction paper 275

Formatting a reaction paper 276

Chapter 16: Mastering Advanced Writing: APA Review of Literature 279

Reviewing Literature: Searches and Steps 280

Starting the search 281

Focusing on the topic 284

Sequencing the process in four steps 285

Studying Samples: Introduction, Body, and Conclusion 289

Starting with the thesis: The introduction 289

Developing the thesis: The body 289

Ending with significant findings: The conclusion 293

Determining other major sections 295

Laying Out Pages and the Title Page of the APA Literature Review 296

Chapter 17: Perfecting Specialized Writings: APA Reports 299

APA Report Writing: Creating and Organizing 300

Eyeing the purpose and benefits of reports 300

Examining report characteristics 301

Writing Reports in Six Easy-to-Follow Steps 303

Step 1: Plan and focus 304

Step 2: Search for information 305

Step 3: Analyze the information 305

Step 4: Organize major and optional sections 305

Step 5: Write the report 305

Step 6: Revise 307

Adapting APA Formatting to Reports 307

Studying Report Samples: Introduction, Body, and Conclusion 309

Introduction 309

Body 309

Conclusion 311

Organizing Your Report: Other Essential Sections 311

Acknowledgments 311

Glossary 312

Executive summary 312

Transmittal memo 313

Table of contents 313

Methodology 313

Recommendations 314

Appendixes 315

Discussion 315

APA Report Writing: Specializing and Personalizing 316

Business reports 316

Education reports 317

Science reports 317

Periodic reports 317

Sales and marketing reports 317

Proposal reports 317

Feasibility studies 318

Recommendation reports 318

Technical reports 318

Academic reports 318

Project progress reports 319

Field reports 319

Research reports 319

Part 5: The Parts of Ten 321

Chapter 18: Ten Priorities for Proficient Academic Writing 323

Analyze Assignments 323

Focus on Audience and Purpose 324

Begin Assignments with Background Reading 325

Plan Projects 325

Focus on Specific Nouns and Action Verbs 326

Reference Sources Beyond Professors’ Expectations 326

Write Tight and Revise 326

Read and Read Some More 327

Write, Write, and Write 328

Develop a Writer’s Work Ethic 328

Chapter 19: Ten Strategies for Creative Source Engagement 331

Look for Power Language within Sources 332

Think Critically to Analyze Sources 332

Utilize Professors as a Source 333

Extend Conversations 334

Master a Variety of Signal Phrases 334

Use Source Engagement with Every Applicable College Paper 335

Engage Exclusively with Classic Sources 335

Engage with Anecdotes 336

Learn from Sources 337

Turn to Primary Sources 337

Chapter 20: Ten Tips for High-Scoring Research Papers 339

Form a Study Group 339

Peer Up 340

Include a Few Optional Parts 340

Schedule Reviews with Your Writing Center 341

Perfect Your Reference List 342

Select a Local Topic with a Global Application 342

Contact an Expert for an Interview 343

Create Checklists 343

Attend to Details 343

Utilize the Professor’s Office Hours 344

Index 345

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