Thread: APA Question & first week of MBA :)

Good news - I got my feedback and grades from week 1 semana 1 of my MBA Organizational Design/Diseño Organizacional class. First of all, I was top rated in the forum discussions. ha ha ha - who would have guessed that a forum classroom setting would suit me very well.. I guess these IC forums really do prepare you for more than just the undergrad!

Secondly, I got my first paper back with a 90% grade and feedback. A few very minor comments (and a couple of tiny Spanish corrections, but hey this is my first graduate paper!), but my major screw-up was that I didn't use APA citation properly throughout my work. I just did the whole paperThis is and put the references at the end.

Huh? I didn't know that was incorrect! Sorry.. that's what my team at COSC did on our papers so I figured this was ok. Am I supposed to put the number where the reference is. I feel dumb but I have no idea what those little tiny numbers are called and don't know how to use them throughout the text. I've been looking for an answer online and I'm still a little fuzzy. Can someone explain this to me in very simple language? I am truly horrible at following instructions so I could use Idiot's Guide-type directions.

Thanks!!!

Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide

Two words for you... Purdue Owl. The Purdue OWL: APA Style

The basics of in-text citation: Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide

The basics of reference list: Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide

Depending on what your resources are, there may be a "cite" button somewhere that will pop up a handy little prewritten citation. Otherwise you have to work it out yourself. There are little citation generators all over the internet which you can put your reference info into and it will pop out a perfectly formatted reference.

Good luck, and good job on your first Spanish grad paper!!!

ETA: dammit, rebel totally stole my thunder

lol, sorry....at least great minds think alike

This is one of the reasons I feel writing courses are so important. At TESC they were very strict on citing correctly (at least in all my courses). Big points were deducted for not getting it right but I already took ENG121/122 at my community college; my professors were sticklers (thank goodness).

The superscript number references are either footnotes (reference at the bottom of the page) or endnotes (reference list at the end of the document).

The APA style guide is now on edition 6, you can pick up a copy at amazon. I also use the word program citations (under reference tab) but still have to tweak it for exact style.

In the interim use the owl website for guidance Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide
Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide

Here is a sample of an APA paper
Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide


Edit: a bit of redundancy here (sorry rebel and ponygirl). And remember graduate work is more in depth than undergrad so you will definitely need a style guide. Probably a few. Here is another good resource:
Amazon.com: Academic Writing for Graduate Students, Second Edition: Essential Tasks and Skills (Michigan Series in English for Academic & Professional Purposes) (9780472088560): John M. Swales, Christine Feak: Books

Originally Posted by burbuja0512

Am I supposed to put the number where the reference is. I feel dumb but I have no idea what those little tiny numbers are called and don't know how to use them throughout the text. I've been looking for an answer online and I'm still a little fuzzy. Can someone explain this to me in very simple language? I am truly horrible at following instructions so I could use Idiot's Guide-type directions.

Thanks!!!

I thought APA didn't use the superscript numbers. I just looked the the APA 6th edition and didn't see it in the sample papers (unless I missed it). The superscript (little number at the end of the citation) is used in Chicago/Turabian writing style. That's what we are using at AMU/APU. Are you sure they don't want Chicago/Turabian instead of APA?

Originally Posted by CLEP101

I thought APA didn't use the superscript numbers. I just looked the the APA 6th edition and didn't see it in the sample papers (unless I missed it). The superscript (little number at the end of the citation) is used in Chicago/Turabian writing style. That's what we are using at AMU/APU. Are you sure they don't want Chicago/Turabian instead of APA?

Nope.. he says APA. I don't know if he wants the superscript or if he means that I just didn't mention my references at all throughout the text. I would think that APA style is the same no matter where you're at, but I'm not sure if I totally screwed up or if they have a slightly different version.

Thanks everyone for the links! I had seen the OWL link before but I'm just going to have to keep re-reading until it all makes sense.. A while back, Noodle Tools was recommended and I use that one to plug my references in and have the citation generated. I'm sure that there's probably more functionality to it so I'll also have to check it out.

UGH. Who would have thought that my most challenging part of a graduate class in Spanish would be the @#%$ citation?

@bricabrac - yes I agree with you regarding the English classes. For a while now, I have been saying here that everyone that plans on going on to graduate level work should take at least one or two classes at the undergrad level, otherwise it will be crazy difficult at the grad level. That's probably one of the reasons that COSC put in the Cornerstone, it covers all that sort of "intro to college" type stuff.

I do think it's weird that I took English back in the early 90's in community college and never heard of APA or any other style for all that goes. Was it not as important back then or perhaps I wasn't in the type of class that would need it? (I honestly can't remember)

there is software that you can use with your word processor that will help you. I don't remember specific names, an hour with google will return more results than you can handle. Anyway, it overlays your work into APA format in the same way a spell check does. For instance, when you're signed in with Google Chrome and you come to Instantcert to the forum, a spelling error is underlined in red. It's automatic, not something you have to "do" here- as opposed to being here through Internet Explorer which requires you to "use" spell check. So, this works WITH your existing word processing software. Anyway, when I looked into buying a program, it was around $40. If I were enrolled in a grad program, I'd add this to my budget for sure!

Just get zotero. Its free, and works with MS Word. I don't know if it works for Spanish, but you could check it out.

It will cite in whatever format you want. You can in text citations, and it will create, with one click, your whole bibliography of works cited.

Might I suggest: APA PERRLA software helps students properly format papers in APA style and create citations and references - PERRLA.com