Discussion 1: You’re the Editor
The APA Publication Manual is an essential reference guide for all students and practitioners in the social and behavioral sciences. The purpose of this Discussion is to assist you in becoming familiar with and applying key parts of the manual. For this Discussion, you will play the role of an editor who must provide feedback to the writer, identifying and correcting flaws in the writer’s use of citations, quotes, and references. How would you make the writer’s work reflect the language of the profession?
To prepare for this Discussion:
- View the video APA Citations Part I: The Methods to the Madness, and read the Study Notes from the Learning Resources.
- Become familiar with the APA Publication Manual; review Chapter 6, “Crediting Sources,” and Chapter 7, “Reference Examples,” and note their contents and the variety of topics covered.
- Review the “Assignment Sheet: Social Change” document (located in this week’s Learning Resources area) for an excerpt that includes quotes, paraphrased information, and reference information without format.
- Review the Course Announcement from your Instructor about the peer-review process, and note the colleagues that you have been paired with.
With these thoughts in mind:
Complete the following steps by Day 3:
Step 1: Select one paragraph from the Social Change excerpt to edit. This document is found in the Learning Resources.
Step 2: Referring to Chapter 6 of the APA Publication Manual, revise the paragraph in correct APA format, rewriting the citations, quotations, and references as necessary. Use the references listed for your paragraph number as your citation sources.
Step 3: For this Discussion, the references for each paragraph are listed in the Social Change excerpt. These references are not in correct APA format. Using the information from Chapter 7 of the APA Publication Manual, put the references for your paragraph in correct APA format.
Step 4: Post your edited paragraph and references to the Discussion 1 board.
By Day 5: Review your paired colleague’s post. Provide constructive feedback to help improve any aspect of his or her APA format editing. Post your feedback to your colleague’s work in the same Discussion thread. Remember to be professional in your communications and when providing feedback. Learning APA format is difficult; you are not expected to catch everything the first time!
Discussion 2: Peer-Review Process Feedback
In general, when one researches what helps students learn APA format, the sources usually suggest a lot of practice. You will be expected to put your main Discussion responses and Assignments in APA format in all of your graduate courses, so you will, indeed, get this practice. Peer reviews are also noted as one way to effectively receive feedback.
To prepare for this Discussion:
- Review the feedback that you provided and received for this week’s Discussion 1 exercise.
- Reflect on the process of receiving, as well as providing, constructive feedback.
With these thoughts in mind:
Post by Day 4 an explanation of the process that you followed in order to provide feedback to your partner. What did you learn about APA format or the Publication Manual as a result of this exercise? Do you feel the references that were cited were scholarly sources of information for the paper? Why or why not? What did you learn from the feedback that you received that will improve your APA-format writing style?
Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.
Respond by Day 6 to at least two colleagues by providing an example or personal experience that illustrates one of the points made by your colleagues.