Welcome to a lesson in writing in style (APA style, that is)!
Do you remember as a child taking play dough (or clay) in your hands and molding it into a masterpiece? Do you remember the feeling of pride that you felt as you looked at your finished masterpiece? In graduate school, you have the opportunity to use words to create masterpieces in which you can also feel a sense of pride and experience success. However, before creating a successful masterpiece, you need to understand how to construct your masterpiece in style (APA style, that is). The purpose of this lesson is to assist you in understanding how to write a paper in APA style.
Objectives
When you are finished with this lesson, you should:
- Understand the importance of editorial styles
- Know how to configure your word processor for an APA-style manuscript
- Understand the organization and parts of an APA-style manuscript
- Be able to construct complete sentences and use sentence variety to increase the quality of your writing
- Be able to provide an orderly presentation of ideas through properly structured paragraphs
- Understand and be able to apply the basic punctuation and grammar rules outlined in the APA Publication Manual
- Understand and correctly use the basics of APA writing and editorial style
(Note the corresponding lesson to the "APA style" is the "APA Referencing and Citing" lesson. By completing this corresponding lesson, you should; (a) Know how to cite works in APA style and (b) Know how to write an APA style "Reference" page (Not a "Work cited" or "Bibliography" page -- these are not APA). Make sure you complete both lessons).
Learning this knowledge and these skills will assist you in:
- Successfully completing the writing assignments in this course (Note: The points highlighted in this lesson are VERY likely the instructors' "pet peeves")
- Successfully complete writing assignments throughout your college career (Be aware: instructors do have writing preferences. Be aware of this and always be sure to ask the instructor about their preferences prior to submitting a writing assignment.)
- Developing good written communication skills that will make you professionally marketable.
Let's get started!
