Citation Generators (Never Work)

It is a marvel of modern technology that so few things work well.  A marvel made more all the more impressive by how many things work especially poorly–poorly even considering that most things don’t work. Printers don’t work; television remotes don’t work; Microsoft quietly installed some AI garbage on my computer last week and suggested…Continue Reading Citation Generators (Never Work)

References in APA: Chapters in Books

Citing a chapter in a book is similar to citing an article in a journal: chapter-article, journal-book. The one major difference is that you include the editorial information with a chapter/book and omit it for the article/journal. But, just because the process is similar doesn’t mean the product is similar. Italics, capitalization, and punctuation aren’t…Continue Reading References in APA: Chapters in Books

References in APA: Books

If you’re trying to get good at citing things in APA, writing reference entries for books is a decent place to start. Because there are a lot of different kinds of books–single author, multiple authors, edited collection, translations, parts of a series, multi-volume, self-published, whatever–the general entry for a book has to be flexible enough…Continue Reading References in APA: Books

References in APA: Reports (Industry, Government, Company, etc.)

“Reports” are kind of like the classic men’s suit of the APA reference world. Don’t know what to wear? Dark blazer (single-breasted, three-buttons), slacks the same color or lighter; white button-down, no fancy collars, keep a tie handy; belt or suspenders, not both. Don’t know what to do with the thing you’re trying to cite?…Continue Reading References in APA: Reports (Industry, Government, Company, etc.)

References in APA: Statista

Statista is kinda weird. It basically aggregates descriptive statistics from all over the place (mostly free data–open source, publicly available, government reports, etc.) and then makes nice tables and charts with it.  It isn’t really something that you’d be citing for research that you intend to publish; for that, you’d go to those sources directly….Continue Reading References in APA: Statista

References in APA: Journal Articles

General form of a reference entry for a journal article Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author C. C. (DATE). Title of the article: Sentence case capitalization. Title of the Journal in Title Case Capitalization, Vol#(Iss#), pg-pg. DOI When you’re putting together your reference entry, you will need the following information: Authors Year of…Continue Reading References in APA: Journal Articles

How to Cite and Reference Absolutely Anything in APA

In the beginning was the Word. The APA came later. The world was not designed to be categorized. When a product engineer wrote the warning material that accompanies the television you just bought–the one that tells you not to plug it into a flooded electrical socket or not to put the plastic packaging over your…Continue Reading How to Cite and Reference Absolutely Anything in APA

AI Writing and Attribution: AI Cannot Cite *Anything*

If you’ve looked for pedagogical resources on using AI writing in the classroom (“best practices,” info on assignment design, suggestions on how to catch plagiarism) you’ve probably seen notes like this: “Models like ChatGPT have been recorded in multiple cases to cite sources for information that are either not correct or do not exist” (Wikipedia,…Continue Reading AI Writing and Attribution: AI Cannot Cite *Anything*

APA 7th Edition General Information and Tips

Professors, like many of us, are not always direct when expressing their wants. Nowhere is this more true than when a professor tells you that your paper should adhere to APA formatting/style guidelines. “My professor wants my paper to be in APA style…” When your professor says that your paper has to adhere to APA…Continue Reading APA 7th Edition General Information and Tips