What are the most common APA style mistakes done by students
Need a 250 word reply for each of the two posts listed below. So that would be two separate replies that go with 1 and 2.
1.
Professor and class,
We are officially on week five; the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter! When reading the forum assignment, I usually rack my brain to meet the required wicket points, but this week it is a mental obstacle course of trying to narrow it down to three problems.
My first problem I have encountered while composing my rough draft is the same problem most of us have been struggling with throughout this course. Proper APA formatting and citations! I believe I have improved and made progress since week one, and hope to continue improving over the next 3 weeks before the final assignment is due and this class closes out. In last week’s forum, I posed the question in a response of “why are there so many different writing styles, why not just stick with one across the board”? I did a little research on it and found a viable answer. APA style of writing has a huge focus on dates, which is very important when presenting facts and peer reviewed information. APA also encourages paraphrasing as opposed to quoting directly from the source, which shows the student has a mental grasp on the information they are presenting instead of regurgitating someone else’s words. The third reason for APA in clinical writing is it incorporates headings and subcategories into the papers, which makes the information flow more professionally (McDonald, 2011).
My second problem has been with my sources. When researching my topic on civil forfeiture, I found a plethora of sources on the history of it, and how it came into existence, but I am still struggling to find outline specific information that I need to finish my paper. Sources that provide information on budgetary impacts on police departments that have restrained the use of that specific tactic, and positive community impact from asset seizing, such as programs that have been established to feed those funds back into the community. It is still a work in progress; I just need to hone my research skills a bit more on this.
My third problem has been time management. Everyone has things going on in their life and sometimes priorities like college can get bumped down on the list. I am on deployment currently, and it has been feeling like I am getting assignments submitted just under the wire with little time to spare. There are several good articles on time management, with suggestions like writing lists, making short term goals with rewards when you meet these goals, and trying to get to a mental state of believing you have good time management to undermine the overwhelmed feelings (Macan, Shahani, Dipbove, & Philips, 1990). One of the ways I believe I am going to counter this is by waiting until I get back to the States to start my Bachelor degree after this class is complete.
I wish everyone good luck on their rough drafts and final papers!
Respectfully,
Cara
References
Macan, T. H., Shahani, C., Dipboye, R. L., & Phillips, A. P. (1990). College students’ time management: Correlations with academic performance and stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(4), 760-768. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy1.apus.edu/10.1037/0022-0…
McDonald, K. E. (2011). Teaching the 6th edition of APA style of writing in counselor education.Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision, 3(2) Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docv…
2.
Hey guys! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Everyone already make their resolutions list yet?
Often times students will seem to have the some of the same issues when trying to tackle academic assignments, especially in regards to APA formatting. Normally these issues revolve around time management, proper citation, and finding enough resources to meet the requirements of the assignment. Of the three of these issues, it would seem that most students struggle with properly formatting and citing their work when working with APA. For example, according to Martin Vasilev (2013), nearly 86% of all APA papers lack a running header altogether or its formatted incorrectly. Furthermore, 75% didn’t include page numbers or these were formatted incorrectly as well. The numbers continue to be astronomically high in nearly every other area where APA citation could be substandard. These high numbers carry over for hanging indents, DOI’s, or capitalizing major words in their bibliography.
Time can be easily managed by building a little organization into the student’s life. They can help mitigate issues by making a to-do list and creating a timeline to get the tasks completed. This will help minimize stress and continually remind students of what is most important and what should be focused on first. Additionally, avoiding procrastination and distraction is huge in being successful for a college student. This may seem obvious, but young students are so attached to their social media that it affects their academics. A little discipline goes a long way; simply putting down the phone and actually working on the assignment may actually be the biggest bullet for success.
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Personally, I struggle with juggling being a full time active duty service member, student, and husband. It seems that there just isn’t enough time in the day to take care of all of my responsibilities. As I’m sure many of you feel, it seems that someone will always be disappointed because you just can’t get it all done. Unfortunately for me, it always seems that my wife gets the brunt of the lack of attention from me because I have to pay the bills and passing this class is crucial. One thing that I have to remind myself is that this just a season of life and that one day soon life will get back to normal.
Another thing that I find myself stressing out about is properly formatting in APA. I use the Purdue the Online Writing Lab and I always try and double check my work but it always seems that I miss something. I am getting better but with APA it seems that there are just so many variables that must be taken into account. I hope that over the next three weeks I can continue to get better and take what I have learned and apply it to future academic endeavors.
I haven’t found any issues in garnering enough resources to write my paper. There is almost an overabundance of people with an opinion on the War of Drugs. Wading thru all the information is probably a good problem to have I suppose.
-Matt
Works Cited
Vasilev, M. What are the most common APA style mistakes done by students? (2013, December 26). Retrieved from http://blog.efpsa.org/2013/01/15/what-are-the-most-common-apa-style-mistakes-done-by-students/#more-1555
Campbell, R. (2017, September 19). 7 Time Management Tips for Students. Retrieved from https://www.topuniversities.com/blog/7-time-management-tips-students
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