Use of the American Psychological Association Format of Citation - Article Example

? Concerns and Benefits Regarding the Use of the American Psychological Association (APA) Format of Citation The use of citation styles in any kind of professional written work reflects the different needs of each field of discipline in presenting whatever information is important. This caused the evolution of numerous styles to suit the writers’ needs. Scientific fields generally use the American Psychological Association format (APA), due to its emphasis on author and date of information source as well as its minimalism. The use of APA style in the field of nursing is beneficial because aside from letting the reader know the date the information was generated, it is possible to condense the message of the author while at the same time being recognized as the original author. This method of citation makes for a quick and efficient writing while preventing plagiarism. Concerns and Benefits Regarding the Use of the American Psychological Association (APA) Format of Citation Numerous citation formats are currently being used by most researchers and scholarly writers based on their specialization. The most popular style that can be used in any field is the Chicago or Turabian style, MLA is most used for the humanities, and APA style is used in the social sciences, and in recent years in education, research, and business as well (Lipson, 2011). The styles may vary according to what is needed to be presented, but all of these are borne out of the necessity of presenting thoughts or ideas as scholarly and as professionally as possible, all while giving appropriate recognition to the writers that presented the original ideas beforehand (Winkler & Metherell, 2011). Also, because the different writing styles are designed in order to properly present information in the field that these are most often used, one type of citation style may not be appropriate to use in other fields of study, and some necessary information that is usually needed in referencing may be omitted, or added, which could cause confusion (Lipson, 2011). Due to this, the use of a citation style must be in accordance to what kind of information is being presented. In addition, the use of specific styles for each field of discipline is needed to homogenize the presentation of information, especially for publications (Szuchman, 2010). The American Psychological Association (APA) created a format of information presentation around 80 years ago, in order for social scientists to establish a standard for communications in that field (American Psychological Association, APA, 2012a). This format is now popularly known as APA Citation Style, and is widely used because of its focus on sparing and straightforward presentation of information (APA, 2012a). There is much focus on the content, as well as the condensation and rephrasing of information from other sources, making this citation style more authoritative than other methods (Beins, 2012). Another characteristic of APA Citation Style is it being parenthetical, with much more focus on the name of the research writer and the date it was written. This is due to the fast nature of scientific research in generating new information and making other ideas obsolete in a short period of time (Winkler & Metherell, 2011). With this in mind, this kind of format is much more applicable in the field of nursing, since most concepts are most often needed in a condensed form, as well as the fast turnover rate of information in this field. The use of APA Citation Style in writing scholarly articles is very useful in my field of nursing, especially when writing research papers, position papers, or even short papers such as summaries of one or more articles. The use of the parenthetical method in citing information previously published is able to quickly tell the reader of the paper when this information was generated, and it could either strengthen the validity of an argument without adding any bias (APA, 2012b). Also, the style is designed to be as minimalist as possible for researchers to write and edit manuscripts much easier and faster, as compared to other styles of citation (Szuchman, 2010). Not only would this reduce the time for a writer in citing the necessary sources, but also the editor of the manuscript does not have to keep referring to a heavy or large book over and over again to see if the proper formatting was followed or not. The minimalist nature of using APA Citation Style or format is also very helpful when it comes to the need to incorporate so much information and rephrase it into a form that can be easily read by the intended audience. Unlike other citation styles that need specific details on which page or line the quotation was taken from, in APA format this is only used for very long paragraphs. However this is rather rare in scientific writing since most concepts are presented in a span of numerous sentences and paragraphs, thus making APA format a good choice when writing papers in a short amount of time (Coyle & Law, 2012). For example, instead of citing a whole chapter page per page, by just making a summarized version of the concepts in the chapter the writer could present shortened versions of the whole chapter for the reader, while at the same time giving credit to the original author of the publication by writing the name and date when the information was needed. APA format is also able to make it possible to quote two or more sources of information, which is rather hard to do with other citation styles such as MLA or Chicago (Winkler & Metherell, 2011). If two individual papers are saying the same thing, then it is rather simple to cite both authors in a single sentence. This makes the information stated in the paper even more reliable because two different groups of researchers agree on one thing. Another good use of APA format is that it is able to cite another person’s work within a citation itself. While the use of secondary sources is not as acceptable as using the original, if under certain circumstances the original cannot be located, the principal author can still be acknowledged, and be cited in the text along with the authors that mentioned the idea as primary information (Szuchman, 2010). This type of citation is unheard of in using MLA, thus in using APA format it is possible to present information from obsolete sources without having to resort in cutting such information out of the manuscript (Coyle & Law, 2012). Using APA format in citing articles makes for an easier output for writers however one critical skill is needed for them to successfully pull this kind of style off. To be able to fully maximize the citation style of APA, one must have thoroughly grasped the whole intent of the author being cited (Beins, 2012). This is necessary in order to prevent bringing incorrect or incomplete information in whatever is being written. The writer must therefore be conscious of the content of his or her work because if that information is not properly presented, it could bring incorrect information to future readers, or even worse, become discarded entirely due to incorrect or incomplete information. Another important aspect of writing using APA is the brevity of the information, with the minimal use of prose and more on the use of unbiased vocabularies and syntax (APA, 2012b). Because of the objective nature of sciences, there is no room for speaking what the writer thinks, but rather what the writer observed and concluded based on repeated tests. There is also the use of technical terms, which is very important so that universal concepts in a field of specialization do not need to be explained in detail over and over again (Beins, 2012). While at the beginning this makes the format seem unaccommodating to people without any ideas about the subject matter, but it should be remembered that these written output have a target audience in mind. It is therefore used for papers or manuscripts that presume that the readers are adequately familiar with what is being said (Szuchman, 2010). In the field of nursing, this is very relevant because most of the available reading resources are tailored to such a design of having specific readers, thus being very familiar with APA format could help not only in obtaining valuable information but also in using this information when writing scholarly papers. This specificity feature adds up to the minimalist nature of APA format. To summarize, the different citation styles were designed as such due to the different needs of each field of discipline in the presentation of relevant information. For writers of prose, styles that entail the use of citing specific passages or phrases are needed. But in the field of science, because passages can be condensed into a short sentence of phrase, there is not much need to be specific, just citing the original author of the idea and the date of its publication. The minimalist style of APA makes it possible to condense the message of the author being cited, as well as developing the skill of the writer in summarizing concepts. This is why APA is the choice in most fields in the sciences, and is equally beneficial in nursing as well. References American Psychological Association (APA). (2012a). About APA Style. Retrieved from APA Style: http://www.apastyle.org/about-apa-style.aspx ___________ (2012b). The Basics of APA Style. Retrieved from APA Style Website: http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/basics-tutorial.aspx Beins, B. C. (2012). APA Style Simplified: Writing in Psychology, Education, Nursing, and Sociology. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Coyle, W., & Law, J. (2012). Research Papers. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Lipson, C. (2011). Cite Right, Second Edition: A Quick Guide to Citation Styles--MLA, APA, Chicago, the Sciences, Professions, and More. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Szuchman, L. (2010). Writing With Style: APA Style Made Easy. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Winkler, A., & Metherell, J. (2011). Writing the Research Paper: A Handbook. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Read More