A Bonus Blog!!

Merry Christmas Eve. It’s -1 degree on our mountain top with a wind chill of -13. Our internet is out—so I think I’ll do a bonus blog.

As an editor working with doctoral students and faculty, I’ve had to learn APA style (in my past life as a sociologist, I used the American Sociological Association’s style and that is what I taught to my sociology students). Nearly all my graduate student clients have used APA 6 or 7, so I not only know “basic APA” but also the nuances between version 6 and 7.

What I thought I’d do is a quick overview of the most common errors I correct, to perhaps help those of you who are self-editing your manuscripts.

Let’s start with a basic reference citation for a journal article with DOI. One thing — while I know a lot of things, I cannot figure how to indent a line in Word Press, so I apologize, but every line but the first one in what you see should be indented. Please use your imagination!! :

APA6

LastNameAuthor1, FirstName’sInitialAuthor1, & LastNameAuthor2, FirstName’sInitialAuthor2. (year). Title of article with only first word capitalized: Subtitle with only first word capitalized. Journal Name with Nearly All Words Capitalized and Italicized, 25(2), 115-131. Doi: 10.xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxx

Note 1: If the author has both first and middle names or first name and middle initial, then use the FirstNameInitial (space) MiddleNameInitial.
Note 2: 25 is italicized and represents the volume # of the journal
Note 3: (2) non-italicized represents the edition within the volume
Note 4: 115-131 represents the starting-ending page numbers
Note 5: Do not put a period at the end of the doi address
Note 6: Doi means the digital object identified (the durable URL for the article). Notice that it does not begin with http or https.

Some other things to notice:

-Don’t use “and” between the two authors, but “, &”. If there are 3 authors, use a comma between first 2 authors and then the “, &” before authors 2 & 3.

-About capitalization of title and subtitle: if there are words which are proper nouns (e.g., America), then they will still be capitalized in title.

-Some other styles put quote marks around a journal article’s title but APA6 does not

Now here’s the APA7 for the same article.

LastNameAuthor1, FirstName’sInitialAuthor1, & LastNameAuthor2, FirstName’sInitialAuthor2. (year). Title of article with only first word capitalized: Subtitle with only first word capitalized. Journal Name with Nearly All Words Capitalized and Italicized, 25(2), 115-131. https:doi.org//10.xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxx

Note 1: If the author has both first and middle names or first name and middle initial, then use the FirstNameInitial (space) MiddleNameInitial.
Note 2: 25 is italicized and represents the volume # of the journal
Note 3: (2) non-italicized represents the edition within the volume
Note 4: 115-131 represents the starting-ending page numbers
Note 5: Do not put a period at the end of the doi address.

Do you see the changes? There are only three. Look at the “doi” – do you see that in APA7 starts with “https”? That’s the first change. The second one is further into the doi address; it uses “doi.org//” before starting the numerals in the address. The third one is that there is no space now anywhere in the “doi” section of the reference; there was a space between “Doi:” and the numbers which followed.

I know, these seem like small changes, don’t they? In some ways they are. And to me, one of the changes is odd—I have wondered why, in APA6, they decided to remove the “https:” part of the Doi’S URL, only to add it back in APA7.

Here are some other APA issues which my clients often forget:

-Most references don’t need “Retrieved date” anymore. Only use that in a reference if the source is not likely to remain “internet stable” – that is to say, the source will continue to update the exact version you are using, without archiving editions. And don’t say “Retrieved on Month date, year” just say “Retrieved.” It should look like “Retrieved April 1, 2022 from URL.” See APA7, 9.16, 10.2, 10.3, 10.14-10.16 for more information.

-For a work with more than 2 authors:
-APA6 said to cite all of them the first time you used the reference and then use “LastNameAuthor1 et al.” for future in-text citations.
-APA7 says to use “LastNameAuthor1 et al.” every time (i.e., including the first time it is cited), unless there would be confusing with another source.
-APA7 allows for the use of a singular “they” for individuals who use “they” as their pronoun as well as for a generic third-person singular when you don’t know the person’s gender. See APA7, 4.18. I do caution dissertation authors to check with their committee chair if this is acceptable in their particular programs.

Stay warm, stay safe and healthy, and I hope that you are with people you love.

See you the first week in January for a year of blogs about writing.

Please visit the Pedagogical Thoughts website to contact me about institutional or individual consulting, dissertation editing, or coaching about writing.

Do You Stress about Writing? A Year of Conversations About Writing

2022 is coming to an end. I’ve been especially busy this year working with doctoral and faculty authors. It’s got me thinking. So after taking the rest of 2022 off, here is my plan for the blog for 2023:

January:           Finding Your Writing Persona

February:         Finding Tools & Locations That Work for You

March:             A New Beginning or Picking Up a Long-lost Project

April:               Finding Inspiration When Writing Seems Daunting

May:                Self-Editing: Pro’s, Con’s and Tips

June:                Working with a Professional Editor

July:                 Need Feedback?: Finding Good Readers/Commenters

August:           Responding to Feedback: Readers, An Editor, and Dreaded

Reviewer #2

September:      Writing While Busy—or Busier

October:         Getting To Done

November:     #AcWriMo – Do You Want to Do It?

December:      Ending Well … Enough

I’ve decided to close my Twitter account, so I encourage you to subscribe to the blog to get the weekly post. Let’s get some writing done in 2023!

Please visit the Pedagogical Thoughts website to contact me about institutional or individual consulting, dissertation editing, or coaching about writing.

Are You Glad #AcWriMo Is Over? I Am, Sort Of

AcWriMo* is over. Thank goodness (you could choose even a stronger word!). I struggled to fulfill my pledge to write every day. I did it though, with only one day of not meeting my goal of a minimum of 500 words. Most—though not all of my struggles—were about getting ready to write, not the writing itself. I came to realize it was because I have too much unstructured time on my hands in retirement—time that I am still learning how to fill productively.

My work with clients has slowed down as it neared the end of the academic term, so I was not doing as much editing as normal. We are mostly unpacked from our move, so no longer was it dawn till dusk unpacking boxes and putting things away. The steady pace of tradespersons slowed during November, with just a few electricians and carpenters visiting. Even the knitting projects I pursued went quickly and only took a few hours over one week to complete.

No, the struggle to write was almost all internal: how to motivate myself to sit down and get some work done when I don’t have a deadline from a publisher, I don’t have students anxious to have their assessment returned, nor do I have a due date to an administrator looming in front of me. I would put off writing because I knew I was still working ideas out in my head. But doing #AcWriMo these many years has taught me that I can (and should) write in order to work out those ideas. Putting words to paper (or rather, on a screen) helped to clarify my thoughts and create a better outline for the monograph.

I learned that I can—all too easily—disappoint myself but I am loath to let down someone else who is depending on me (oddly, I only knew one person in the AcWriMo group, but that feeling of relationship triumphed over other feelings). So I would often end up writing in the last few moments of the morning before heading out to run errands instead of the promise that writing would be the very first thing I would do in the morning.

And it’s not just how and when to schedule my writing, it’s life right now. I’m struggling—not with the meaning of my life now that I am retired, but with how to structure my days.

I don’t think my struggles are unique. Research often encourages individuals to routinize common tasks as one way to increase productivity. Some ways to routinize behaviors are to add them to one’s calendar, to conduct a weekly review of activities in order to assess how well one’s plan was implemented, and to work with an accountability partner. #AcWriMo’s genius is that it is structured to address at least two of these techniques—write daily, and usually, share your intentions and your progress with others, via a shared spreadsheet or some other means of accountability. Many #AcWriMo leaders encourage at least once a week those who are participating, offering writing advice and urging people who fell short one week to do better next week.

As someone who has been both a leader/participant of a campus #AcWriMo program and just a participant the last five years, what I have realized is that planning and accountability are necessary but not sufficient for (my) writing productivity. Successful individuals routinize the behaviors (writing, reviewing their activity, and accountability) because they are motivated to do so. And the person’s motivation to write has to be stronger than other motivations—including inertia.

That’s where ultimately, everything comes down to the individual writer-to-be. What external motivators (e.g., tenure, promotion, more financial security, wanting to move, etc.) impact your ability to (want to) write productively? Can you leverage them in a way that helps you to sit down and write instead of letting them paralyze you? Are there routines that you can implement (here is mine) which can move you into your personal “writing zone?” Sometimes that means creating new ways to process the mounds of grading you must do or to cut down on committee service in favor of making time to write. So be it.

But there are also internal motivators which can help or hinder each of our writing. What insights can you and only you share with readers, based on your academic training? Are you afraid to share your thoughts? Or paralyzed by the possible judgement of your readers, and so would rather not write at all than let your thoughts go into the public square? What motivation do you need to overcome your inertia (be in binge-watching your favorite show or impeachment-mania or the need to always read “just one more thing” before you start writing, etc.)?

So now it’s December…and I am still writing. Not always as much as I’d like, but #AcWriMo helped me to realize that yes, I have something more to say. Moreover, I’ve realized that I need to write it down and be willing to share it—with a publisher and eventually (I hope) with readers. I’ve learned that I don’t have to write the manuscript from word one to the last paragraph before the references—writing sections out of order is still writing. And that’s what’s important.

Staring at a blank screen utterly frustrated me during November. I need to spill out my thoughts—unpolished as they are right now—as a way to work through my arguments. Having “mental debates” without actually writing what they are and how I resolved them, will never advance the book project. Any writing about the topic is better than no writing.

So while I am glad #AcWriMo 2022 is over, it taught me a lot about myself and how I need to work. And that’s always a good thing.

*AcWriMo is the international academic movement where scholars pledge to write every single day in the furtherance of one or more writing projects.

Please visit the Pedagogical Thoughts website to contact me about institutional or individual consulting, dissertation editing, or coaching about writing.