Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

The view, that there are objective, neutral rules for human behavior (incl. doing research and writing) can be termed positivism. The opposite view, that such rules have consequences for what can be done (and therefore implicit priorities for what should be done) can be termed non-positivism. In my view positivism simply can be proved wrong. If we are going to advance psychology or other (social) sciences we should not built on wrong premises. My own professional interest in this manual, and in the epistemological debate about this manual is connected to my research in information science. Information science is about storage and retrieval of documents, texts and "information". In the coming age of full text electronic documents we have to know as much as possible about their composition, and the factors, that influences the way they are composed. Here I find composition studies to be one important contributor.

Bazerman, C. (1988). Shaping written knowledge: The genre and activity of the experimental article in science. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Hjorland, B. (1997). Information seeking ans subject representation. An activity theoretical approach to information science. Westport, Connecticut & London: Greenwood Press.

Vipond, D. (1993). Writing and Psychology. Understanding writing and its teaching from the perspective of composition studies. Westport, Connecticut & London: Praeger.


Spiral-Bound Wonder   July 1, 2003
 24 out of 26 found this review helpful

When I originally purchased the current edition, I bought it in a regular binding and immediately regretted it upon first use. This spiral bound edition allows it to lay flat so that when you are trying to confirm the style, you don't have to lay two other books on top of it to make it work. BUY THIS EDITION IF YOU HAVE TO USE APA.


If required to write in APA, you can't live without it   January 3, 2004
 23 out of 29 found this review helpful

If you have any need to write in APA, this book is a must. This is the standard by which your work will be judged. If you are not familiar with APA format, you may find this book very unwieldy and confusing at first. A great way to get started is to just open it to page 306-320, which is a sample paper written and formatted in APA style. Each salient feature is denoted with a comment balloon referring you to the applicable section of the guide. This simple technique should get you started.
Many people complain about the overabundance of seemingly useless and needless information. However, I feel that the completeness of the guide is its strength. The guide deals with every facet of the a concern in a very thoughtful, complete way. Sometimes I find myself laughing at the completeness that the guide gives a particular topic, but at times when I am seeking to answer a specific formatting, grammar, or organizational question, I am extremely thankful for that completeness.
This book is indispensable, one of my most-referred-to reference materials. If you are writing an APA style paper for a class in school and won't ever need to use it again, go to the public library at borrow it. If you will be writing often, you should definitely buy it. No matter what, don't write an APA-style paper without it.


Sadistic at Best.   February 21, 2004
 22 out of 30 found this review helpful

I am enrolled in a graduate program that, unfortunately, requires all papers to be written in APA format. APA is far and away the least useful or user friendly format ever devised (although a professor friend disagrees and thinks Chicago style is worse), and is largely used by social scientists. Since I am not enrolled in a social science curriculum, you might expect that I would be spared this horror, but someone sold the Dean an APA bill of goods. My theoretical question here is what, exactly, qualifies the American Psychological Association to develop a style and format for research papers? Wouldn't English teachers and linguists be more qualified, as in MLA format? Why is APA more qualified than say The Airline Pilots Association, or The National Prune Anti-Defamation League to develop a writing style? Just a question.

I figured that since I was stuck using this fiendish format, I should learn to use it correctly. My school put out a "Users Guide to APA Format", but it is very general and almost totally ignores documenting electronic (internet) sources; thus, I bought this book. I am generously giving this book two stars inasmuch as most (but not all) reasonable situations are addressed in it, but the format of the book is virtually incomprehensible and frequently sends you to multiple different places to answer a simple question. (This shouldn't surprise me given the lack of logic found in APA style in general, I suppose.)

Unfortunately even the latest (fifth) edition is woefully inadequate in answering very basic questions on documentation of internet sources, particularly addressing situations in which quotations from internet sources are included in a paper. The index is, likewise, next to useless, as looking anything up (if it happens to even be in the index, itself and unlikely development) will result in a wild goose chase of referencing around the book. This is but only one reason the entire format may be more useful to psychologists than those in the hard sciences.

What the guide IS full of is useless trivia, for instance a section on the APA "Policy on Metrication" (needless to say APA mandates metric units), and a definition of "HSD" as "Tukey's honestly significant difference (also referred to as the Tukey a procedure)." While I am not saying that metrication or Tukey's honestly significant difference aren't important (though I am inclined to), I am saying that a book that dwells on minutia like that should definitely cover the basics of references, formats and citations first. Like I said, most (but not all) of the information actually is here, but good luck finding it.

Perhaps APA should put out a guide for using this guide. Better yet, perhaps any format so cumbersome to use and needlessly intricate should be dumped altogether for a better format, like MLA. At this point I'm even willing to try Chicago style.


Don't waste your money.   June 3, 2003
 21 out of 26 found this review helpful

As a graduate student in psychology, I suggest that the best way to learn APA style is to obtain a copy of a manuscript from a TA or your academic advisor. This book is ineptly organized and its own "style" is stultifying. The only saving grace is that it includes "pictures" of text formated in APA-style. A big complaint is that the Publication Manual pretends that the only kind of article written by psychologists involves presenting the results of an empirical investigation. Another is the unwieldy and illogical system of citation (especially of material found on the Web). Also, I would like for the publishers to at least acknowledge that what is actually published in professional journals often bears no resemblance to the format required for submission. Whatever you do, do not buy the APA Style Helper software.