Navigating the not-so-hidden treasures of the APA Style website

Recently, I came across an email from a user who noted that the topics covered on the APA Style blog in the past year were not as specific as those of the past. And, you know what? This user was right. In these APA Style blog posts, we aim to discuss nuances of style guidelines, provide insights on what’s new in the seventh edition, and announce new updates or products.

Why, you may ask?

Because, in addition to the plethora of guidelines and examples in the Publication Manual and the Concise Guide to APA Style, the APA Style and web teams have created many, many valuable webpages on this website to help users such as yourself learn about APA Style.

This post links directly to APA Style topics of interest that users may not even know exist on the website. Think of this post as an extra helping hand to finding some of the specific information you might need as you write your APA Style papers.

If you want to know what terms you should capitalize or lowercase, especially the names of diseases, disorders, and therapies, then please review the Proper Nouns; Preferred Spellings; and Diseases, Disorders, and Therapies pages.

Numbers … if you want to know how to correctly use them in your paper, first, you must know if the numbers should be expressed as numerals or as words. Once you know which number form to use, using numbers in your work will become a more manageable task for you.

Because we’re talking about numbers, we can’t forget the all-important page numbers. If you are directly quoting information from a work that uses page numbers, include the page numbers in your in-text citation. If the work does not have page numbers, include other location information in your in-text citation (e.g., paragraph number, section name).

Review the Italics page to learn when to use and not use italics in your paper. For example, learn how to use italics when providing a definition for a key term.

The Anthropomorphism page will help you discern whether you have used language in your paper that is anthropomorphic (i.e., attributing human characteristics to animals or to inanimate sources) and how to avoid doing so.

Start with reviewing the information on the Lists page, and once you determine that a list would be the most effective method to communicate your information to readers, then review the information on lettered lists, numbered lists, and bulleted lists to ensure you are using the most appropriate list type in your paper.

If you have used information from a source that you found in another source, and need to cite and create a reference for this type of source, please review the Secondary Sources page.

If you are looking for information on how to reference lab or diagnostic manuals (e.g., the DSM), UpToDate articles, drug information, mobile apps, and more, review the Clinical Practice References page.

Sometimes, you know the APA Style guideline you’re looking for, but you don’t know the name of it or how to describe it. Here are a few more useful webpages accompanied by notes to aid you in your search:

• self-plagiarism (i.e., the presentation of your own previously published work as original)
• citing works with the same author and date (also sometimes referred to as “reference twins”)
• personal communications (i.e., works that cannot be recovered by readers, such as emails, text messages, online chats or direct messages, and personal interviews)
• classroom course pack material references (i.e., the material is only available in the course pack)
• report and gray literature references (e.g., reports by government agencies, press releases, brochures, ethics codes, ISO standards, white papers, and fact sheets; also, you may have spelled the term as “grey literature” instead of “gray literature”)
• reference lists versus bibliographies

For more information on APA Style references and style and grammar guidelines, please see the Reference Examples and Style and Grammar Guidelines pages. You can also access style and grammar guidelines by clicking on the topics listed in the right rail of this blog page.

If you are just starting your APA Style writing journey, the Instructional Aids page is a great resource for you to learn the basics of APA Style through free handouts and tutorials.

Happy searching, everyone!