A manual for professionals, 22. Februar 2006

There are many style manuals available, and many different styles from which to choose (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.). For those who are involved in social science and medical research, often the APA style (American Psychological Association) is a required format, and expected.

This is not my favourite format for several reasons, not the least of which is because the footnote/endnote notations do not include first names of authors (a big minus in my estimation). However, the system is a tried-and-true one, and one that shows little sign of decreasing in popularity among its adherents.

That being said, this manual is not for the basic student or author. It does include sections on grammar and usage, but these are meant to be refreshers or references rather than teaching sections. The part that most people will use, the sections on citations in footnotes, endnotes, and in-line/in-text references, is somewhat inadequate here, as the internet and other forms of media have all expanded beyond the scope of the fifth edition. I find that, when I am forced to put something into the APA framework, I am invariably having to go to the internet rather than my guide (or other guides, such as Diana Hacker) because the reference forms simply aren't there.

My first choice of reference form would be the MLA style; APA is somewhat lacking and somewhat confusing in many cases, but for those who need to follow this format, this is one of the better references available.

      "Unashamedly prescriptive", 2. Mai 2000

A Danish professor in psychology, Franz From, once said about this manual that if he had to follow these rules, he would not be able to contribute to psychology. Franz From represented phenomenological psychology, which did not consider American behaviorism to be an ideal, contrary to. It is well known that there exist different approaches in psychology and the social sciences. Few people consider, however, that this is not restricted to the choice of methods and subject matter, but also concerns the way papers are written and the scientific communication system is designed. In a way it is paradoxical, that a manual on how to write psychological papers do not consider psychological and related research on the writing process. The most valuable critique about this manual comes from people who are connected to COMPOSITION STUDIES, e.g. Charles Bazerman (1988) and the psychologist Douglas Vipond (1993). There have also been a debate on this manual in American Psychologist.

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.

Hjørland, 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.

      It serves its purpose: but it is very cumbersome!, 26. April 2000

The "bible" from the APA is by know means flawless. Ok, it tells you how to write a paper or disertation in accordance with the APA. However, one is very reluctant to actually use it since it is not very user friendly. The idea to have both numeric numbers and page numbers does not make any sense and the idex is not very well developed.

       Still needed and still valued., 11. Dezember 1998

The fourth edition of the APA *Manual* is, despite some of the flaws others have noted, very useful to those studying or working within the social sciences. While our current breed of word processing programs have indeed been a great benefit to academic writers, we cannot forget the orgins of academic writing linger from long before the computer age. This book offers a complete and varied guide to how to write for a field of disciplines. I would compare it to the *American Medical Association's Style Manual* as I also use this reference quite often in that both books truly offer a great deal of information that is useful in science-related writing. We are lucky to have something that is this complete.

      Software Help Available, 10. November 1998

Hillysun.com offers software compatible with MS Word V6 that automates the formatting of APA papers. The Manual is still handy to have, but the software, FormatEase, saves a lot of time!