billso.com

I’ve been dismantling the old hpu.sodeman.com web site. Some of that content already had a new home here on billso.com, at the APA and Finding references menu items.I also fixed my old pages for the IS 6100 and IS 7010 courses, so that they redirect to the proper pages on billso.com. I have not updated those course pages for the Fall 2007 term yet.

Tags: administrivia, APA, research, writing

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Be precise in the use of words and expect precision from others. - Pierre Abelard

Hawaii Pacific University has selected the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th edition) as the style and formatting standard in its graduate-level programs and courses, including the MSIS and MBA.

Remember that the 5th edition of the APA Publication Manual is the best source for information. Students should buy their own copy of the manual and use it during their academic program. I recommend the spiral-bound version, which is available at Amazon.com. This version lays flat, unlike the university bookstore’s paperback version. Of course, one could buy the paperback edition and have it rebound at a copying or office supply store.

• APA updated guidelines on citing and listing electronic references. Some of these guidelines have changed since the 5th edition was published, so check this page. This includes a June 2007 publication that addresses email, Web pages, blogs, comments, YouTube.
• Errata for the 5th edition of the APA Publication Manual. There were some typographical and content errors in the initial printings of the manual. This is a good document to print and place inside your manual.

I check written assignments in my courses for APA compliance. APA formatting helps students write assignments that are easy for me to read and understand.

Usage of the APA manual also offers good lessons in the fine art of RTFM (reading the fine manual). As a manager or employee, you may be expected to write documents that conform to your organization’s style manual.

If you’re really lucky, you may have to select or write your organization’s style manual. This may be more karma than you need.

Evidence of careful APA formatting also indicates to me that the student has paid attention to the assignment requirements, and didn’t try to write their assignment at the last minute.

Therefore, I sometimes return poorly written or formatted assignments without a grade.

Here are some links on APA formatting. Students may use these sites as needed to supplement the course materials.

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My own APA formatting guides

• (PDF) I use this table when I’m grading papers. It has examples and page references that help me find sections in the APA manual.
• (PPT) This is a slide show that I’ve shown in class when I discuss the APA formatting requirements
• (PDF) Here are some example citations for an academic journal article. This document focuses on how to cite articles found in EBSCO, including the “persistent link”

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• The HPU Tutoring and Testing Center has a page of APA resources, including tutorials and guides.
• (PDF) HPU Library Guide 19 has an excellent discussion on academic honesty and plagiarism.
• This guide from Wooster University is helpful.
• Plonsky’s APA guide is an excellent resource with many examples of important APA formatting rules.
• Douglas Degelman and Martin Harris run an excellent site on APA formatting.
  • Degelman & Harris’ APA template for Microsoft Word
  • Example of an undergraduate research proposal for psychology majors. MSIS students may find this helpful for capstone projects that involve experiments or human subjects.
  • Example of APA title page.
  • Example of APA abstract page.
  • Example of APA formatted headings.
• Lesley university’s web site on APA style
  • (PDF) My document summarizing the Lesley University document below, with additional instructions for MSIS students.
  • (PDF) Lesley’s University’s 2002 PDF document on annotated bibliographies.

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Web services for APA formatting

The HPU Library tab in Campus Pipeline has a link for the APA Citation Maker.

BibMe lets users search for articles, books and other resources, and then it formats the entry. It seems to do a good job with books – just enter the ISBN number, and BibMe creates a citation that can be copied into a document.

Here’s an example for a book I helped write a few years ago – the ISBN number is 0782140815 and BibMe’s result is as follows:

Dulaney, E., Lane, P., & Sodeman, W. (2002). CIW: Foundations Study Guide. New York: Sybex.

Pretty close to the mark, I’d say. Remember that you must select “APA” from the drop-down list, and then press “Download”, save the .RTF file and then open the file to see the formatting.

The IS 6100 textbook for 2007 has the ISBN 9780073511542 – and here’s BibMe’s result below.

O’Brien, J. (2006). Management Information Systems. Guilford: Mcgraw-Hill College.

What’s wrong with this result? Plenty.

1. The primary author’s name, as listed on the book itself, is James A. O’Brien.
2. The co-author’s name is missing. George M. Marakas deserves some credit, after all.
3. The publisher’s name is not correct. It’s McGraw-Hill Irwin.
4. The publisher’s city is not correct: it should be Boston, not Guilford. Perhaps BibMe is retrieving the UK version of the text?
5. The publication date is 2008, not 2006.

So we need to edit BibMe’s suggestion as follows:

O’Brien, J. A. & Marakas, G. M. (2008). Management Information Systems. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Even then, it’s still not formatted correctly! Keep in mind that the above examples are missing their hanging indents.

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Microsoft Word templates for APA formatting

There are several Word templates available that claim to do APA formatting. You can find several on Google. Most of the “free” templates aren’t very good. Some of them may contain viruses and trojans.

One benefit is that these templates have built-in styles to handle headings. Some templates can also format title pages and citations.

Some of my students like Perrla. I haven’t tried it, but it appears to have a good feature set.I use a Word template from Reference Point Software. The template is very accurate, and it’s inexpensive. No, I won’t send you a copy. I used to write software, and sometimes a copyright is a good thing to have.

I have seen students try to “borrow” this product by copying a DOC file from another student. (I like to check the File, Properties dialog to determine who created the file.) All the students will get are the styles. Hey, you get what you pay for in this world.

The full version of the Reference Point software is a template that adds APA menu choices to Word and WordPerfect. These menu choices can make the template much easier to use.

The RPS online help section (Java required) includes instructions for building a Table of Contents, which is not discussed in the APA manual, but is required for the final MSIS thesis and graduate applied project papers.

Even the developers of these templates acknowledge there is no substitute for the APA Publication Manual. After all, these companies wouldn’t have a product if the manual wasn’t so widely used.

Also, it is always possible for a user to override or change the Word template settings, which may make the document noncompliant with APA standards.

The APA sells its own document formatting software, APA Style Helper. I have a report that the latest version works better than previous filter-based builds, but I haven’t tried this software myself.

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If you’ve made it this far down the page, and you read everything else, congratulations to you. This document is a bit dry and crunchy, but it’s helpful for my graduate students.If you found this page on Google, you’re probably looking for quotes from one of my favorite comic strips ever,
Calvin and Hobbes.

Calvin on writing

• The purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure pure reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!
• Verbing weirds language.
• That’s the whole problem with science. You’ve got a bunch of empiricists trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder.
• Calvin: I’m a genius, but I’m a misunderstood genius.
  Hobbes: What’s misunderstood about you?
  Calvin: Nobody thinks I’m a genius.
• If you do the job badly enough, sometimes you don’t get asked to do it again.
• The only skills I have the patience to learn are those that have no real application in life.

Tags: APA, help, HPU, MBA, MSIS, research, teaching, writing

This post was first published on my old blog at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/wsodeman?id=247

Sometimes I use Blogline’s ‘clip/blog’ feature to post a link that I’ve found on that site. These links tend to redirect back to Bloglines, instead of the link’s original web site.

This link is from BoingBoing.net, which is one of the more popular blogs. It’s actually a group blog written by several contributors.

The main reason that I’ve posted this link is that I’ve noticed a rash of superfluous quotation marks and apostrophes in student papers this term.

I’m not an editor, but writing is an important skill for managers. In an online course and in e-mail relationships, writing is an important way of demonstrating one’s competency and skill.

For multilingual students, excellent English writing skills help demonstrate commitment, mastery and understanding within the American university system.

The most successful entreprenuers can find someone to to fix their writing, after all. Most managers have to correct their writing on their own. Automated spelling and grammar checkers are helpful, but can be misused.

These articles provide some excellent reading material:

• http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2003448269_student26.html
• http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061126/ART16/61126010
• http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/fashion/26email.html

Here are a few quick rules that I use in my writing. I’ve added links to some helpful web sites. Purdue’s grammar web site is an excellent resource, and it’s more convenient than a trip to our writing center.

I’ve also added citations to the 5th edition of the APA Publication Manual. I never used the APA manual before I started teaching at my university four years ago, so it’s been a learning experience for me. I created http://billso.com/apa as a reference for my own grading, and for my students.

Some students have commented that the APA manual is a long and difficult style guide. It is long, no question about that. It can be difficult, especially when creating a reference list. However, the APA manual has many common-sense rules regarding English grammar and formatting.

I’ve had several jobs where I needed to learn a new style guide as part of an assignment, position or contract. Our university’s graduate programs use the APA manual because it’s widely available and comprehensive. It’s a good example of the style guides our students will encounter in their professional careers. Using one style guide is a better alternative than allowing programs to choose their own style guide, especially in required courses like IS 6100.

While I do mark grammar and formatting errors in papers, I’ve changed my thinking over the term. When I find these errors, I’m using unlabeled red flags in the TurnItIn.com GradeMark feature. This helps me make more comments on the student’s content.

It’s an issue

Read these articles from EnglishPlus and Emory University. Sometimes I think students just guess when they need to use “its” or it’s”.

• “it is” = “it’s”
• “its” = possessive pronoun. “It’s never a possessive!”
• Example: “It’s really not that confusing, because each word has its own function.”

Quotation marks

GrammarBook and Purdue University have some helpful tips about quotation marks. These are not a substitute for underlining, or a way to provide added emphasis.

• Most technical terms and names, such as Bluetooth, TCP/IP, five forces analysis, and HTML do not need quotation marks.
• Italics may be used the first time a term is mentioned.
• See section 3.06 of the APA manual for more details.

Paraphrasing

Be very careful when using someone else’s words. See these tips from Purdue.

• A direct quote is a word-for-word duplication or excerpt of what someone else said or wrote. Use quotation marks and a citation.
• Avoid using long, direct quotes.
• It’s always better to paraphrase or summarize than to use a direct quote. Either technique involves the writer’s skill in analyzing and interpreting the original remarks.
• See sections 3.34 and 3.36 in the APA manual for more details.

Italics vs. underlining vs. bold

• The APA manual prefers italics when the writer must emphasize a word or phrase.
• Do not overuse italics.
• Italics are also used in level 2, 3 and 4 headings (3.31-32).
• Avoid underlining. Use italics instead.
• I have one common-sense exception to this rule. Microsoft Word and other word processes often underline URLs like http://billso.com automatically, and this is fine for my courses. Most users do not know how to modify a Word style or template.
• Bold fonts should not be used in APA formatting, except for statistical symbols (3.58).

Tags: APA, office, software, writing

From the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: We did have a tsunami yesterday. City officials asked people to stay out of the water at the beach parks, but the siren system was not activated.

The effects were dramatic, especially in Haunama Bay, but there was very little damage.

Still, it was the largest tsunami in 40 years, and one wonders if any local businesses set a disaster recovery plan (DRP) in motion. The wave was generated by an 8+ magnitude eartquake in Japan, as shown in this graphic from the Advertiser.

Tags: APA, DRP, electricity, Honolulu, japan, power, sun, system, weather

From howstuffworks.com: A virtual private network allows administrators to create a secure, encrypted tunnel into an internal network. External users can access internal servers.

This web site is a nice example of a general reference. While our textbook has a lot of information, sites like HowStuffWorks.com and Wikipedia.org have much more detailed articles on information technology.

Keep in mind that theese articles can change without notice. This is one reason why APA style includes a retrieval date for references found on the Web.

Tags: APA, hardware, network, security, software, writing