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Title: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition by American Psychological Association ISBN: 1-55798-791-2 Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA) Pub. Date: July, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.52 (48 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Don't waste your money.
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great book...BUT
Comment: This book is extremely easy to use. Full of information and most of my teachers use it as a foundation for grading our papers...however, the text is written in a light font. It makes it very hard to read. I have to hold the book at an angle and keep moving several times. I even went to a book store and found the book, hoping that perhaps this book was faulty. Unfortunatly, this was not the case. Too bad, its a good product, just hard to read, especially when you're tired, you don't need to straining your eyesight to make it better to see. It's a shame. It is a terrific book, easy to follow, with plenty of do's and don'ts etc.
The book is so good. I am seriously contemplating taking it to a Kwik Kopy and photocopying the entire book at a darker print to make it easier to read. The book is THAT GOOD.
Rating: 2
Summary: Unhelpful Guide about an Unenlightening Style
Comment: Like some of the other reviewers, I am in a program of advanced study in which APA is the "accepted" style of citation for scholarly research. As we can see, APA is an absolutely dreadful citation style, especially with its prohibition of footnotes, leading to incomprehensible paragraphs in which your prose is murdered by names and dates in parentheses. The lack of required page numbers in your citations also allows you, if you're so inclined, to transform your references into all sorts of unsupported speculation and conjecture, and no reader will be able to prove or disprove what you're saying. I realize that arguing about the merits of APA style is not the same as reviewing the merits of this book. But the weaknesses in the core citation style are so prevalent that it would be impossible to create a book of this nature with any sort of usefulness.
Now let's get to the trouble with this particular book. First, it is unnecessarily humungous, trying to beef up the very thin body of APA citation requirements (which by the way can be found for free all over the internet) with hugely unenlightening chapters on basic writing style and methods. Infinitely better guides on how to actually write and conduct research can be easily found elsewhere. Even when you do want to find instructions on the core requirements of APA citation style, this is an annoyingly difficult task in this atrociously organized and indexed book. A thin and under-compiled index sends you to hard-to-find section numbers rather than page numbers. And finally there is the practice of this book's publishers to promote a "new edition" which is merely the same as before with a couple of new entries, sold with a new cover and of course a new full price. In case you're wondering, about the only new information in this edition concerns how to reference websites and online publications. Once again, this info can be found for free on the internet, while you could also spend a pittance on a used copy of the supposedly "outdated" previous edition.
This book gets two stars because it is nominally useful (at least in theory) if you're stuck with it. But if you find yourself required to use the talent-crushing APA style in your attempts to write something of importance, first try to convince your mentors that APA is inherently anti-intellectual. Then find a way to get out of any requirements to buy this unhelpful book, and find the information on the internet instead. [~doomsdayer520~]
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