Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association: Amazon.ca: Apa: Books

Product Description

With millions of copies sold, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the style manual of choice for writers, editors, students, educators, and professionals in psychology, sociology, business, economics, nursing, social work, and justice administration, and other disciplines in which effective communication with words and data is fundamental. In addition to providing clear guidance on grammar, the mechanics of writing, and APA style, the Publication Manual offers an authoritative and easy-to-use reference and citation system and comprehensive coverage of the treatment of numbers, metrication, statistical and mathematical data, tables, and figures for use in writing, reports, or presentations.

Book Info

Style manual for writers, editors, students, educators, and professionals across all fields. Provides clear guidance on grammar, the mechanics of writing, and APA style. Includes examples, new guidelines and advice, and more. Previous edition: c1994. Softcover, wire-spiral edition is also available. Hardcover edition due later.

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

(What's this?)

Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)

academic writing(2)

academic(1)

apav6(1)

commercial(1)

creative writing(1)

medical writing(1)

nursing(1)

psychoanalysis(1)

reference(1)

research(1)

Customer Reviews

42 Reviews

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

Average Customer Review

3.5 out of 5 stars (42 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Sadistic at Best., Feb 20 2004

By

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Hardcover)

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.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiral-Bound Wonder, July 1 2003

By

"tagreacca" (Modesto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Spiral-bound)

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.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars APA Publication Manual, July 14 2001

By

Tom Pessa (Downingtown, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Hardcover)

I continue to be disappointed with the APA Publication Manual in its fifth iteration. Though it maintains its cause, it is less than adequate on clarity and user friendliness. I would think after five tries one would get it right.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 42 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Want to see more reviews on this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 342 reviews 3.9 out of 5 stars

Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars BAD
I brought this book because it is said to be one of the "required" textbook. This book is awfully difficult to use and its format is poorly organize. Read more

Published on Mar 4 2009 by V. Chan

5.0 out of 5 stars It does the job
As someone put it before, this book is REQUIRED. I had to buy it again because went back to school and my old edition was outdated. Read more

Published on July 28 2007 by ANSSO