Understanding APA Editorial Style For
Students in Social Work Courses
Part I
Prepared by:
BJ Bryson, PhD
James Madison University
Introduction

Understanding APA Editorial Style is a
three part series designed to introduce key
components

If you are in SOWK 288, you are required
to review each segment and take the short
test on the course web page (Blackboard)
after viewing all sections
Learning Objectives
To introduce students in social work
courses to the primary scholarly
manuscript style of professional social
workers
 To provide basic information about the
American Psychological Association (APA)
Manual Editorial Style including its
underlying assumptions

Other resources are provided
throughout each section.
You may want to pick up the APA
Style Resource Sheet at the CISAT
or Carrier Libraries.
Disclaimer

These presentations are not designed to
replace the American Psychological
Association Manual (5th edition)

Ultimately every writer is responsible for
ensuring that their document (paper) has
met the APA editorial style standards

Document, manuscript, paper are
interchangeable in these presentation
This presentation includes
Why JMU Social Work Department Uses
APA Style?
 Who uses APA Style?
 Ethics of Writing
 Introduction to APA Style
 What is APA Style?

Why the JMU Social Work
Department Uses APA Style?

As a matter of professional development
social work students need to develop a
respect for written communication and the
process of presenting their work.

We seek to develop solid practitioners and
scholars
A scholar is a learned person who by
long study has gained mastery
In the case of students you are striving
to gain knowledge and become a
scholar. This is demonstrated in part
by learning a professional
presentation style.
In social work that is the APA editorial
style
Who uses APA Style?
Psychology
Sociology
Business
Economics
Nursing
Criminology
Social Work
Ethics of Writing

There are three components of ethical
writing covered in this presentation
 NASW
Code of Ethics as the professional
standard
 JMU Honor Code as the JMU student ethical
standard
 APA Style editorial standards
Ethics of Writing





The Social Work Code of Ethics provides
principles and standards for ethical behavior and
is the foundation for all professional actions
You can find the NASW Code of Ethics on the
NASW webpage, in many social work text books
and in the Encyclopedia of Social in the JMU
libraries
Accepted social work students agree to these
standards and should be familiar with the Code
Students from other majors taking social work
courses will need to be familiar with the Code
Other professional programs/majors may also
have ethical standards
JMU Honor Code
“In a university community, there can be no
doubt that honor and the pursuit of
knowledge are inexorably intertwined.”

Upon admission each student is automatically
subject to the provisions of the Honor System
and has a duty to become familiar with the
Honor Code and its provisions.
JMU Honor Code continued
“Each examination, paper and other written
or electronically submitted assignment is
submitted pursuant to the Honor Code..”
with the following pledge signed by
students submitting assignments:
“This work complies with the JMU Honor Code”
JMU Honor Code continued

For a complete understanding of the JMU Honor
Code read
http://www.jmu.edu/honor/printcode.html
As a JMU student, regardless of major, you are
responsible for knowing this information
APA Style Ethics

There are many ethical aspects of the APA Style.
Only a few are highlighted here.
 Scholarly
writing is a combination of original efforts
(your interpretations, conclusions or assumptions in
writing) and uses the work of others giving credit for
their ideas, concepts or direct words.
 Not to give credit for the work of other writers is a
serious offense
 Authorship is directly related to individuals who
complete work towards development of the
manuscript (paper)
Introduction to APA Style



Academic writing assignments require you to
gather, evaluate and use the work of others.
Many SW classes require you to write your
papers in APA style because the APA Style
Manual establishes consistent and concise rules
and standards to use in written communication.
Academic communication is often a balance
between the presentation of your original ideas,
representation of information gained from other
sources and the integration of both.
APA is not a style of writing, but an editorial
style applied to your writing. There are
many other editorial styles such as

MLA Citation Style from your English
courses

Chicago Style used by other professions
Each of these have different resource and
reference materials
When you draw upon the work of
others, you must give proper
credit. Failure to do so constitutes
plagiarism (the failure to give credit,
usually through citations, of another
author’s exact words, ideas or concepts)
and subject to the JMU Honor
Code. Within the Department of
Social Work a professor my give a
grade of “F” for the assignment or
the course for plagiarism.

Direct quotes, summarizing, or
paraphrasing the work of others requires
you to give credit to the original author

You must also give credit to the ideas of
others even when not a direct quote
A good rule
 If
you borrow information or ideas
from other authors, give credit with a
citation in the text and on the
reference page
What is APA Style?
APA is an editorial style consisting of rules and
guidelines to ensure clear and consistent
presentation of written materials. These
cover
Removing Bias in Writing
Punctuation and abbreviations
Construction of tables
Selection of headings
Citation of references
Presentation of statistics
Elements for writing
Quick Reference

A Quick Reference Sheet is available from
the CISAT or Carrier Libraries that provide
examples on basic citation information for
in-text and reference page citations.

Go to the presentation “APA References at
a Glance” for more suggestions
Moving to Part II

If you are in SW 288
 Wait until you
complete all three
sections before
taking the test on
Blackboard
Feel free to review
any portion of this
presentation or move
to Part II
The End of Part I