Is there a word-processing software that I can set so it will adhere to APA rules?

[Disavowed]

Am looking at syllibi for this semester and the grading of EVERY paper is so nit-picky and contingent upon adherence APA standards, which all seems like a blur from the last time I was in grad school.

I know everyhting I know about APA is available on the web, but I was hoping to find a piece of software that would shorten the learning curve, ya know.


Any books, reference guides, or obscure websites would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[dbwie]

EndNote software for Mac has an APA output style that will correctly format your bibliography, and I believe you can generate a template for a manuscript/report in APA style. Otherwise, I would suggest getting the publication manual published by APA, as it has sample papers in it with APA style.

[pmullins11]

Reference Tracker will generate APA references from just about anything.

[Molnies]

Originally Posted by pmullins11

Reference Tracker will generate APA references from just about anything.

From what I could see on their website that's just for creating the bibliography and not citations in the text itself. (I could be wrong, I didn't try the app but I found no mention of it on their site.)

Here's another vote for EndNote, check if your university offers a discount or maybe the online version of EndNote for free. And I agree with dbwie, if you're going to do a lot of APA related stuff, get the official manual for it — since much of the instructions I've found online are either contradicting each other or not complete.

[pmullins11]

Originally Posted by Molnies

From what I could see on their website that's just for creating the bibliography and not citations in the text itself. (I could be wrong, I didn't try the app but I found no mention of it on their site.)

You are correct. It only helps with the bibliography and not the citations. I've always inserted those myself. I never bothered with EndNote because of the cost. However, not having to manually insert all the citations would be really nice. What about Bookends? Does that do the same thing as EndNote?

[fleshman03]

Originally Posted by Molnies

From what I could see on their website that's just for creating the bibliography and not citations in the text itself. (I could be wrong, I didn't try the app but I found no mention of it on their site.)

Here's another vote for EndNote, check if your university offers a discount or maybe the online version of EndNote for free. And I agree with dbwie, if you're going to do a lot of APA related stuff, get the official manual for it — since much of the instructions I've found online are either contradicting each other or not complete.

The reason for that is because APA changes often.

I strongly suggest you learn APA/MLA at some point in your academic career. As someone in Library Science Graduate School, we often have to teach undergraduates how to properly use citation styles.

I will tell you how I write my academic papers because it might be of some help.

I make the in-text (or parenthetical) citations by memory. APA is usually (AUTHOR's NAME, YEAR). MLA is (AUTHOR's NAME, PAGE)

For the bibliographic information page, I use BibMe. It's a nice little web based citation tool. I do find it important to add the citation to my reference pages as soon as I complete the reference. I'd suggest the same of anyone. That way, it is tied to the paper.