UNG's Department of Political Science and International Affairs prescribes the use of APA style for all papers. However, Barry Friedman prefers and requires the following modifications to APA style:
- On your cover page, please identify the following, centered in the middle of the page: the title of your paper (indicating the topic), your name, the name of the institution ("University of North Georgia"), the course number, and the date ("December 23, 2019"). The five items should be double spaced.
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APA style clearly requires that the citation for a direct quotation include a page number. However, it is problematically ambiguous on whether a page number is necessary for an indirect quotation or other summary of the source. Please use this rule: If you are reproducing information that appears, say, on one or a few pages or in one chapter, include the page number(s) in the citation. If you are summarizing the argument of the entire book, article, or other work, you need not include a page number in the citation.
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Anything in the APA style manual or any other source notwithstanding, I have a preference for the use of the active voice as opposed to the passive voice. You may use the first person ("I") and second person ("you") as long as you are describing something that actually involves "you" or "I." It is appropriate--and preferable--to say, "I interviewed the commissioner of motor vehicles," if, in fact, you interviewed the commissioner. It is still inappropriate to say, "If you are fired from a civil-service job, you have many avenues for appeal." Leave the reader out of your story unless the reader actually played a part in the events that you are describing.
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APA style states that entries in the bibliography should identify the author as "Public, J. Q." I override this rule. Please identify the author as "Public, John Q." or "Public, John Quincy," as the name appears on the title page of the book, article, or other work.
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Anything in the APA style manual to the contrary notwithstanding, the in-text citation should identify, and the bibliography entry should begin with, the name of the author or the name of the organization that takes responsibility for the source. The in-text citation should not identify, and the bibliography entry should not begin with, the title of the work, the URL address, etc. I do not deem it acceptable that you identify any source in such a way as to suggest that the author is unknown and no organization takes responsibility for it. In the case of an unsigned newspaper editorial, say, you can identify the author/organization as "Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial board." Never attribute a source to "Anonymous." It is unthinkable that we should reproduce the work of Mr. or Ms. Anonymous in a scholarly paper.
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Unless you have some reason to report somebody's U. S. Postal Service mailing address, do not otherwise use the USPS two-letter codes to abbreviate state names. For example, refer to "The Smith House in Dahlonega, Ga.," and not "The Smith House in Dahlonega, GA"; in the bibliography, write, "Dahlonega, Ga.: University Press of North Georgia."
A
sample paper
in
APA style--as modified by the aforementioned adjustments--can be
downloaded here. (It is
also a good sample paper, specifically, for POLS 4330/7320, "Public Policy
Analysis.")
Click here to view the outline of the sample paper.
|
Some instructions for being in compliance with APA-style
rules:
● The title of your paper
must indicate the topic.
The title should
not be something like “Research Paper,” “Take-home Midterm
Examination,” etc.
● The header at the top of
all pages should also indicate the topic.
The header should
not contain your
name or something like “Research Paper.”
● Your paper must contain
part headings and, as appropriate, section and paragraph
headings, just as the sample paper does.
Do not write one continuous narrative that is not
divided into parts that have part headings.
You
will lose points on the score of your paper if you do not
comply with these instructions. |
Note:
Students who are required to use full-blown APA style are advised to obtain a copy of the style manual. It is available, for example, at this web site: http://www.apastyle.org/pubmanual.html .
A really helpful resource is the accompanying software to the APA style manual. The software is available by direct download or by purchase of an actual CD-ROM. We strongly advise the purchase of the CD-ROM rather than the direct download. The software is available, for example, at this web site: http://www.apastyle.org/stylehelper/ .