To request a blog written on a specific topic, please email James@StatisticsSolutions.com with your suggestion. Thank you!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

APA Citation

A simple search on the internet will yield thousands of entries about APA citation. This is because there are indeed hundreds and thousands of web-sites all touting valuable information about APA citation. The problem with most of these APA citation sites is that the APA citation help they offer only gives “quick-fix” solutions to APA citation.

Statistics Solutions is the country's leader in APA Citation and dissertation statistics. Contact Statistics Solutions today for a free 30-minute consultation.

APA citation stands for the American Psychological Association and it is a way of formatting everything in a dissertation or science related paper. APA citation is not necessarily hard, but APA citation has hundreds and hundreds of rules that govern how everything should be done within a paper. This includes the way that charts and graphs are formatted, the way that the table of contents is laid out, the documentation of statistics, the citing of sources, and on and on. APA citation, then, must be carefully followed if a dissertation is going to be approved and accepted.

One of the most difficult parts of APA citation is simply having the time, energy and patience to look-up everything that needs to be followed if a paper or dissertation is to have proper APA citation. Most students, however, worry about APA citation at the very end of their dissertation, when they are simply wishing for the entire dissertation to be complete. At this point, it is very difficult for that student to have the tolerance necessary to go back over every aspect of the dissertation and record and format it in proper APA citation. Further, this is when the student goes on-line and must navigate through hundreds and thousands of APA citation web-sites that he/she hopes will give him/her the exact formatting for his/her exact problem and dissertation. It is certainly easy for a student to be in this predicament, for who wants to worry about the inconvenient hassles of what seems to be “nit-picky” details that do not actually affect the data or research or conclusions?

This is exactly where consultants can come in, however, as consultants – and more specifically dissertation or statistics consultants— have immense knowledge of APA citation and they can quickly convert every aspect of the dissertation into proper APA citation. There is no shame in seeking help in APA citation as APA citation is not often taught to most students who need it most. If it is taught, it is simply explained as far as the very basics, and the rest is left to the student to research and figure out. Because there are so many rules governing APA citation, and because students are strapped for time as it is, there is little wonder why students seek help with their APA citation.

A good analogy for APA citation help would be to compare it to an editor. All authors have editors, and these editors “clean-up” whatever it is the author writes. The editor then sends it back to the author who agrees with the changes. APA citation help also “cleans-up” what the student has written, calculated and observed and it standardizes all of the results as every dissertation is written with APA citation.

Consultants can do more than simple APA citation help. Good dissertation consultants can guide students every single step of the way—offering them help and guidance for every single part of their dissertation. It is up to the student, however, to decide what kind of help they are looking for. If a student is simply looking for help on APA citation, that is readily available by consultants who specialize in APA citation. Additionally, they have up-to-date information about all of the current changes to APA citation. If a student needs more help than simple APA citation help, that too is available. In other words, whatever help the student seeks, be it APA citation help in the closing stages of their dissertation or dissertation guidance from the very beginning, dissertation consultants can ensure that the student seeking his/her doctoral degree is successful.