A sixth edition is really due.

After using APA for several years now, there have been changes. A quick look around the web will bring a variety of websites dedicated to keeping up-to-date on electronic citations, web book, and other web based reference material. Dot EDU's offer quite a bit of information should probably be used when the situational application doesn't exactly fit the textual examples.

Unfortunately the 5th edition is all we have in hardcopy.

More curriculums are turning to APA formatting as the standard, many professors argue that APA is under constant revision, and some professors even have their own little quirks, which aren't recognized by the body politic, that's my chief complaint. If you are feeling the pain in your life with APA, I hate to say it but... get used to it, I think it is going to be around for a while.

Oh, and chin up... it's easier to use after you've been thoroughly immersed in syllabus.

Have fun!

The trials and tribulations of APA

Publications Manual for the American Psychological Association. ISBN: 1557988102.

This book lies in the category of ironing clothes, shoveling snow and doing taxes: it is necessary but not pleasant.

This book is extremely not user friendly. It is organized in such a way that the most relevant information on how to format references is in the middle (pages 232 - 281); one has to jump around to different sections, and try to glean the information necessary to write a footnote, endnote or reference page.

However, this is the new standrda for referncign in the social sciences. Mastery of this format, and this book are key. Once you have gained a working knowledge, you can switch to the software, that prompts you as you go, or use the smaller companion booklet.

Adequate, But Not User Friendly

I bought this book as a required text for a graduate degree program that requires papers to be written in APA style. While one can certainly find answers to all sorts of APA reference and citation questions that come up when writing a paper, the truth is you often have to dig for it in a text that is dense and not logically laid out. The process can often be frustrating. Since this book is put out by the APA, many colleges require this particular reference book for students who must use APA style. As any student knows, however, one needs a book that is clear and easy to use -- particularly when so many of these "style" guidelines seem arbitrary and not always logical. Grabbing this book in the midst of writing a paper is bound to make you more frustrated. I urge students to seek out better reference books and think all of us students should lobby the universities to which we pay so much money to find reference books that make our lives easier, not more difficult.