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Level 5

Interrogating an Article

Purpose:

  • To extract APA structure and style from a peer-reviewed journal article
  • To understand how a course, a college, or a journal publication can alter APA as they wish.
  • To examine the intricacies of writing in APA above and beyond citations.

Why do this

  • When you write your capstone (and if you attend Graduate school) you will need to format your Thesis paper to perfection.
    • It took me a month (at an hour or so a day) to simply format my PhD dissertation to perfection--and there are STILL errors in it!
  • You may become part of an authorial team, and then you'll HAVE to know how to interrogate a journal's article as your team writes your research.
  • This is a horrible assignment
  • The minutiae will drive you mad
  • But it's essential to capstone or Grad school success

Caveats:

  • Most journals do not use a strict APA, or MLA, or Chicago style.
  • Everyone uses a variation of one of those styles.
  • Journals and Colleges (each course in a college)can implement any variation of an official style that that wish.
  • Thus, you will always have to rigorously focus on the directions given by a journal or a college or a course as to the proper formatting of papers, or of articles, or a BA Capstone Thesis, or a Grad Thesis, or a PhD Dissertation.

The Process

  • Originally, I had planned that this two-part exercise (Levels 5 and 6) would be separate, with one week per each.
  • Pre-covid, in-class, this assignment was ONE week long with a second week to iron out problems/concerns/questions.
  • The last three levels all go together: Levels 5 and 6 (Interrogating a Journal Article) go with Level 7 (APA term paper)
  1. Level 5: Find a peer-reviewed journal article.
  2. Level 5: Interrogate the article according to the Style documents.
  3. Level 6: Re-write your Level 3 APA paper by applying the exact style of your peer-reviewed article follows.

1. Find a peer-reviewed article

  • Thinking about your career path, determine the exact name of the science you will pursue: nursing, oncology, neuroscience, etc.
    • A. Go to this page to learn how to use the search engine in the EFSC databases

2. Interrogate the Article

  1. Download the document
  2. Answer each question by using your chosen peer-reviewed article selected from the EFSC databases.
  • These answers will shape how you will format your Level 3 APA paper into the Level 6 APA Term Paper.
  • Grading of the Level 6 APA Term Paper is based on your ability to comply with the answers about your peer-reviewed journal article.