Countdown to a New APA Manual
The Seventh Edition of the APA Publication Manual comes out this October. Calm yourselves from the excitement, and then remember not to get anxious! Oh wait, maybe only I get excited about new publication manuals? Anyway, the revised manual will be published and ready for delivery in October 2019. You can even pre order your copy now if you are so inclined.
Some of the updates are exciting because of their practicality. There are updated and expanded guidelines for citing social media, including tweets and Facebook posts, as well as classroom materials. The date is no longer included in references for books. An entire brand-new section on Journal Article Reporting Standards has been added. It sounds like those are only a few of the useful updates and revisions to the content of the manual. You can preview the Table of Contents here.
There are also a few updates that have already garnered public attention. An expanded section focused on inclusivity now advises writers on use of the singular “they.” This has been discussed in scholarly and academic circles for years, but may be a bit of an adjustment for some of us in our writing once we have explicit guidance in the published manual. Additionally, the oft-debated single or double spacing between sentences has an official champion. Single spacing is now the standard recommendation between sentences.
Tip: If you’re like me and double spacing is a hard habit to break, try using Find + Replace in your Word documents to search for double spaces, then replace them with a single space. I’m sure we will have other forthcoming tips about the new manual as we learn more!
In the meantime–be sure to discuss with your dissertation chair how and when to incorporate Seventh Edition guidance in your writing. Some chairs may elect not to immediately use the manual. Ultimately, your program will decide your style standards. Do be aware that in any effort to publish your dissertation, style updates will likely be required of you in order to comply with APA (or another set of) guidelines.
If your discipline uses APA Style, I strongly encourage you to stay on top of APA style updates. Here are a few ways to do that::
- APA on Twitter: @APA_Style
- APA Style official blog: https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/announcements/
I think I am most excited about the new manual having an entire section on getting published–Journal Article Reporting Standards! I will, however, be using some Find and Replace in Word to ensure I don’t miss any double spacing between sentences. That one is a habit I’ll have to consciously work on breaking.
What are YOU most excited about? Are you concerned about any changes? We will be here, as always, to help you along the way.