Analysis on the Use of American Psychological Association (APA) Rules

            APA (2010) style offers academic authors guidance on many aspects of academic writing. Some aspects covered in the APA style manual are in-text citations, signal phrases, and reference lists, which are analyzed in detail in the article “Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University” (Dalvit, Murray, & Terzoli, 2005, p. 72).

            With respect to paraphrased in-text citations, APA rules seem to have been observed in the abovementioned article. Some examples are “According to Heugh (2002)”, in which the author’s name is included in a signal phrase and only the year is placed in parentheses, and “(Boughey, 2002)”, in which there is an allusion to a study, and both the author’s name and the year are listed in parentheses. “(Council on Higher Education, 2001)” is another example of paraphrased in-text citations. In this example, the author of the source is an organization or agency and both the organization and year are listed in parentheses (Dalvit et al, 2005, pp. 72, 73).

            With regard to signal phrases, APA rules seem to have been also observed. Signal phrases introduce paraphrases, summaries and direct quotations, and reflect the author’s tone, attitude and position. Writers can use them in several ways when they introduce quoted or cited material into their texts: through the use of specific verbs or through the use of according to. “According to Halliday and Martin (1993)” and “According to Heugh (2002)” are examples of signal phrases. Signal verbs like pointed out, claimed, acknowledged, asserted, among others, have not been used in this article (Dalvit et al, 2005, pp. 72, 73).

            With respect to Reference lists, it appears that the article has not adhered to the APA style. According to the APA (2010) style, reference lists should appear on a new page separate from the body of the paper, under the heading References. The heading should be centered at the top of the page and should not be bolded, underlined, or between quotation marks. In this article, the heading References is bolded, is not centered and is followed by a colon.

            The analysis indicates that the article “Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University” has complied with APA rules regarding in-text citations and signal verbs. With respect to the reference list, this article, evidently, has followed a different direction.

References

American Psychological Association. (2010).  Publication Manual of the American

          Psychological Association (6^th ed). Washington, DC: Author

Boughey, C. (2002). Naming Students’ “Problems”: An Analysis of Language-Related Discourses at a South African University. Teaching in Higher Education, 7, 295-307.

Dalvit, L., Murray, S., & Terzoli, A. (2005). Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University. US-China Education Review, Sep. 2005, Vol. 2 (9).

Halliday, M.A.K., & Martin, J.R. (1993). Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive

        Power. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press Wenzlaff, T. L., & Wieseman, K. C.   

       (2004).

Heugh, K. (2002). The Case Against Bilingual and Multilingual Education in South Africa:

       Laying Bare the Myths. Perspectives in Education, 20, 1-196.