A Thorough Analysis of In-text Citations and References based on APA style

 The American Psychological Association (APA) has established a style of documentation of sources used in academic writing, mainly in the Social Sciences, like Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, and Education as well.  It is of utmost importance to bear in mind two aspects when following APA style: the in-text citations and the reference page.

In-text citations include the author’s name and the publication date of sources. The reference page goes at the end of the paper and it takes its own page. It lists all the sources that a writer has used in a paper. The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the in-text citations and the reference list of the article Beyond Reflection: Teacher Learning as Praxis by Hoffman-Kipp, Artiles, and López-Torres (2003) on the basis of the APA manual 6th edition.

The APA manual (2002) states several rules to follow for in-text citations such as: in an author-date style, in-text citations usually require the last name of the author(s) and the year of publication. A page number is included when using a direct quote with a comma after the year and using p. or pp. for page numbers.

After a deep analysis of the article: Beyond Reflection: Teacher Learning as Praxis, there are some instances in which these rules have not been followed.  For instance, on page 252 the author Cole is cited in a direct quote with the page number but without the letter p., so this is an incorrect form of in-text citation. Another example in which it is clearly seen that the authors did not respect APA style is on page 249. The authors Morrison and Tickle are cited separately but the year in both cases does not appear.

Reference lists should be double-spaced, and entries should have a hanging indent. What is more, reference lists should take their own page (APA, 2002). In the manual, it is also pinpointed that alphabetizing the reference list by the author's surname is a must. In the article under analysis, it can be observed that the authors did not respect most of these rules.  First, the reference list appears on the last page of the article with the last part of the Notes section.  Then, the reference list is not double spaced, and entries do not have a hanging indent.  However, the only respected aspect was that the authors were listed in alphabetical order.

To sum up, Hoffman-Kipp, Artiles, and Lopez-Torres (2003) did not respect APA rules. As mentioned in the analysis, many mistakes in the reference list and in-text citations were found. This may be due to the fact that the authors intended to use another style.  Nevertheless, it would have been better if they had complied with APA style because APA guidelines were designed to aid reading comprehension in the Social and Behavioral Sciences and to provide clarity in the communication of ideas.  To follow APA requirements is a must since the manual contains hundreds of reference examples, including formats for audiovisual media, social media, and webpages, and there are also sample tables and figures to achieve an appropriate academic writing style.

References

American Psychological Association. (2002). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th Edition. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artiles, A. J., & López-Torres, L. (2003). Beyond Reflection: Teacher Learning as Praxis. Theory into Practice, 42(3). Retrieved from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15430421tip4203_12