You need to write your paper in APA Style format. What is APA Style? 

 

This video will give you an introduction to APA Style and the tools available to help you learn and write in APA Style. 

 

Hi, it’s Rachel Walters from IWU Off Campus Library Services.

 

APA stands for American Psychological Association. The current style rules are found in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 7th Edition.  

 

Using a writing style takes some work, but it will help you in your academic writing. APA gives you a way to correctly use other author’s work in your writing, giving them the appropriate credit for their ideas. Let’s just say it is your insurance policy against plagiarism. 

 

This 7th edition manual is a bit cumbersome to read so OCLS has created a mini-version of the rules for your use. The 7e Guide is a useful resource when you have a question about how to cite something or have other questions about APA Style. It provides instructions for setting up your paper, for using in-text citations, samples of how to write references for books, magazine articles, websites, and more. The APA 7e Guide is kept updated, is quick and easy to use, and is searchable. It can be found at ocls.indwes.edu/apa/APA7eGuide.pdf. You can bookmark the guide so you always have access to the newest version.

 

As an IWU student you have access to a wonderful resource, Academic Writer. Academic Writer is an online paper writing and editing tool that helps you learn about APA Style and helps you create your own APA Style papers with the correct format. Academic Writer automatically formats your papers saving you tons of time so you can concentrate on writing the content of your paper.

 

When your papers are finished you can export them as a Word document and upload them to your Brightspace course drop box. 

 

The easiest way to log into Academic Writer is through your Brightspace online classroom. Do not add Academic Writer to your bookmarks. You need to login through Brightspace every time.  

 

There are two ways to access Academic Writer. The first is from the Tools for Success! Widget. From your course home page, scroll down to the widget and select Academic Writer. 

 

The second way is through IWU Resources. 

 

From your course home page, select the green Course Menu icon. In the left-hand menu, select Course Dashboard and then select IWU Resources. Find the Academic Support & Resources area, under APA Resources select Academic Writer.

 

Remember that Academic Writer is not compatible with Internet Explorer or Edge browsers. You can use Firefox, Chrome, or Safari browsers. 

 

Also, remember that Academic Writer and the Grammarly Chrome extension do not communicate well and cause errors. Be sure to disable Grammarly on the Academic Writer website. You can use the Grammarly app or Grammarly in Microsoft Word to check your paper for grammar and spelling errors after you export it from Academic Writer.

 

We hope this brief introduction to APA Style format and Academic Writer has been helpful. For step-by-step video tutorials on how to get started with Academic Writer visit our OCLS Tutorials Page. I will include the link to those tutorials in this post.

 

Also, keep in mind that OCLS Librarians offer APA review. We will look over your paper for APA errors before you submit it for your assignment. 

If you have any questions about APA Review, Academic Writer, APA Style, Grammarly, or anything else contact Off Campus Library Services by phone at 1-800-521-1848 or by email at ocls@indwes.edu. Be sure to check out the OCLS Tutorials Page for more videos like this!