Customer Reviews

The World's Easiest Guide to Using the Apa : A User Friendly Manual for Formatting Research Papers According to the American Psychological association

5 star:		(5)
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2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Information not always clearly explained, not for the beginner. Still had to sort out alot of guidelines that were not clearly presented in the APA Manual. Could have used more examples. For example, the headings section could have been explained better with more examples rather than only one. The "On-Line" citation information was confusing and of little help.

The APA revised their citation guidelines in a new publication dated 2001. It is the fifth edition. Therefore, Carol Amato's book has incorrect information in it.

My University requires Master's students to use APA 5th Edition. So, when I checked the inside of my new book (this one) I read that it corresponds to the 5th Edition, but other students in my class were having different style basics, so I feel I can't trust it. I checked with the American Psychological Association and they said "We cannot endorse a non-APA product. There are a lot of them out there, and they are riddled with mistakes." So the APA does not recognize this edition. Also, the inside of this edition says "This book is intended for undergraduate use only" - something they don't tell you before you order.

Did not cover all APA material. Did a great job on setting up pages, documenting sources, creating list of references, headings, appendix, etc.

The person writing the review below obviously did not look on the copyright page of "The World's Easiest Guide to Using the APA" to see that this book is geared for undergraduates only, especially lower-division and English-as-a-Second-Language students. He is a professional, editing at the graduate level. He needs to be using the regular Publication Manual. He is being unfair in his assessment of The World's Easiest Guide to Using the APA, since the book is not meant for grad-level students. Many colleges and universities around the country have adopted this book because of its user-friendly layout. It takes the students step-by-step through the creation of a research paper, from the title page to the references. Any lower-division student will be thrilled with its easy-to-understand steps. Full-size, sample papers are included in the appendices.

Do not buy this unless you have the opportunity to see one first, or are willing to return it. THIS GUIDE COVERS FORMATTING ALMOST TO THE EXCLUSION OF EVERYTHING ELSE IMPORTANT IN APA. I bought this for help with an editing job I do part-time for a professional journal. It is so inadequate, it will go straight into the garbage can. There are free online APA style Guides which are by far better.
There are eight chapters in this.The first 6 are about page setup, grapics, citing references, and other basic stuff. These cover the first 91 pages. The bulk of the rest of the book is about setting up reference lists! Over 100 pages for this. I suppose someone may need this much on it, but I suspect most don't. It usually gives an example of a reference and then gives step-by-step instructions to make your own. I do mean detailed. "At the left margin, type the author's..." If you need this much detail, you probably need instructions telling you to turn the page too.
Punctuation and spelling is covered in Chap 8. It contains TWO pages! It is so simplistic as to be worse than useless. It is more of a joke.
This book contains little but instructions for fromatting. Perhaps it is my fault that I did not read the detail about this thing before ordering, but for some reason--call me a fool--I thought an APA users guide covered all the APA. I was certainly wrong there.

Students! Save your sanity! This user friendly guide takes all the stress out of using the APA Style Guide! Why waste your time hassling through the Publication Manual when you can use this easy-to-read version instead? I find this manual completely understandable and thorough. It tells you everything you need to know about APA style so you can format your paper quickly and easily. Your time can be spent on the content of your paper instead!

Excellant buy, just what we needed. Arrived in minimal time, and in GREAT shape!

Be careful if you are considering purchasing this guide. There are two formats of APA style (submitted and published). This manual only covers one of the formats. My school requires the one not covered so the book was of no use to me.

Did not cover all APA material. Did a great job on setting up pages, documenting sources, creating list of references, headings, appendix, etc.