Embracing the Learning Process: Transitioning from APA 6 to APA 7

It’s been 10 years since I first began my journey to master APA. When I began working in the Writing Center in 2010, APA had just published its sixth edition of the manual, so it was a perfect time for a new writing instructor like myself to dive in headfirst. Those early months of learning APA were frustrating. I can’t tell you how many times I looked up the rules for when to use “et al.” or when exactly an issue number was needed in a reference entry. Slowly but surely, however, I mastered APA’s rules. As I practiced using the style, both in my own writing and by teaching it to students, APA’s rules became second nature to me.

Fast forward 10 years, and I’m now looking at the recently published seventh edition of APA. The manual itself has helpful tabs and a colorful cover, but as I have started exploring the new and modified rules of APA 7, I’m reminded of how challenging and daunting it can be to learn the rules of a citation style. I’m taken back to my initial foray into APA, as I’ve been asked to learn entirely new guidelines or adjust old rules for the new edition of APA. As I do so, I tell myself over and over again that I will, at some point, memorize the URL version of a DOI so I won’t need to look it up every time. Intellectually I know that this is true, and that I’ve been here before, but it still feels frustrating. I’d gotten used to knowing APA intuitively, but now this new seventh edition of APA requires an extra layer of thought to something I used to do without thinking.

On the positive side, these feelings of frustration have also been productive. As I labor over the new edition, practicing the new way to reference a webpage or including “et al.” in all citations with three or more authors, I’m reminded that my feelings of frustration are simply part of the learning process. Learning often isn’t comfortable; it’s challenging, and it requires us to step outside of our comfort zone to learn to think in a new way. And so, with this learning process, I also am reminded of the student experience. It’s been quite a long time since I went through the process of first learning APA, and so learning APA 7 has given me insight into the challenges and frustrations of any Walden student who is new to APA style. 

Walden University will be adopting the seventh edition of the APA manual starting in the summer terms (May 4 for semester-based programs and June 1 for quarter-based programs). So, very soon, much of the Walden community will be joining me in this learning process. To support you along the way, here are a few tips from the trenches that you may find helpful:

• Acknowledge the Challenge: Learning APA 7, like any learning, is a process; there will be frustrations and challenges along the way. Acknowledging—and if possible, embracing—this challenge will help you avoid feelings of failure if you make a mistake or frustration if it’s taking some time.
• Give Yourself Time: I’ve had 10 years to absorb APA, and it’s unrealistic to expect that I'll memorize and use APA 7 intuitively in a short period of time. Similarly, using APA 7 will add to your writing time, since you’ll most likely need to look up rules and double-check formats.
• Use Resources: Once you begin learning and using APA 7, don’t feel like you’re in this alone. The Writing Center is working on a number of resources to help you transition into using the seventh edition. We will have fully updated APA resources throughout our website, so you can use tutorials on our website and services from our writing instructors and form and style editors to support your learning of APA 7. In the mean time, you can visit our APA 7 Transition page for the latest updates and a comparison table so you can see the biggest differences in the APA editions.
• Ask Questions: Don’t forget to ask questions, too: You can email usor visit our Live Chat Hours with questions about APA 7 after the May switch dates. Your faculty and classmates can be a great source of support, too. I can’t tell you how many times I've reached out to colleagues to confirm I’m using a new APA 7 rule correctly.

We will also have new and updated webinars in May to help with the transition. You can find the full schedule and registration information on our webinars calendar page. All webinars will be recorded and archived as well, so you can watch them at your convenience.

We look forward to working with you as you engage in your own learning process with APA 7, and we’re pleased to support you on this journey. And hey, if you find yourself loving a new rule or experiencing a particular challenge, be sure to let us know. We’re all in this learning process together! 

Beth Nastachowski has been with the Writing Center since 2010, and she currently manages the center’s webinars, modules, and videos. She spends her time running after her son, husband, two cats, and dog in St. Paul, MN. 

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An APA 7 Update and Resources

We here in the Walden University Writing Center recently updated our APA 7 transition webpage to provide more information about how we’re preparing to help Walden University students use the APA’s new style guide.

Later this year, Walden University will be fully transitioning to the seventh and latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). For semester-based programs, the official transition date to APA 7 is May 4. For quarter-based programs, the official transition date is June 1. The university will soon share more information about a grace period for students who are actively writing their doctoral capstones and may choose between continuing in the sixth edition or using the seventh edition. 

To help support Walden students’ transition, the instructors and editors of the Writing Center are working to learn the details of the new style guide, update our instructional resources, and create new resources. For example, these APA 6 and 7 comparison tables provide a concise preview of the significant changes between the old and new version of the manual. These tables are just one example of the type of resource our staff is working on to highlight and help you learn the changes.

We also just published a WriteCast podcast episode on a few of the APA 7 changes that we’re most excited about. Stream or download (click the connect button on the player) the episode here, or listen on your favorite podcast app. If you have heard or read about upcoming changes, we’d love to know which ones you are looking forward to the most!
    

Please bookmark our APA 7 transition webpage to learn about when new Writing Center resources will go live and for information about the official Walden University timelines for the transition. We’ll continue to share updates with you on resources, training, and timelines as we all make this exciting move together!

Any questions related to the transition to APA 7 can be directed to APA7@mail.waldenu.edu. 

The Walden University Writing Center provides a broad range of writing instruction and editing services for students, including writing assistance for undergraduates, graduate students, and doctoral capstone writers. 

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December 2019 Live Webinar Events

Join us for our Live Webinar Events in December, 2019. We hope you can join these live sessions, but if not, we archive recordings of all of our sessions. Access our webinar archive here.

Title:	Life Cycle of a Paper
Date:	Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Time (Eastern):	8:00PM - 9:00PM
Audience:	All Students

Title:	Beginnings and Endings: Introduce and Conclude Your Writing
Date:	Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Time (Eastern):	12:00PM - 1:00PM
Audience:	All Students

The Walden University Writing Center provides a broad range of writing instruction and editing services for students, including writing assistance for undergraduates, graduate students, and doctoral capstone writers. 

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There’s a New APA Manual: What Does It Mean for Walden?

As you may have heard, APA released a new, seventh edition of its Publication Manual on October 1. For now, Walden will continue using the sixth edition of the manual, so no actions are needed from students or faculty yet! The Writing Center is working with academic leaders to ensure the transition to the updated manual will be smooth, and to communicate timelines and other details of this transition as they are decided.

Walden Writing Center staff members have all received copies of the seventh edition of the APA manual and are currently doing a close read to understand the changes that come with it. Throughout November, we’ll be assembling a document detailing these changes, which we’ll use to make the needed revisions to our own resources and to develop student and faculty training. Faculty and students will be receiving a communication in the next few weeks with some clarification on this transition and the next steps.

In the meantime, Walden students, faculty, and staff can visit the APA Transition Page on the Writing Center website for announcements related to APA 7 and send any questions about this transition to the Writing Center at APA7@mail.waldenu.edu. 

 

The Walden University Writing Center provides a broad range of writing instruction and editing services for students, including writing assistance for undergraduates, graduate students, and doctoral capstone writers. 

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November Live Webinar Events from the Walden University Writing Center!

This month, our Writing Instructors will be presenting live webinar sessions on practical (and important!) scholarly writing topics. If you're able to join our webinars at the times listed below, great! Be prepared to think about, chat about, and practice scholarly writing skills in an interactive presentation space with plenty of like-minded Walden scholar-practitioners. Writing can sometimes feel like a solitary activity, but it doesn't have to be!

Join us this month for these sessions:

Title:	Practical Tips to Successfully Write in Academic American English
Date:	Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Time (Eastern):	1:00PM - 2:00PM
Audience:	All Students

Title:	Practical Writing Skills: Incorporating Analysis and Synthesis
Date:	Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Time (Eastern):	8:00PM - 9:00PM
Audience:	All Students

If you're unable to attend these sessions in person, no problem! You're free to view the recordings of these sessions, and any of our 50+ webinar recordings. Click here to access our library of fully-accessible, informative, super-helpful webinar recordings! 

The Walden University Writing Center is home to a staff of trained, professional Writing Instructors and Dissertation Editors. The Writing Center's staff works with Walden University students' writing in one on one sessions, but also creates resources that can be used by students to enhance their own scholarly writing skills. As students come to the Writing Center with a variety of learning styles and preferences, the Writing Center's staff supports these students with a resources that appeal to the diversity of Walden U's body of students. 

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Set a Writing Goal (and Stick To It!) With This New Writing Center Service

In the Writing Center, we know that improving your scholarly writing skills can be a big challenge. What can make this especially difficult is that developing your writing process can seem so big and complicated that you may not know where to begin. Should you focus on grammar? APA? What about organization and paraphrasing? Should you try to do it all at once? Setting writing goals for yourself (which we’ve discussed previously on this blog) can help you chart a path through this work, letting you focus on your priorities and identify concrete, positive steps you can take.

To further support you and encourage you to set writing goals, we’re offering a pilot program—which we’re calling a Goal Plan—that includes four guaranteed paper-review appointments with the same writing instructor focused on your writing goals. Each Goal Plan is kind of like a cross between our standard paper reviews and a miniature writing course: you’ll set the goals that you want to work towards, and we’ll give you feedback to help you make meaningful progress over time. As with all of our paper reviews, our aim is to help you develop skills that you can then apply to all of your future writing.

If you would like to participate in a Goal Plan, you can get started by completing our Writing Goals and Planning Module. If you have any questions, feel free to email us. We look forward to working with you!

The Walden University Writing Center creates innovative writing instructional services to enhance writers' understanding of the complexities of scholarly writing. The Writing Center's staff encourages writers to take control of their scholarly writing development with resources, instruction, and multi-media & on-demand learning opportunities.  

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September Live Webinar Events!

The Walden University Writing Center Writing Instructors and Dissertation Editors are keeping busy with our normal slate of Paper Reviews, Form and Style Reviews, blog posts, website content, podcasts, residencies, and all the other tools we use to support Walden University writers. As we turn our calendars to the next month, it's shaping up to be a busy September. 

Amidst all of this busyness, we're still producing, presenting, and sharing a full schedule of live webinar events throughout the month. If you join us for one of our live webinars, you will join a like-minded group of Walden writers who are interested in building community while building writing skills. During the session, one of our professional instructors or editors will present a specific writing topic to you, including plenty of examples, activities, and opportunities to learn and communicate with each other. 

If you're unable to join a live session, all of our live webinar sessions are recorded and posted to our webinar archive. Click here to access the webinar archive to find out what topics've been covered. 

Enjoy this month's live webinar offerings! 

Title:	What Is Academic Writing?
Date:	Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Time (Eastern):	8:00PM - 9:00PM
Audience:	All Students

Title:	Successfully Writing Doctoral Capstone Abstracts
Date:	Thursday, September 5, 2019
Time (Eastern):	12:00PM - 1:00PM
Audience:	Doctoral Students Working on Final Capstone Draft

Title:	Plagiarism Prevention: The Three Components to Avoiding Plagiarism
Date:	Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Time (Eastern):	1:30PM - 2:30PM
Audience:	All Students

Title:	Practical Writing Skills: Paraphrasing Source Information
Date:	Monday, September 16, 2019
Time (Eastern):	2:00PM - 3:00PM
Audience:	All Students

Title:	NEW Webinar: Before You Write: Critical Reading Strategies for Academic Writers
Date:	Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Time (Eastern):	2:00PM - 3:00PM
Audience:	All Students

The Walden University Writing Center is home to a staff of trained, professional Writing Instructors and Dissertation Editors. The Writing Center's staff works with Walden University students' writing in one on one sessions, but also creates resources that can be used by students to enhance their own scholarly writing skills. As students come to the Writing Center with a variety of learning styles and preferences, the Writing Center's staff supports these students with a resources that appeal to the diversity of Walden U's body of students. 

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August Live Webinar Events from the Writing Center

Starting tomorrow, August 6th, the Walden University Writing Center has an entire month of exciting live webinar events planned. Our webinars are created and presented by Writing Instructors and Dissertation Editors who work closely with Walden U scholarly writers of all degrees, programs, and levels. We know what you're going through, and we create our live webinar sessions to deliver the most learning impact possible. 

Live webinars are a great way to learn about a specific or general writing concept. But what makes these events even more enjoyable is that you are learning, in real-time, with a group of like-minded individuals who are also eager to further their writing skills. Writing and learning within a community of people can increase your motivation, your enjoyment, and your skills, all at the same time. 

If you're unable to join us for any of the live sessions below, don't worry! We record all of our sessions and you can access them from our Webinar Archive any time. Click here to access previous recordings of live webinar sessions. 

Here's the menu of our live webinar sessions offered this month from the Walden University Writing Center. Enjoy!

Title:	Citations Part 1: Methods to the Madness
Date:	Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Time:	1:00PM - 2:00PM EST
Audience:	All Students

Title:	Grammar for Academic Writers: Identifying Common Errors
Date:	Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Time:	7:00PM - 8:00PM EST
Audience:	All Students

Title:	What About Me? Using Personal Experience in Academic Writing
Date:	Monday, August 19, 2019
Time:	3:00PM - 4:00PM EST
Audience:	All Students

Title:	Practical Writing Skills: Using and Integrating Quotes
Date:	Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Time:	1:30PM - 2:30PM EST
Audience:	All Students

Title:	Successfully Writing Doctoral Capstone Abstracts
Date:	Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Time:	12:00PM - 1:00PM EST
Audience:	Doctoral Students Working on Final Capstone Draft

The Walden University Writing Center supports undergraduate and graduate students throughout their programs with paper reviews, webinars, modules, a podcast, and a comprehensive website.

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Annotated Bibliography Essentials: Five-Part Blog Series for Research Writers

The annotated bibliography is a common course assignment for Walden University students and is a useful tool with which writers can organize and make sense of their research. However, the annotated bibliography is an often misunderstood writing challenge for Walden students. The combination of writing in a new genre with specific formatting and content requirements, along with the challenge of locating, cataloging, and writing about literature from their field, makes this a complex task for writers. 

To ease the burden on student-writers and to demonstrate how the annotated bibliography is a tool to support the complex task of constructing research-based writing, we've created a five-part blog series. The three main components of the annotated bibliography (summary, analysis, and application) are important for any scholar-practitioner to understand and execute, so we've delved into each of these elements, along with other practical advice.

May we present to you, without further ado, our brand new blog series titled Annotated Bibliography Essentials. This series will provide practical tips that will help writers use this research writing tool to its fullest. Join us as we present the following posts in this series!

Overview of the Annotated Bibliography

Introduction and Conclusion Writing in the Annotated Bibliography

Summary Writing in the Annotated Bibliography

Analysis Writing in the Annotated Bibliography

Application Writing in the Annotated Bibliography

The Walden University Writing Center creates content to help students with a range of topics related to scholarly writing, APA style, and the writing process. We host webinars, and offer paper reviews, live chat, and a podcast. You can check out all of our resources by visiting our Walden University Writing Center home page.

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Updates are Coming To Our Paper Review Scheduling Software

Exciting changes are coming to myPASS this year! myPASS is the scheduling system that the Writing Center uses to manage our online, asynchronous, one-on-one paper review appointments, which help Walden University students develop their writing skills and confidence over time. Sometime this spring or summer, myPASS will automatically upgrade to a new, more responsive version. We want to highlight two changes that will impact—and improve—your paper review experience, as well as to preview what you can expect.

What is changing?
We are pleased to share that attaching files to your appointment will be easier! After the upgrade, you will attach your file(s) at the bottom of your appointment form. You can still attach your file at the same time as reserving an appointment, or you can make an appointment and attach your file at a later time (for example, if you want to reserve a future appointment while you are still working on your draft, or if you have already attached your draft but have an updated version to submit). There will no longer be a file attachment pop-up window or a yellow folder icon to use for attaching files later. Instead, there will be a single way to attach a file.

Another new feature is an improved mobile interface, so you will be able to make and access paper review appointments on a phone or tablet. This feature will make it easier to reserve and manage your appointments on the go, especially when paired with text message notifications about appointment openings.

What is not changing?
Don’t worry, you won’t need to learn an entirely new system! While myPASS will look slightly different after the upgrade, the features and functionality will largely be the same. We’re also keeping our policies, procedures, and approaches the same, including:

• our paper review mission and goal to help students develop their academic writing skills as emerging scholars and encourage students to engage in an ongoing writing process;

• the asynchronous nature of our appointments, which allows students flexibility in appointment scheduling and receiving feedback;

• the ability for students to make up to two appointments per week, with instructors of their choice; and

• the deadlines for attaching a paper (5 a.m. EST the date of the appointment, or at the same time as reserving an appointment for the current day).

Where can I learn more?
We will e-mail students who are registered in myPASS once the upgrade has taken place. You can also find updates on the myPASS log-in page and in the announcements at the top of the schedules. If you have any questions, reach out to us at writingsupport@waldenu.edu.

If you are new to the paper review service or have taken a break from myPASS, it’s a great time to set a writing goal for yourself, visit our paper review web pages, and make an appointment (or several!) with one of our professional writing instructors. Whether you have been out of school for years or are one of our paper review “regulars,” whether you are anxious or confident about your writing, our team looks forward to working with you!

The Walden University Writing Center is proud to support Walden students at all phases of their programs of study. Students working on undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral coursework are invited to use our Paper Review services. Capstone writers are eligible for Paper Reviews up until their prospectus is approved. After which, doctoral-level students are encouraged to use the Writing Center's vast library of resources specially tailored for advanced capstone writers. We're excited to support your Walden journey! 

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Virtual Conference Invitation: Water is Toxic and Food is Scarce. What Will We Do?

On behalf of Dr. Savitri Dixon-Saxon, Vice Provost, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Dr. William C. Schulz, III, Director, Walden Center for Social Change, you are hereby invited to an exciting event happening tomorrow, March 8th. Please join us for Walden University's free, virtual social change conference from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. eastern time. 

The conference, A Social Change Challenge: Water is Toxic and Food is Scarce. What Will We Do?, will engage in a robust exploration and dialog related to the direct and underlying causes that contribute to ongoing food and water insecurity and quality problems across the globe. This virtual, interdisciplinary conference will support Walden University scholar-practitioners in their collaboration for positive social change. 

You can find the detailed conference agenda here.

Click here to reserve your spot for the conference. 

If you'd like to learn more about Walden's Center for Social Change, please follow this link.

We hope to see you tomorrow, March 8th. 

The Walden University Center for Social Change is a connective hub that promotes, facilitates, and supports collaborative partnerships, action research, and projects that lead to purposeful action for sustainable positive social change.

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Thursday Thoughts: New Features for Writing Center Resources!

Some of our most popular writing instruction resources here in the Walden University Writing Center are our self-paced, interactive modules. One of the key components of this resource is that students take a diagnostic quiz at the outset of the module so we know precisely what type of instruction you need as a learner.  

Recently, we have added a new feature to our diagnostic quizzes! After students take these quizzes, they can now access feedback on each quiz question. This will allow students to not only identify their strengths and areas for improvement for a given writing topics, but also learn from the quiz itself.

While this is a new feature, diagnostic quizzes will continue to point students to appropriate modules to complete based on their scores in the quiz. Here is a sampling of our helpful Diagnostic Quizzes: 

• Grammar Diagnostic Quiz
• Plagiarism Prevention Diagnostic Quiz
• APA References and Citations
• APA Style
• Scholarly Writing Diagnostic Quiz (This is a NEW diagnostic quiz, focusing on paragraph construction)

As always, we love to hear your feedback on our resources. Leave a comment here or follow the instructions in the Module itself in order to tell us how we're doing and what else would support your scholarly-writing journey. 

The Walden Writing Center provides information and assistance to students with services like live chat, webinars, course visits, paper reviews, podcasts, modules, and the writing center webpages. Through these services they provide students assistance with APA, scholarly writing, and help students gain skills and confidence to enhance their scholarly work.

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Happy New Year!

The Walden University Writing Center will be closed tomorrow, January 1st. We'll return on January 2nd with renewed energy and purpose to continue helping Walden writers on their educational journey. 

Thank you for reading our blog this past year. We hope it has been inspirational and educational. We'll continue to provide helpful, student-focused writing in the new year. Here's to positive social change in 2019 and beyond! 

Keep Writing. Keep Inspiring! 

The Walden University Writing Center publishes a new blog post every Monday. Our multimodal writing instruction is presented by Walden University Writing Center Writing Instructors expressly written for an audience of Walden University students. Join our lively conversation in 2019 by subscribing to the blog by clicking the link below! 

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