NUR 513 APA Assignment GCU

Writing is an interesting art through which wordsmiths utilize their skills to deliver meaningful content to the audience. Academic writing, in particular, is unique since it demands strict adherence to predetermined standards to enhance a piece’s appeal to a professional audience. My journey as a writer has been quite fulfilling, especially when I reflect on the knowledge I have gained so far in matters pertaining to paper formatting and content presentation.

In 1929, a group of business managers, anthropologists, and psychologists collaborated to form the American Psychological Association (APA) standards of writing to guide professionals in various domains including psychology, neuroscience, sociology, linguistics, human geography, political science, economics, and cognitive science.

It is important to have a rough idea of the disciplines of writing in which the APA style is applicable to avoid employing it in unwarranted pieces. Other notable styles of writing include Chicago, MLA, OSCOLA, and Harvard. The limiting scope of the present piece only allows its author to focus on the APA Style of writing.

Effective Communication

First and foremost, it must be established that the official criteria for the recent version of the APA style is accessible from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition. The third chapter of this manual offers its readers some guidelines on how to communicate effectively through clear and concise writing.

Clarity and conciseness are largely dependent on the organization of the paper, writing style, bias, and grammar usage. Each of these dynamics has a crucial role in creating a sense of connection between the writer and his/her audience. The sixth chapter ‘Crediting Sources’ provides further guidance on how citations and references can be leveraged to enhance both the credibility and relevance of a piece (APA, 2010).

This section acknowledges the challenge often faced by writers as they engage in personal communication: this kind of communication involves the use of private content, which can only be included in the in-text citations, but not the reference list.

Personal Communication

The two main types of communications in academic writing include personal and interpersonal, depending on the reader’s ability to retrieve the primary data: the first includes pieces of information that cannot be retrieved by the reader while the latter are retrievable. Personal communications include live speeches, personal interviews, emails, online chats, text messages, unrecorded classroom lectures, letters, non-archived discussion group messages/bulletins, and memos (Appelbaum, et al., 2018).

As highlighted earlier, personal communications cannot be included in the reference list, so it is important to incorporate sufficient details inside the text. For example, email messages received from John Doe on September 8, 2020 will be cited as either (D. John, email, September 8, 2020) or D. John (email, September 8, 2020). Noteworthy is the fact that the first is written in a parenthetical manner while the latter assumes a narrative structure, yet both are correct.

Levels of Heading

As stated, clarity and conciseness are primary quality indicators in the APA style of writing. For a writer to experience proficiency in this factor, he/she should be willing to utilize the APA level of headings (APA, 2010). According to the sixth edition edicts, APA pieces ought to abide to the five-level heading protocol.

First-Level Heading. Typically, first-level headings should be centered, boldface, with both uppercase and lowercase words. The headings “Introduction” and “Effective Communication” are good examples of first-level header. Noteworthy is how they have been applied to shape the discussion.

Second-Level Heading. On the other hand, the second-level heading follows the same technique save for the fact that it is flushed left. The present subsection “Levels of Heading” offers a clear illustration of how this level of heading can be applied in an article to advance the discussion.

Third-Level Heading. The third-level heading in APA is usually used as further advancement of the argument summarized in the second-level heading. The preceding parts have presented clear illustrations of how the first two levels of heading are utilized in the writing process (APA, 2010). At this point, the reader is urged to reflect on how this third-level of heading is used to advance the information summarized in the second-level heading titled “Levels of Heading”.

Fourth Level Heading. Like the third-level heading, this level is also inden