Using APA Referencing in Practice
Writing academic papers will require a referencing style; Michael has touched on the use of Chicago, MLA and APA in the past but in this post I'm going to explain and outline the APA referencing system.
APA stands for the American Psychological Association and their referencing style is very common. I'll cover off UK and US referencing styles in future posts so don't think I'm singling APA out for special attention.
The APA system is broken into two main parts:
-
In-text citations
-
A reference list
Interviewing a Subject
It has struck me that having to interview a subject as part of an assignment is something that is not as straight forward as I thought. Interviewing someone for a job is not the same as interviewing a subject that you are then going to use to write up a piece, and in either case, interviewing is something that takes practice to get what you want out of the meeting.
Here are my thoughts on how to approach and conduct an interview with a subject. Note that these are born out of minimal experience interviewing a subject as part of my writing career so pitch in with your criticism and suggestions.
What is the Purpose of the Interview?
Establish what the objective of the interview is to be. Are you interviewing the subject because you are writing about them or will be featuring them in your commission? Are you looking to use the subject's knowledge and experience to support or counter the position you are taking with your commission?
Do You Have Your Writer’s Voice?
Read a paragraph from one of your favourite novel writer - then do the same with another.
Can you tell the difference between the two?
I like science fiction and Iain Banks is a favourite. I also like John Grisham novels when I'm on a transatlantic flight. the two writing styles are very different irrespective of the US/UK spellings.
The difference is their voice.
It may seem strange to ask if you have a voice as a writer - after all you are not speaking.
National Union of Journalists
Why I have never used their site I do not know - I stumbled upon it quite by accident and spent several hours tracing through the links and resources they have.
You can find the site here.
The link is to the media resources for the London freelancers part of the site, but this itself is only a small taste of what is on offer.
As a research resource it is brilliant and I particularly liked the help it gave on how to handle using translation engines. I frequently use Babelfish (Babel from the biblical tower where different languages were spoken and Babel Fish from the Douglas Adams invention in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy). I speak rusty French and Jurassic Russian, and use the site when I'm writing or reading material in either language as a check on my own understanding. The advice the NUJ site gives is to use more than one translation engine so you are able to comprehend better the "shadow of meaning" that the words convey. I like that phrase "shadow of meaning" and the advice is sound.
Copyright and Freelance Writing
Copyright exists in anything you create, as soon as you write something down or record it in some manner, you have copyright. The work must be your own, so plagiarised material is excluded. If you are employed or have a contract which stipulates that copyright passes to whoever has commissioned your work, then copyright vests with your employer.
In the UK and European Union, copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the writer, or if the work is published after death of the writer, for 70 years after publication.
A general rule is not to surrender copyright unless you have negotiated suitable compensation. Retaining copyright gives you the right to be rewarded for your work and if successful, may continue to benefit your family for decades after your death. Look at the estate of JRR Tolkien, the author of "Lord of the Rings" and consider the royalties paid the owners of the copyright from the movies that have been made.
Libel and Freelance Writing
Libel is where you write something that is damaging to another person. If your writing is professionally damaging to that person, the scope for redress is even greater.
Libel is a publisher's nightmare as it can lead to bankruptcy and the end of a career for you as a writer. Caution is the watchword when handling contentious issues which may put you at loggerheads if you have something you passionately believe in.
The main defence to libel is in writing the truth. What constitutes the "truth" may be a very difficult thing to prove once you are in a court of law and you are required to back up your claims. From bitter personal experience of courts in the UK and the US, though fortunately not for libel, I have learned to appreciate that there is a huge difference between what I know and what I can prove.
Libel is something that can affect both the non-fiction and fiction writer. Writing a denigrating piece that places a product in a bad light can be considered libellous, so product or service comparisons must be made with care. Using a fictional name for a character in a novel that you are basing upon a real life individual will not protect you from a libel suit if that person is identifiable from your writing.
It is necessary to demonstrate that you have been malicious or reckless when demonstrating libel. This is why you see disclaimers along the lines of "All characters are fictional and any relation to persons living or dead is unintentional." but you still must take reasonable steps to ensure that you are not using someone's name who actually exists. If you were to write about a politician or business person who is corrupt, you should Google that name and ensure no politician exists out there that has the name of your fictional character.
You cannot libel the dead so essentially you can write what you want about them. It would lead you open to criticism about making allegations against someone wh is unable to defend themselves or indeed, you may indirectly libel living relatives of the deceased. Best not to get involved in either case.
If you inadvertently libel someone, the best course of action is to consult a lawyer and your publisher. Issuing an apology and a retraction tend to do the trick but libel in the UK is serious and it can be horribly expensive so take care.
I or Me?
One trick to use when checking your grammar is to remove part of your sentence and see if it still makes sense.
I find this useful when considering if "I" should be used instead of "me".
Think about the sentence I have just written and substitute "Me" for the initial "I" - "Me find this useful..." just does not make any real sense in that context and "I" is correctly used.
Now think about this sentence:
"They gave my father and I drinks at the pub."
That sounds natural and correct to me but it is not correct - remove "my father" and you would have "They gave I drinks at the pub." which sounds wrong and indeed it is - using "me" is better, so:
"My father and me were bought drinks at the pub."
Now look at this example:
"My son and I went to the park."
Removing "My son" leaves us with "I went to the park." and that is correct - in this instance "I" is correctly used rather than me.
I see "myself" used to get around this grammatical conundrum but that just seems clumsy.
Sources of Work
When I started writing I was heavily reliant on Get A Freelancer for work and my client portfolio blossomed from there.
GAF is just one of several sites that provide work, and we have already covered others such as Guru.com which offers in my opinion, better work, better pay but you have to have something to offer if you stand any chance of competing.
Other sites you can take a peek include the following:
This is a didactic resource filled with help and material to help you get your self organised but light on actually bringing writers and clients together.
Probably the best resource for getting you on the straight and narrow with taxes and accounting as well as providing good information on copywriting rates of pay.
Jumping in the Dark
"You don't jump ... you step, like walking off the pavement when you cross the road.
It's noisy but you don't hear anything as you are concentrating on what you are going to do.
Smell is the sense that is heightened the most when you are scared and can't see anything and your ears won't work. It stinks of piss and puke with a waft of pure freshness coming at you in insufficient quantity to clear your gut from being scared and taking away the metal taste in your mouth.
Now it's your turn with the rear-front shuffle taking you to the black hole while your arms are aching with holding onto the weight and I want to throw up but I didn't eat anything on purpose.
It's pointless looking up because the cloud blanks out the stars you otherwise would expect to not see, a double negative on a good night that tells you it's open.
Now your ears tell you what's happening. Shouts from others that have gone before and are coming after.
Blue Grammar
Periodically I research for myself on the subject of "writing"; that is a bit of a shocker as it is my chosen means of earning a crust.
I came across a site which you can find here - www.grammarbook.com - an American site again but informative and helpful if you just watch for those Americanized spellings.
One recommendation I found useful is avoiding the overuse of "there is", "there are" and "it was"; something I am perennially guilty of.
Remember one of the Supaproofread writing tips - if you can dispose of a word in your piece then remove it as long as your message is not affected. This is simply good practice to impart your ideas with economy so the message is not lost in an overgrown bramble of words.