I wish this book were better organized. I never know how to find what I need. I end up shuffling pages until I find it. Also there needs to be a complete manuscript to demonstrate many of the principles and rules. ( )

This book is a little hard to digest, but it has been a tremendous help to me with writing papers for graduate school. I wouldn't recommend trying to read it cover to cover, but has been helpful to use the index and flag the pages that I had to refer to over and over again. ( )

This style guide is a necessary evil for scholarly publishing in education, but it is bewilderingly fussy. One example of this fussiness is in the five levels of subheadings it prescribes.

Most sensible writers would use a simple sequential system, where the first level is always first, the second level is always second, and so forth through as many levels as needed. APA’s system starts with Level 1, but if you have two levels, you should use Level 1 and Level 3 (unless you use Level 1 and Level 4). If you use three levels you use Level 1, Level 3 and Level 4, while the orphaned Level 2 finally makes its appearance as a fourth level in its numerical position between Level 1 and Level 3. So where does Level 5 go? If you need five levels, Level 5 goes ahead of the other four. How sensible!

Also, the current publication manual (2001) does NOT contain the current style for citing electronic references. The APA published an updated APA Style Guide to Electronic References (2007), which they will be happy to sell you as a separate PDF for another $12. Do not put yourself through this pain unless it is absolutely required. ( )

This text is useful, to a point. After this point, however, one needs to rely on the APA site available on the Internet or any library resource guides on citation styles (particularly for more recent media).

Generally most useful for those who are writing papers, etc. in the field of psychology; many other domains are using this style-guide and unfortunately, the examples described are not necessarily pertinent for all fields and rules have to be interpreted/reinterpreted as needed. This book is also more useful for those who need information on more than just citations (structure of papers, organization and formatting, etc.). ( )

A must have for writing papers in college! Don't leave home without it!! ( )