Introduction
To improve the service delivery of Star Publishing to our customers, there is a need for us to adapt writing skills that are easy to understand for the researcher. Since most of our customers are universities were need to look into what it is that they need and how to best meet the standards that are kept in these institutions. As editors, we must ensure that the final copy that is delivered to our customers is up to standard and meets their various needs adequately. Since in universities the requirements are academic standards being met, then it is necessary to make our publications as academic as possible.
The APA style
To show the validity of the information contained in the publications, there is a need to reference the work. Most of our contracts involve publishing student textbooks, workbooks, instructor editions, and study guidelines. It has come to our attention that few of Star Publishing employees fully understand the APA style of writing and it has become necessary to inform and educate them on how to use this style in all our publications and especially those for these university orders. The APA style is an abbreviation of the American Psychological Associations’ style. As its name suggests, it is mostly used in psychology although the social sciences make use of it too.
In the APA style, there is a lot of use of an in-text citation. They are found in parenthesis all through the text and consist of the author’s surname and the date of publication. Once a source has been cited in the in-text citation, the full version must be written in the reference list. The reference list is found at the end of the text. However, when one has used a direct quote and wants to cite it, there has to be the inclusion of the page number on top of the inclusion of the name and publishing date. The use of these in-text citations helps the reader easily locate where the citation has been retrieved from about the reference list.
The APA style gives various ways of citing the different sources of information. By being very specific and clear on where the information has come from, it allows the reader to confirm that what is written is true. This helps in confirming the validity of the text and since most are academic texts, this is very important. Since people in the field of social sciences and those in the psychology field mostly utilize it, it means that it can also be used in research papers. It is in such papers that its importance becomes very clear because the reader can be able to verify all the information that is included in the research paper and hence confirm the reliability and validity of the research (American Psychological Association 2001).
Conclusion
The employees of Star Publishing must learn about the APA rules because they will be put to use in the publishing of academic texts that the company is contracted to publish. This is necessary because this publishing company aims to meet the client’s needs and since it is the style that is used in most academic papers it would only be prudent for every one of us to learn how to use it. Those rules will be used to ensure that the universities who contract us will continue bringing to us the works that they need to have published for them. Once this happens we benefit from increased profits and they in turn benefit from getting quality services that are indeed valued for money.
References
American Psychological Association 2001 Publication Manual of the APA 5th ed.
Universities Libraries 2006. Citing Sources Using the APA Style manual.