Guide to APA Academic Writer / About Academic Writer
WHAT IS ACADEMIC WRITER?
Academic Writer is the only authoritative and complete online environment for teaching, writing, and publishing in APA Style®. Designed to help users develop their writing and professional research skills, Academic Writer combines sophisticated learning and teaching tools, advanced writing and content management technology, and full integration of APA’s best-selling Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association® to create an unparalleled web-based suite of integrated services and tools.
HOW DO I ACCESS IT?
To access Academic Writer, log in to your current Brightspace class.
On your course homepage, scroll down to the Tools for Success! widget and click Academic Writer.
Guide to APA Academic Writer / Creating an Account
WHY CREATE AN ACCOUNT?
The Reference and Writing Centers in Academic Writer require creating a free account.
HOW TO CREATE AN ACADEMIC WRITER ACCOUNT
Guide to APA Academic Writer / Using Academic Writer
USING ACADEMIC WRITER
Academic Writer has three "Centers" or sections.
Find tutorials and examples in the Learn section of Academic Writer.
Reference management tools and forms to create APA reference citations.
Review the basic features of Academic Writer's writing tools.
ACADEMIC WRITER TUTORIALS & TIPS
The below documentation, provided by the APA, leads to information, tips, and training about the basics of using Academic Writer and technical requirements.
Guide to APA Academic Writer / Learning Center
WHAT'S IN THE LEARNING CENTER?
Think of Academic Writer's Learn section (also called the Learning Center) as an interactive, searchable, website version of the APA 7th Edition manual. Instead of book pages, it has full tutorials, examples, templates, and rules for every possible thing you may need to cite.
You'll see the Learning Center has six distinct sections, which can be divided into two major parts:
Lessons:
Examples and Templates:
OPENING QUICK GUIDES & TUTORIALS
To open a Quick Guide or Tutorial:
SEARCHING FOR AN ANSWER
You can browse for content in Academic Writer to find what you need, but you can also search. To do this:
Guide to APA Academic Writer / Reference Center
WHAT IS THE REFERENCE CENTER?
The Reference Center is Academic Writer's set of reference management tools. Reference management refers to creating, sorting through, and adding references to your papers. Reference management tools like Academic Writer's allow you to create references that can be placed in multiple works over time. As you create references, the references are saved to your Academic Writer account, not just for one single paper like when you add a citation to your references list in a Word document. For some, this section may be overkill, but for graduate students in particular, this tool may end up saving you a lot of time.
Academic Writer provides three tools in the Add section of the Reference Center to help you add citations:
There is also a My References section where you can search and sort through your previously added citations. This guide will just review the tools in the Add References area.
ADDING CITATIONS USING FORMS
To create a reference:
IMPORTING CITATIONS FROM AN RIS FILE
You can import a RIS file exported from databases like Academic Search Complete or ProQuest Central. Academic Writer has specific directions on how to do this.
SEARCHING FOR CITATIONS
Most students will want to use the forms in the Reference Center instead or follow the examples in the Learning Center.
You can also search for citations for articles in APA's PscyInfo database, so this tool is most useful for psychology students and faculty.
If you want to see if your source already has a pre-formatted entry:
Guide to APA Academic Writer / Writing Center
WHAT IS THE WRITING CENTER?
Academic Writer contains a Writing section where you can create and write a full APA-formatted paper. Export your work at any time to a Microsoft Word document.
Below are documents from Academic Writer about the essential features of their Writing tools.
HOW DO I START A PAPER?
To start a paper:
At this point, you're now in Academic Writer's writing tools. It will look similar to tools in Microsoft Word but with extra APA Style-focused features like adding references, tables, and figures.
MORE ACADEMIC WRITER GUIDES & TIPS
The Writing Center's tools are easy to use, but they are deep, and there many options and features.
Most students say it takes them about three papers to become comfortable using Academic Writer. When you get used to the platform, it saves you time creating and formatting references and citing.
Guide to APA Academic Writer / Featured Resources
FEATURED ITEMS FROM ACADEMIC WRITER
Guide to APA Academic Writer / Video Tutorials
ACADEMIC WRITER VIDEO TUTORIALS
Guide to APA Academic Writer / More APA 7th Resources
OCLS APA RESOURCES
RESOURCES FROM APA