Fun with APA at the University of Phoenix Online

The gears of change grind slowly forward, so when the movers and shakers within society have to cope with the shortcomings of any given process, they often have fun at the expense of the more conservative factions in the interim.

It was in this spirit that I wrote my first answer to the discussion question forum post at the beginning of my Communications for Accountants (COM 530) class at UoP:

Week 1

Week 1 Discussion Question 1

[Name Omitted]

University of PhoenixCommunications for Accountants (COM 530)

Faculty Facilitator [Name Omitted]

October 28, 2008

Week 2

Abstract

The primary resource that will benefit the author as he enters the Communications for Accountants graduate school course will be The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition. The author contends that additional texts will be useful, and further contends (in satirical form) that the APA format was never intended for online posts, is ill-suited for such use, and fails to be conducive to an optimal learning environment. The author closes with a summary of his personal plan for success.

Week 3

The APA format style is in use by a broad spectrum of academic disciplines (Purdue, 2004). Its suitability for such broad use is questioned by this author. The American Psychological Association is the authority for the APA format; as the association's name suggests, the APA style was developed for use in the social science disciplines (American, 2008). The requirements of this class have prompted the author to choose The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition, as his most beneficial resource, despite his belief that substance is more important than style.

The University of Phoenix has an outstanding online library, which has up to this point in time been underutilized by this author. An attempt to make better use of this resource will be integral to his personal plan for success in this course. Additional sources this author intends to rely on consist of the following: The Gregg Reference Manual, 7th Edition; Writing Research Papers: Investigating Resources in Cyberspace, 2nd Edition; and The Elements of Style, Third Edition. This list is by no means exhaustive, and the author has no intention to restrict his resources to the aforementioned texts. A focus on the procedural over the substantive aspects of communication is regrettable, even farcical in a communications course; unfortunately, the strict requirements about the utilization of the APA style in the forum posts - in addition to yet more burdensome rules involving subject line edits, posting restrictions, and suchlike - have dictated that a significant portion of valuable learning time be spent on procedural trivia. It is notable that this is the first class the author has taken that has imposed such stringent requirements on the forum posts.

The University of Phoenix contends that master's level students lack the maturity and work experience that would already have developed within them an ability to work in teams (University, 2004). Thus, collaborative projects are required in this class (as well as others), irrespective of the suitability of the subject or the assignments to a group approach. This is especially absurd in accounting, which is sequential in nature, and thus, does not lend itself to a module-based approach that can be logically distributed among team members. It is also noteworthy that real-world work collaboration in the online environment typically uses many formats, the static posting forum not being one of them. It follows, then, that the Online Campus Learning Team Handbook, available in PDF from the University of Phoenix, will round out the author’s front-line choice of resources for the Communications for Accountants class.

In summary, the author's brief personal plan for success centers on valuable, authoritative resources on procedure and style. The author's extended network includes family members that teach at the University of Idaho and Lewis-Clark State College, and their personal libraries will be plundered for texts (such as The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition) that the author does not personally own. In brief, effective time management is an essential component that will complete the author's personal plan for success.

Week 4

References

American Psychological Association. (2008). Homepage. Retrieved October 28, 2008 from the World Wide Web: http://www.apastyle.org/.

Purdue University Online Writing Lab. (2004). American Psychological Association (APA) Style Workshop: Introduction to APA Style. Retrieved October 28, 2008 from the World Wide Web: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/apa/introduction.html.

University of Phoenix. (2004). Learning Team Toolkit. Retrieved October 28, 2008 from the World Wide Web: http://ecampus.phoenix.edu/.