APA Crib Sheet & APA Lite: A Short Story

APA Crib Sheet & APA Lite
Piracy! Plagiarism! When the APA Crib Sheet was first posted on the Internet it provoked an angry reaction from the American Psychological Association. They threatened legal action. But our attorney assessed their threat as "blowing smoke"--copyright law has long ruled that a writing style is not subject to copyright protection. Whatever their motivation, the APA's action has conferred a sort of underground status to the Crib Sheet.

The Crib Sheet got its start in the 1990s as a community service project of Professor Russ Dewey. After the new edition of the APA Manual was published in 2001 Dr Abel Scribe (a collaboration of scholar-educators) undertook to merge the Crib Sheet with their own Student's Guide to APA Style. The enhanced Crib Sheet (2003) proved very popular, and was revised regularly through 2008.

The Crib Sheet filled a void. The APA manual acknowledges that "the Publication Manual is not intended to cover scientific writing at an undergraduate level, because preferences for style at that level are diverse. Instructions to students to 'use the Publication Manual' should be accompanied by specific guidelines for its use [emphasis added]" (APA, 2001, p. 322). The Crib Sheet sought to provide these specific guidelines.

Bad Karma. The Crib Sheet aged well, but by 2008 needed an major overhaul, and a new name. The dictionary defines crib as "a small theft; a plagiarism . . . to aid students." While it certainly is an aid to students, it complements rather than displaces the APA Publication Manual. The new name reflects that role.

APA (Style) Lite for College & Conference Papers

Good Karma. APA (Style) Lite provides the specific guidelines for applying APA style to college and conference papers. It is not a theft or plagiarism, but a complement to the APA Publication Manual. In time the APA may expand the APA manual to cover college and conference papers. Until then, APA Lite will fill that need.

APA Lite is the Crib Sheet on steroids. There are expanded graphics to illustrate style features; new sections on numbers, statistics, and figures; and a new format that follows the progression of a research paper

	APA (Style) Lite Web Page. The webpage navigates well, but is difficult to print because of the many large graphics. Bookmark the page for a quick online reference.
	APA (Style) Lite PDF (24 pages, 260kb). The PDF version adds 10 pages to the old Crib Sheet, mostly from the new graphics that complement the text.

APA Lite and the APA Crib Sheet are sponsored by:

Chorus Line

APA Research Style Crib Sheet (Final Edition)

The APA Crib Sheet has the virtue of being more compact than APA (Style) Lite, though it lacks in coverage and focus. Development of the Crib Sheet ended with the Fall 2008 edition.

	APA Crib Sheet Webpage. This is the classic edition of the venerable APA Crib Sheet, published and revised online from October 10, 1996 to November 14, 2008.
	APA Crib Sheet PDF (14 pages, 150kb). This version of the Crib Sheet bears the date November 15, 2008, when the notice of its imminent demise was added.

Copyright & Fair Use. You are welcome to print, copy, link, or distribute the documents available on this site for not-for-profit educational purposes. Instructors are welcome to use the guides or style sheets in their classrooms. No additional permission is required. The style guides are revised on a regular basis; you are advised to link directly to a document rather than post it to another site. Use at your own risk. © Copyright 2009 by Dr Abel Scribe PhD.

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