If Chicago is the generalist’s handbook, APA is the one-stop shop for technical writers. Some of the same principles do cross-apply between these two manuals. Most notably, the rule that in-text citations and reference footnotes do not mix holds across almost all manuals. While Chicago sets the standards for publishers more generally, however, APA provides more specific guidance for quantitative researchers and writers. This characteristic of the manual might make this post a bit more nitty-gritty, but then, so is much of the technical writing that APA supports.
Consistency
The greatest advantage of the APA manual is the organizational framework it provides for technical writing. The synthesis of quantitative results into good prose can be a monumental task. APA provides a complete template that writers can follow over and over again–with remarkably consistent results.
Spelling shortcuts
The APA manual does not spend a whole lot of time on spelling and punctuation conventions–or, at least, it does not give the same level of detail as found in the Chicago manual. There are chapters related to mechanics questions, but one of the key short cuts for writers is the APA’s connection to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Not sure whether to capitalize, hyphenate, or to change the spelling of a word? Look it up in the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. The APA relies on and founds its own approach to spelling and mechanics on the Merriam-Webster’s. For writers, this saves substantial time and trouble. Skip the manual and go straight to the dictionary.
Tables and Figures
For quantitative researchers, one major aspect of putting together the final product is the creation of tables and figures. What the APA lacks in guidance on grammatical mechanics, it makes up for in recommendations for table formatting. A good editor will also pay attention to charts and tables in the paper and double check that they are consistently formatted. Checking your tables and charts using the APA manual before sending off the manuscript will save you some time and money, though.
Organization
Because of the technical nature of much of the research that gets published in APA journals, these papers and monographs frequently include their outline explicitly in the text. While writing style remains important, clear organization takes precedence. The APA provides standardization for writers, while Chicago approaches organization from a more literary perspective. In the APA manual, writers will find five levels of headings that map easily onto almost any outline. These five levels begin with the title and move all the way down through the sub-points of an outline. From an editor’s and a reader’s perspective, following these guidelines clearly establishes the hierarchy of ideas within a section. From a writer’s perspective, the APA heading guidelines provide a template for transposing an outline to text.
Getting Published
For any manual, the question always remains: how does this manual help writers to get published? For APA the answer lies in its straightforward clarity. It removes much of the mystery of synthesizing large quantities of data into a written format. Authors who do not enjoy writing can reproduce this template over and over again with very consistent results. The advantage to this approach is that good APA papers all more or less follow the same basic form. While this may not allow the literary freedom of Chicago rules, it makes a wide variety of technical material readily accessible across disciplines. It also makes the publication style of APA-governed journals extraordinarily clear and straightforward for authors. The bottom line is: The closer your paper aligns to the APA template, the faster your research finds its audience.
