I'm a first-year PhD student in neuroscience, and imposter syndrome is real. I feel like everyone else in my program just knows things, while I'm constantly scrambling. And the thing that scared me the most? Citations. Specifically, getting them right in the APA writing style.
It sounds so silly, right? A PhD student afraid of commas and parentheses. But every time I wrote a paper, I would freeze when it came time to cite a source. What if I misattributed an idea? What if I accidentally plagiarized because I forgot a page number? What if my reference list was a mess and I got accused of being sloppy? The anxiety was real.
But here's the positive turn: I decided to face it head-on. I spent a whole weekend doing nothing but learning citations. I made flashcards. I practiced on old articles. I wrote out the rules for journal articles, books, and book chapters over and over until they stuck.
And you know what? It worked. This week, I wrote a 10-page literature review for my research seminar, and for the first time ever, I enjoyed building the reference list. I found a weird source—a government report with no individual author—and I felt a little thrill when I figured out how to cite it correctly. It was like solving a puzzle!
I'm not scared anymore. The APA writing style isn't my enemy; it's my toolkit. If you're struggling with citations, just take it one source at a time.
It sounds so silly, right? A PhD student afraid of commas and parentheses. But every time I wrote a paper, I would freeze when it came time to cite a source. What if I misattributed an idea? What if I accidentally plagiarized because I forgot a page number? What if my reference list was a mess and I got accused of being sloppy? The anxiety was real.
But here's the positive turn: I decided to face it head-on. I spent a whole weekend doing nothing but learning citations. I made flashcards. I practiced on old articles. I wrote out the rules for journal articles, books, and book chapters over and over until they stuck.
And you know what? It worked. This week, I wrote a 10-page literature review for my research seminar, and for the first time ever, I enjoyed building the reference list. I found a weird source—a government report with no individual author—and I felt a little thrill when I figured out how to cite it correctly. It was like solving a puzzle!
I'm not scared anymore. The APA writing style isn't my enemy; it's my toolkit. If you're struggling with citations, just take it one source at a time.