Tip 6: Understanding heading levels and the benefits of citing personal communications sources

This week’s topics are about heading levels and personal communications sources.

Instructors, it’s time for students to enter the drafting phase for their major research paper tasks of the semester. Thus, let’s talk about heading levels and how they work in APA Style papers. Use this student version of the Heading Levels Template (PDF, 252KB)opens in new window to inform your discussion with your students.

Then, discuss how your students can incorporate their class notes into their papers and how finding expert opinions for their papers is just an email or an office visit away (these types of sources are called personal communications). That is, show students the various department webpages on your institution’s main website and then navigate to a particular department page, like sociology for example. Click on the faculty tab and go through the list of faculty members’ bios to see who has written extensively on or is a leading voice for a topic or issue your students may be writing about.

Usually, faculty email address, phone number, office location, office hours, and some of their publications are listed on their bio page. If your students find a few instructors they would like to interview, use class time to write their “I would like to interview you” email, and help them formulate some standard interview questions that will garner effective feedback from their interviewee(s).

Please do allow your students to use class time to conduct interviews with these on-campus experts if your students happen to schedule their in-person or video interviews during your class.

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