Sandra Collins, PhD, RPsych

Professor, Graduate Centre for Applied Psychology,
Faculty of Health Disciplines,
Athabasca University.

I have held various roles within the Master of Counselling program since its inception. I am currently taking a leadership role in curriculum revitalization for that program. My passion lies in the area of multicultural counselling and social justice. I see myself as an advocate, educator, writer, and enthusiast for learning about the diversity of the human experience.

I suspect that some of you may greet this e-book with less enthusiasm than some of the other learning tasks associated with your graduate program. To be honest, I approached the task of writing the content from a similar place, when I first put it together as a course over a decade ago. However, I could immediately see how much I learned through that process and how much better my own writing is as a result. I hope you will experience a similar shift in perspective over time.

I am not an English major, and I do not consider myself an expert in APA format. However, I do a lot of writing, and, over the years, I have had the opportunity to receive and benefit from feedback on my own writing skills. I have also graded many graduate student papers, and I have a sense of what students struggle with in their own writing. My motivation in writing this eBook was to provide a learning process for students to enhance their writing skills and mastery of APA editorial guidelines and to support instructors in their grading of student papers by providing a resource they can refer students to when writing issues emerge.

I have drawn on my experience as an academic, graduate instructor, psychologist, and professional communicator in writing this course. I hope that it provides you with a resource to support your success both in your graduate program and your professional work. Please see my faculty profile for more information about my academic work.