There are new features to the APA's Academic Writer tool available through the PG Library.  Highlights include: 

  • Learning Commons FAQs

  • Orientation Lessons

  • Version History

  • Grammar Check

  • Reference Tagging

More information and details are below:

If you haven’t logged into Academic Writer, or if you’re a new user, there are some helpful new features that will enhance your Academic Writer experience.

After logging into Academic Writer, select the drop-down menu from the Welcome link. Clicking on Site Help will open a new window where you can access immediate answers to the most frequently asked questions about how to use Academic Writer. Browse through the articles, or enter your search terms to find articles relevant to your question. 

Please note that Site Help is not a knowledge base of APA style questions, but rather it is a knowledge base about using Academic Writer. 

Back to the drop-down menu, clicking on Orientation will provide you with various quick guides and tutorials about how to use Academic Writer. Selecting Getting Started with Academic Writer will show you how to navigate and use the site, while selecting Writing in Academic Writer will provide detailed guidance about how to use the Writing Center. Please note that both of these links are also available directly on the homepage, too, for quick and easy access. 

Selecting My Papers from the My File Cabinet drop-down menu will bring you to a great new tool allowing you to browse version histories of your paper. This can be especially helpful if content failed to save or was lost. Version history enables you to view and revert to previous versions of your paper. Using the comparison screen allows you to compare previous versions with the current version of your paper. 

If you’ve used Academic Writer in the past, you may be aware of the spell checker feature, but if you haven’t logged in to your account in a while, you may not be aware of the new grammar check feature! Much like the grammar checker in a Word document, Academic Writer underlines words and phrases to flag possible errors. This is a default feature, but if it becomes distracting, it can be turned off by click on the ABC button:

Finally, Academic Writer now provides an easy new way of organizing and tracking your references. Tagging is Academic Writer’s answer to folders. Tags can be added as you create your references and are then visible in your References list. Tags can also be searched by keyword in the top right search bar. If you want to go back and add tags to previously created references, simply click on the edit icon next to your desired reference, and then add your tags. Keep in mind that you can add multiple tags to a reference; just separate them by a comma. 

We hope you find these new features helpful. To start using them, visit Academic Writer.