When you looked at the pages of the APA Pocket Style Manual as part of your reading assignment, you saw instructions on what sections should be included in a report and very specific formatting instructions on things like tables, graphs, charts, quotations, headings, references, and a variety of other items. In this course and others you take, you may begin to think that your instructor is way too picky on things such as these. For this discussion board, answer the following questions.
Discussion Topic:
Suppose your instructor requires you to follow the formatting instructions in the APA Pocket Style Manual exactly. Is he or she being too picky and should they lighten up a bit?
Are specific formatting instructions necessary in a research report? Why or why not?
If you are submitting a research report for publication or presentation, why should you be concerned about formatting?