1. Using the AMA Manual (10th edition) in the College Setting
Style
Manual
10th edition
Welcome to a PowerPoint on using the American Medical Association, or “AMA,” Style in the College Setting. What is the AMA Style? The AMA Style is a set of guidelines to follow as one writes research papers and gives formal presentations. These guidelines deal with the overall appearance of a formal research paper, but also dictate the standard “AMA” approved way of citing and documenting source material in papers and presentations. This PowerPoint is in 2 parts: Part 1 deals with the overall appearance of an AMA-style paper, as well as the rules for in-text citations. Part 2 offers training in the formatting of entries on the References page, which appears as the final page or pages of a formal paper or as the last slide or slides of a formal speech presentation. While you are viewing this PowerPoint, you should have access to page 37, and to Chapter 3 of the AMA manual (10th edition), which is entitled “References.” Chapter 3 appears on pages 39 to 79. Important sections in these pages are identified. You’ll find yourself coming back again and again to consult the material on these pages.
AMA Format Educational PowerPoint Part 1: Appearance, In-Text Citations
© 2008 Nebraska Methodist College – The Josie Harper Campus

2. AMA Manual Not Directed to College Students
Editors of JAMA, mid 1960s
First manual: 70-page booklet
10th edition: over 1,000 pages
Guidelines for formatting appearance, documenting sources easily applied in College setting
See “Help with AMA” page on NMC’s WAC Website, linked to logon page of ANGEL
One look at the AMA manual might leave you convinced it’s not directed to you, and in fact, it was not directed to College students originally. The first AMA style manual was developed by the editorial staff of the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, in the mid 1960s to help to standardize the format of manuscripts of research articles sent to JAMA for publication consideration. It was a small 70-page booklet. JAMA still holds a prominent position among medical journals, but times have changed since the mid 1960s. The number of reputable journals associated with the AMA has grown, and at over 1,000 pages in the 10th edition, so has the AMA manual. Submitting a manuscript with the hopes of publication may seem a long way off to you now, but when that time comes, you’ll need to find the formatting rules required by your targeted journal and follow them meticulously. In the meantime, as a student in an allied health field, you’ll need to get acquainted with the AMA manual’s dictates for the appearance of formal papers and the documentation formatting of source material. Applying the general rules to papers and presentations at College is relatively easy, and help is available on a page of NMC’s WAC (or Writing Across the Curriculum) Website, which you can access from the log-on page of ANGEL. If you have questions, you can also feel free to ask your instructors about their expectations for the appearance of your formal research papers and presentations, and for the way you should document your sources.

3. Two Sides of the Student Paper
1. Overall appearance
Double spacing
AMA-style title page (p37)
Rules call for not just title but author’s name, degrees, address; name of institution; word count
Page numbers make sense
Figures, numeric data, margins
Ask instructor
The AMA style manual offers guidelines in at least two sides of the student paper: (1) the overall appearance of a paper, and (2) the way that references are cited in a paper. The AMA manual requires jagged right margins throughout a paper so it appears more natural; double spacing is mandated throughout a paper, even on the title page. On page 37, in a Table appears a list that includes rules for an AMA-style title page: some of these rules make sense for the College setting, and others do not. For example, it makes sense for a college paper to have a separate title page that includes the title, as well as the author’s name and the name of our institution, Nebraska Methodist College – The Josie Harper Campus. More appropriate for manuscripts submitted for publication than for college papers turned in for a grade, however, are the degrees held by the authors, the address of the author, and the word count. If you have certifications in health care fields, you could list them on the title page, but the other information should probably be optional. Ask your instructor what is preferred in each course you take. The AMA manual does not prescribe how page numbers should appear in a manuscript for publication or for a student paper, but it makes sense that you should place page numbers either in the “header” or “footer” regions. To access the header and footer in Word, click on “View” and then on “Header and Footer.” Clicking on the pound symbol (#) will automatically format the page header. The AMA manual acknowledges that journals that publish articles will place a “running foot” or a “running head” with publication information on each page, but it also acknowledges that formulating this repeated title is not the author’s duty. The latest edition of the AMA manual also offers guidelines about standard abbreviations; the reporting of numeric data; and the requirements for tables, figures, and Tables of Contents. While you may not encounter the need to learn rules about these topics while you are in college, you will need to get acquainted with the rules for the overall appearance of the paper, and for the citing of reference materials both in the body of the text, and at the end of the paper in the References list. Interestingly, the manual never dictates the size of page margins. But it makes sense for you to place at least 1” of white space on all sides of all sheets in your paper both so you can add material during editing, and also so your instructor can provide marginal comments with your grade. Because the AMA manual is silent about such appearance issues as margins and page numbers, if you have questions about what your instructor at NMC expects, be certain to ask.

4. The AMA Manual on Numbers
Use numerals for almost all numbers: “My 3 cats, which are 3, 4, and 7 years old, have caught 23 mice in the past 3 months.”
Exceptions: Ordinals first thru ninth; numbers used as pronouns; numbers, like “one,” used in idiomatic expressions; fractions; numbers that begin a sentence, title, subtitle, or heading; numbers spelled out in quotations
The appearance of numbers in an AMA-style paper or presentation may differ from the patterns you learned in high school. Perhaps because so much of the content of medical research is scientific in nature, almost all numeric information should take the form of numerals in AMA format. For example, to write the sentence, “My 3 cats, which are 3, 4, and 7 years old, have caught 23 mice in the past 3 months,” you would need to use numerals, not words, to report all the numbers. There are a few exceptions to this rule. Ordinal numbers first thru ninth should be spelled out, as well as numbers, like “One,” used as pronouns or in idiomatic expressions like “One would think…” or “a zero-sum gain.” As in other styles, the numbers that begin a sentence, title, subtitle, or heading should be spelled out, though placing numbers in these positions should be avoided. Finally, numbers spelled out in quotations should not be revised.

5. The AMA Manual on Abbreviations
Use scientific nomenclature
Specific lists for organizations, months, states in US, units of measure, clinical/medical terms, titles of medical journals (called Index Medicus)
Tendency to drop punctuation: Rev
Corp Dr J Lab Clin Med FDA MD Inc lb 4 oz
Chapter 14, “Abbreviations,” and Chapter 15, “Nomenclature,” in the 10th edition of the AMA manual are devoted to lists of acceptable standard abbreviations and scientific notations, which are additional AMA “appearance” issues.
One should get to know, and also use, exact scientific nomenclature when writing in the fields of medicine and health care. Use the AMA manual, which is on reserve and thus readily available at John Moritz Library, as a reference tool to look up the most precise words, acronyms, and abbreviations. Leading journals in particular health-care fields often publish official lists of the standard terms used in their fields, so begin by getting familiar with these lists. The AMA manual includes standard abbreviations for influential medical and health organizations, for the months of the year, for states in the US, for all kinds of units of measure, for clinical and medical terms, and for the titles of medical and health-care journals. The AMA manual’s list of the titles of medical and health-care journals (in Chapter 14) draws directly from the Index Medicus, an official list regularly updated by the National Library of Medicine. A link at the top of the “Help with AMA” page of NMC’s WAC Website will connect you to the most recently updated list of standard abbreviations for journal titles. Abbreviations for the leading journals in your field should soon become very familiar to you. The rule when using an AMA-approved abbreviation is
usually to follow the tendency to drop the period at the end. So get used to seeing “MD,” “Corp,” or other words abbreviated without final periods.

6. Key Differences: AMA v. APA, MLA
In-text numbering system, not parenthetical author, year, and page/paragraph number (APA)
Reference list numbered, not alphabetized
No periods after initials, no ampersand in author section of each Reference list item
Date appears after title, not immediately after author (APA)
Very few uses of parentheses in Reference list
Journal titles abbreviated, not spelled out
No spaces between year, volume, number, page numbers
No intro to URL of Internet sources; PERIOD after URL; final “Accessed” + DATE v. “Retrieved” (APA)
One way to distinguish the AMA Style from other styles is to compare it to the APA or MLA format. The AMA Style requires an in-text numbering system for the reporting of research source material in the body of a paper, not a parenthetical system, such as the APA or MLA format uses. Likewise, in the AMA Style the References list is numbered, beginning with the first reference cited in the body of the paper. The list is not alphabetized, as it would be in APA or MLA. If you’re looking at a reference list formatted in the AMA Style, you’ll notice no periods after the initials of authors’ first or middle names, no ampersand to introduce the last author in a list of authors. This differs from the APA and MLA formats. The date appears after the title, not immediately after the author, as the APA format requires. As you look at a list of references in an article formatted in AMA Style, you’ll find few letters, and very few, if any, uses of parentheses. This is also in stark contrast to the APA format. You’ll notice that journal titles carry a standard abbreviation in AMA-formatted Reference lists, whereas the APA and MLA manuals ask writers to spell out the titles of journals in the References list. You’ll also notice that when numeric publication information is reported in reference list items, very few if any spaces separate elements, such as the year, the volume number, the issue number, and the page numbers. This “run-on” look will be jarring at first, but you’ll son get used to it. And finally, in the reporting of Internet sources, the AMA Style differs from other formats. Unlike APA, no introductory phrase is needed before the Uniform Resource Locator, or URL, but a period is required after the URL. The word “Accessed” (not “Retrieved”) is used in a final “sentence” to identify the date on which an Internet site was read.

7. Citing References in the Body of a Paper (pp42-45)
a superscript system in the body of the text.25 ←
Click on “Format,” then “Font”; check “superscript”
Place after period, comma; before colon, semicolon
More than one superscript permitted2,25,28 ←
Page numbers okay in superscript28(pp7-8)← (no spaces)
Maximum of 23 characters in superscript
(If more, use footnote* in italic letters) _______________________________
*References 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 21, 24-29, 31.
Perhaps the most important “appearance” issue in AMA style is the citing of external sources in the body of a paper or presentation. This is discussed on pages 42 through 45 of the AMA manual. The AMA style uses a superscript system in the body of the text. In the order in which sources are encountered beginning with the first page of the paper, an integer in reduced-size type, which is slightly elevated above the line, is placed after the summary, paraphrase, or direct quotation from the source. Avoid plagiarism by citing every single idea or fact that is not from your own knowledge and experience, or that is not “common knowledge.” In order to add a superscript number, in Microsoft Word click on “Format,” then click on “Font”; among the choices in the box that appears, check the box for “superscript.” You’ll need to “un-check” this box in a similar fashion as you continue to type the paper, though it is recommended that superscripts be added well after the structure of your paper has been developed because the order in which sources first appear is likely to change. Place the superscript number after a period or a comma, but before a colon or semicolon. If a fact or idea that you are citing was reported in more than one of the sources you read, list all of these sources: more than one superscript is permitted at the end of source material. One can imagine, for example, well into a research paper the writer needing to re-cite sources 2 and 25, and also to add source 28 after a reported research finding. Notice that no spaces appear in this list of multiple numerals. Page numbers are encouraged if a writer uses more than one section from one given source. It also makes sense to report the page number of a direct quotation. To report page numbers, place the page numbers, for example 7 to 8, after the abbreviation “p” for page, or “pp” for pages (but no periods) in parentheses after the number that indicates which source the pages are in. Again, no spaces should separate characters in this citation. AMA rules state that a maximum of 23 characters can appear in any given superscript. More likely than not, you will not write the kind of research paper that needs to report this many sources for one fact while you are an undergraduate.
But if you do, place the entire list of sources in a footnote under a line that extends completely across the page, as in the example on page 43. This completes “Part 1.” Part 2 deals with the form of entries on an AMA-style paper’s References page.

8. Using the AMA Manual (10th edition) in the College Setting
Style
Manual
10th edition
Part 2 deals with the requirements for entries on the References page at the end of a paper, or on the Reference slide at the end of a speech presentation formatted in AMA style. Please have a copy of pages 37 to 79 of the AMA manual, the 10th edition, handy as you view this presentation.
AMA Format Educational PowerPoint Part 2: The References List
© 2008 Nebraska Methodist College – The Josie Harper Campus

9. Goals for Citing References
Complete
All sources should be cited
All superscripts should match one reference on the References list
All reference entries should include required components
Accurate
Exact quotations, and accurate summaries, spelling, date, pages
Information in Reference entries accurate
Readability
Smoothly readable, clear
Number of superscripts same as number of references
Exceptions
“written communication,” “oral communication,” or “ communication”
The 10th edition of the AMA manual gives rules for the format of reference entries. Of course, whether you are using the AMA Style, or any other style of documentation, following certain general rules about citing reference material is always expected, and should be your priority. The standard of completeness should be among your priorities. Every single one of the sources your paper or presentation has used, for example, should be cited, and all superscripts in the body of a paper or presentation should fully identified in complete reference entries at the end of this paper or presentation. Reference entries must include all required components, and in the correct order. Citations must be accurate. All quotations, paraphrases, and summaries of source material should be accurate, and the reference list at the end should match—exactly—the number of sources used in your paper. Accuracy is a high standard to reach. Make certain that you are accurately reproducing the directly quoted material and reporting page numbers in the body of your paper, and accurately spelling authors’ names and other information about your sources on your References page. As you weave together your own ideas with those of others in the body of your paper, strive for smoothness and clarity. Smoothness of readability is an art that take some time for writers to master. Only one exception exists to the rule of a “one-to-one correspondence” between the number of sources cited on one’s reference page and the number of sources cited with superscripts in the body of one’s paper, and this exception is “personal communications.” According to the AMA manual, personal letters, s, and interviews should be cited only in the body of your paper. If you need to cite someone you interviewed or heard from by mail or , place the full name of the person; his or her credentials; the phrase “written communication,” “oral communication,” or “ communication”; and the date on which the communication took place either (a) in parentheses (separating all components with commas) or (b) as part of your own sentence. See pages 61 and 71 of the AMA manual for examples and further discussion.

10. The Reference List: General Rules
Begin with the title, flush with left margin: References
Includes all sources cited in the body of a paper (but no added ones!)
Numbers (plus period) follow the order in which each source first appears and is cited in the body of your text
No special indentation rules: all lines are double-spaced, flush with L margin
At the end of your paper, you should list your references, starting with a fresh, new page. The Reference list in the AMA Style follows a set of general rules that you should know. First begin with the title, which is “References”; place this title flush with the left margin. In the reference list, include all sources cited in the body of your paper. Begin with the number “1” plus a period, and then proceed through entire list of sources you used in your paper (except for personal communications, discussed in the previous slide). Be certain that you have not added any references that you ended up not using in your final draft. All lines on the References page are double spaced. There are no special indentation rules. If a reference item must be extended beyond one line, simply begin a new line at the far left margin.

11. Essential Information and Order: Components in Reference Entries
Author(s) (if known)
Title(s)
Publication Information & Date
See “Minimum Acceptable Data for References,” p42
The AMA style asks writers to place information for each reference item in a particular order. First, authors’ names should appear. Authors can be individuals or groups of people, but they also can be organizations, such as universities, institutions, even corporations. If no author can be found, the reference entry should begin with the title. The second component in an AMA reference entry is usually the title of the source. And the third item in each reference item is the publication information. The handy list of “Minimum Acceptable Data for References,” on page 42 of the AMA manual, can serve as an important checklist for you. This list even indicates components that need to use italic letters.

12. Author Format
Last name(s) + first and middle initials if given, but NO PUNCTUATION except period at the end. (Also, no “credentials” like MS, MD) e.g. Jones PT, Smith Q.
Complications:
No author? Start with TITLE (see p50)
More than six authors: add ,et al. after third author (pp44-45)
Institution or Association? Spell it out. (p51)
Use , ed. or , eds. after name(s) of editor(s)
You’ll soon find that it feels natural to place the authors’ names first in each reference item, but you will need to learn the expected AMA format for this first element. In general, get used to placing the authors’ last names first, followed immediately, without a comma, by the authors’ first and middle initials. Separate the names of multiple authors with commas, but don’t use an ampersand before the last author, and also don’t use any titles like MD or PhD. For example, the reference entry for a source by Jones and Smith would begin like this. Very few complications arise to these general rules. As mentioned in the previous slide, if no author at all can be found, start the reference entry with the title, and then move to publication information. See page 50 for model entries.
If your source was authored by more than six people, the AMA manual mandates adding a comma, the notation “et al” and a period after the name of the third author’s name. Please see the discussion and examples on pages 44 and 45. If the author of your source is an association, an organization, or an institution, rather than a particular person, spell out the name of this group, and capitalize the content words, such as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, because this name is a proper noun. See page 51 for some model reference entries. In lines in which you are reporting the name of an editor, place a comma, plus the abbreviation ed and a period or eds and a period after the name or names of these persons.

13. Title Format
Rules for capital letters, italic letters, quotation marks
Capitalize initial letter of only the first word in a title, words in proper nouns, and acronyms/abbreviations e.g. CDC
Exception for periodicals, book-length works: Capitalize first
letter of all content words (nouns, verbs, even prepositions of
4 or more letters--see discussion, p46; examples, pp53-56)
Italics only for titles of book-length works, titles of journals, proceedings, symposia, plays, paintings, long poems, musical compositions, space vehicles, planes, and ships (see pp ). AMA also italicizes titles of newspapers, of government bulletins, and of theses/dissertations in their examples.
Immediately after the author should appear the title of the reference item, no matter what kind of a source it is. The rules for the use of capital letters, italic letters, and quotation marks in titles may differ from those you have learned for other formats. For example, no quotation marks ever set off a title in the AMA format, though embedded quotation marks in a title should be reproduced (this is rare). Secondly, the title of an article in a book, in a journal, or on the Internet should appear in lower-case letters except for the initial letter of the first word of the title, the initial letters of proper nouns, and the letters of an acronym or abbreviation like CDC. For example, Smith or Omaha should begin with a capital letter. Not even the very first word of a sub-title of an article should carry an initial capital letter. An important exception exists for the names of periodicals and the titles of book-length works: for these sources, capitalize the first letter of all content words (such as nouns, verbs, and even prepositions of four or more letters. See the discussion on page 46, and also look over the model entries for book-length works on pages 53 to 56, as well as the entries for newspaper articles on page 57. Italic letters are used for the titles of only book-length works, titles of journals, government documents, pamphlets, proceedings, symposia, plays, paintings, long poems, musical compositions, space vehicles, planes, and ships, and for other specialized uses--see page 925 and 926. Also italicize the titles of newspapers, of government bulletins, and of theses and dissertations.

14. Titles of Articles in Book Collections (pp53-54)
Articles within edited books: Entry requires two titles
“Main title” begins with a new
“sentence” starting: In:
Next: Editor’s name(s), last name(s) before initials,
plus comma and ed. or eds.
Next: Title of book (italicized) plus period.
Page numbers of article come after publication information
Ex.: In: Solomon BH, ed. Other Voices, Other Vistas.
If your reference is an article in a journal or in a book-length work, you must report two titles: the title of the article and the title of the journal or the book. See the discussion and models on pages 53 and 54. If your article appears in a book-length work, immediately after the period ending the “main title” of the article in that book, write a new “sentence” starting with the word “In,” with a capital “I” and a colon ( : ) following, and then give the name of the editor or editors, following conventional format for authors, but then place a comma plus the abbreviation for editor
before giving the title of the book.The book title will follow the expected format for titles in AMA Style: italicized, and with capitalized initial letters in content words. The page number of the article itself will not appear until the very end, after the book’s publication information. As an example, if an article appeared in a book entitles “Other Voices, Other Vistas,” edited by BH Solomon, the line between the title of the article and the publication information for the book would look like this.

15. Titles of Articles within Journals (pp47-52)
Articles in journals: Entry also requires two titles
Italicized (& abbreviated) Journal Title begins right after period after article title; End with a period.
Next: Publication Info: Year + semicolon ( ; ) + Volume number
[+ parenthetical “Number” number but only if each volume
begins with p.1]
Next: colon (:) + Page numbers (no “p”)
e.g.: Williams, GR. Walking saves lives. JMCC. 2007;37(2):22-27.
Model entries for journal articles appear on pages 47 to 52 in the AMA manual. If you have cited an article in your paper or presentation that appears in a journal, use the standard abbreviation for that journal immediately after the title of the article. You can find this standard abbreviation in the Index Medicus, which is linked to the “Help with AMA” page on NMC’s WAC Website. End the abbreviation with a period. Immediately after this abbreviated journal title, you will be placing publication information, the third and final component in all AMA reference entries. Publication information for a journal article consists of, first, the year of publication, followed by a semicolon (;). Without any spaces, immediately after the semicolon place the volume number. Most prominent health-care journals do not begin each new issue, or “number” with page 1, so usually you do not need to include the issue number. If each issue, however, does begin with page 1, place the “number” number between parentheses immediately after the volume number. The final information to report is the page numbers in which the article appears; these numbers are placed after a colon (: ) and are followed by a period. For example, if GR Williams’ article “Walking Saves Lives” was published in volume 37 of a journal that begins each issue with page 1, the entry would look like this.

16. Publication Info: Books (pp52-56)
City, State, Publisher’s Name, Year
If source is an article within a book: after City, State, Publisher, and Year, include page numbers of article or chapter (see pp53-54)
e.g.
4. Brown, RG. Multicultural issues in sonography. In: Solomon BH, ed. Other Voices, Other Vistas. New York, NY: Norton; 2005:
Multiple cities? List first city listed only
While “publication information” for articles in journals refers to the year, the volume, the issue number and the page numbers of each article, the kind of publication information required for books is similar. In fact, this information will appear very similar to the publication information for books in other documentation styles that you may be familiar with. Simply what is required is the city, the state (using standard abbreviations), the publisher’s name, and the year of publication, immediately after the title of the book. The format is conventional: Place a comma between the city and the abbreviated state, and separate the state and the publisher with a colon. After the colon, place the year of publication. If your source is just one article within a book, but not the entire book, after listing the City, State, Publisher, and Year, include page numbers of the article or the chapter, separating the year from these page numbers with a colon. The AMA style uses no spaces in this section. See some model entries on pages 53 and 54. For example, an article by RG Brown within BH Solomon’ s book would be cited on the references page in this manner. If you are documenting, on your reference list, a book whose publisher is located in more than one city, list the name of the first city only.

17. Publication Info: Internet (pp 63-69)
Internet sources: list the complete URL
Online journal article? Place month, day and year of publication, if known, immediately after title (and title of the online journal)
e.g.
9. Wilson RR. Respiratory care: team approach. HHCJ. 2007;9:
ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/
Volume122007/No1Jan07/tpc32_ aspx. Published
January 5, Accessed June 3, 2007.
References for Internet sources end with an Accessed [+DATE]. sentence at the end (+ period!)
e.g. Accessed June 3, 2007.
Reference entries for electronic sources are discussed on pages 63 to 73 of the AMA manual, but also take note of the “minimum requirements” listed on page 42. The central publication information for any Internet source is primarily the URL for that source. Always end the URL with a period. Place the complete URL, not just the URL of the “home page,” after the author and the title of the source have been reported; the most accurate way to do this is to copy and paste it from the address bar of your browser. If, however, the source is an online journal, place the URL after the abbreviated name of this journal, followed by its volume number and the page numbers of the article if they are available. After the URL for an online journal, list the date of publication after the word “Published”; spell out the month, and add the day if you know it, before typing the year. For example, the reference for an article published in an online journal would look like this. The last “sentence” to complete the reporting of publication information for any source found on the Internet is the “Accessed” date. Report the month, day and year on which you last viewed the Internet source. Here’s an example.

18. Editing Checklist Each entry complete?
Author/ Date/ Title(s)/ Pub. Info
Each element in order?
Each entry using right form?
Patterns of Capitalizing/ Italicizing/ Abbreviating/Indenting
List matches in-text citations?
Whether you are completing a manuscript for publication, or finishing a formal research paper in a college course, it should be helpful to use an Editing Check-sheet before you turn your paper in. For example, make sure that every single entry on your Reference list is complete: Does every entry have an author, and then after that, the title, and then finally, the publication information, which includes the date? The order of components is important; be certain that each of these three components appears in every reference item, and that they appear in the correct order. Also, be sure that every component of each reference entry is using the expected form. Form includes patterns of initial capital letters, italic letters, and standards of abbreviation and punctuation. As a final check, just make certain that the numbers used to cite in-text quotations and summaries exactly match the numbers used in your reference list.

19. How to Master AMA Style
Read journals that use AMA Style, and be conscious of writers’ choices
Practice using AMA Style for many different kinds of sources, papers
Ask your instructor questions
View examples on websites linked to NMC’s WAC website at NMC-JHC
Follow “NMC Crib Sheet” for AMA example
You can master the AMA style the more you try to use it. Even though the AMA Style may appear to be foreign to you now, in time—and with practice—it will soon feel more natural to you. Reading in medical and health-care journals can help. Especially pay attention to the form of the items on the Reference lists in articles in the leading journals in your field; you’ll soon become more aware of writer’s choices. Mastering the style can be enhanced the more you try to use it in the reporting of a variety of source materials: practice using the AMA Style to report journal articles, books, and Internet sources. To master the style, you may need to ask questions. Ask your instructor for help if you encounter difficulty documenting a source that seems to require different treatment. The “Help with AMA” page on NMC’s WAC Website contains helpful links. Print off a copy of NMC’s “AMA Crib Sheet” that describes the standards of documentation set by the leading journal in radiographic technology; this link is available on the “Help with AMA” page on NMC’s WAC Website. All of these are important resources to use as you master the AMA Style.