pyapa

A Python module for checking APA style in writing.

This module provides an abstraction class, mostly composed of regular expressions. This project does not aim to cover the entire APA style guide, but it does attempt to cover several common errors with style.

To make errors easier to visually locate, 5 characters of context are sometimes given, depending on the detected error.

Installation

Clone this repository and run:

make install

or install from Pypi:

pip3 install pyapa

Information

Pypi: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyapa/

Github: https://github.com/keeferrourke/pyapa

Contact: https://krourke.org/contact

License: ISC License

pyapa.ApaCheck object class

This class documents regular expressions to match style errors.

The pyapa.ApaCheck.match() method generates an array of ApaMatch objects and stores them in the ApaCheck.Matches list for easy access.

pyapa.ApaMatch object class

This class contains the following members:

• ApaMatch.feedback a unicode string intended to hold a brief explanation of an associated error
• ApaMatch.see a URL string intended to hold an external reference to an APA Style guide
• ApaMatch.end the position of the character in a text which marks the end of the target character span
• ApaMatch.start the position of the character in a text which marks the beginning of the target character span
• ApaMatch.target the matching string that contains an error
• ApaMatch.suggestions a list of suggested replacement strings; at this time, the list is only ever one element long

There are also two helper functions to make printing these objects easy:

• ApaMatch.print() prints the object to stdout
• ApaMatch.sprint() builds a string containing information about the object

Example usage

From the interpreter:

>>> from pyapa import pyapa
>>> a = pyapa.ApaCheck()
>>> text = u'Papaya are delicious fruit, it was concluded (Author, et al. 2017).'
>>> a.match(text)
[<pyapa.pyapa.ApaMatch object at 0x000000000000>]
>>> len(a.Matches)
1
>>> a.Matches[0].print()
Match from 46 to 65 for:
Target: Author, et al. 2017
Feedback: Do not put a comma before 'et al.'
Suggestion: Author et al. 2017

Calling the module itself:

python3 -m pyapa -i input.txt
python3 -m pyapa -h
Usage:
pyapa [-h] [--version] [-o OUTPUT_FILE] -i INPUT_FILE