BUS 311

Business Law I Sample APA Formatted Paper

A. Student

BUS-311: Business Law I

Instructor Sgarlatti

June 19, 2018

Running head: BUSINESS LAW I SAMPLE PAPER 1

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER LITERACY 1

All papers start with a cover or title page on page one, and contain the information shown, in that order. Note the header contains the word, “Running head: ” with a small “h” and an abbreviated title in ALL CAPS left justified, with the page number right justified. The running head contains up to 50 characters and includes letters, punctuation, and spaces between words, with the page number on the same line and right justified (American Psychological Association [APA], 2010). The words, “Running head: “ is only on page one, but the abbreviated title is still in ALL CAPS on subsequent pages. Above the first paragraph, at the top of page two, is the repeated and centered title, like above your name. The first paragraph contains a thesis or topic statement that usually starts with an introduction of what your paper is about and ends with what you will talk about in your paper, like the following sentence: This paper will discuss some features of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition.

The thesis, or topic sentence tells your reader what you’re going to tell them, the body of your paper then tells them, and your conclusion tells them what you told them.

Everything is double spaced and written in Times New Roman 12 point normal font including the header, body, and reference page. Note the margins are one inch all the way around – top, bottom, left, and right. Every paragraph starts with a 1/2 inch indent, and there is a double space after punctuation, but I’ll also allow a single space.

Whenever you are asked to answer specific questions, you can make the questions stand out by making them first level headings by centering and making them bold lettering.

Centered and bold first level heading

And the answer follows in the paragraph after the question in the same format as the rest of the paper. I may choose to include a citation from the text like the next sentence: According to Rogers (2012), “Contracts are the basic building blocks of business relationships” (ch. 4.5). You can also make your quote first, and then leave the citation afterwards as follows: “Contracts are the basic building blocks of business relationships” (Rogers, 2012, ch. 4.5). Note that the period follows the right parenthesis, and there is no period before the left parenthesis, or inside the right quote. Quoted material must have a way to look up the quote, either chapter.section number as with our Constellation ebook, page number if a text or journal article, or paragraph number if a web page. Paraphrased material only requires the author and year without any section, page, or paragraph number. Every citation must have a reference, and every reference must have at least one citation.

Once you’ve expanded on the thesis or topic sentence in the body of the paper, it is time to make a conclusion which is the last paragraph of your paper before the reference page. The conclusion summarizes what your paper was about.

The reference page in the final page of your paper and starts with the heading “References” centered, and at the top of the page. It is upper and lower case, not underlined or bold, and without a colon at the end. All of the references are listed in alphabetical order, still double spaced, but left justified with a 1/2 inch “hanging” indent. A single reference has the heading singular without the “s” as “Reference”. Note below in the references that the title of our text is in italics and only the first word is capitalized, or proper nouns, or after a colon. Also, “[w]rite out the names of associations, corporations, and university presses, but omit superfluous terms such as Publishers, Co., and Inc., which are not required to identify the publisher” (APA, 2010, p. 187).

I hope this short sample paper is useful in getting you on your way to writing papers in APA format. We’ve discussed the cover or title page, font type and size used, setting up a proper header, the three basic parts of a paper, two different ways to format quoted material, and explained references. Whenever you have questions about APA, the Writing Center from the left of the classroom will have the answers. Also be sure to view the tutorials from the Ashford Library, likewise from the left of the classroom.

This layout was created using APA writing software supplied by perrla.com.

References

Rogers, S. (2012). Essentials of business law [Electronic version]. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/