management

Here are the easy-peasy minimalist instructions for your graded written projects in this class. Follow these and everything will be fine (and easy to read).

On the First Page

On the first (title) page: the first line should include the Full title of your project; it should be centered, 12 pt, bold. The second line is your authorship line. Your name should appear in regular text (not bold). The third and fourth line are the Course title and the assignment name, respectively), and the fifth line is completion date of the project. These lines of text should be double spaced, with 12 pt above, 0 pt below.

Abstract

Lengthier projects should have an Abstract (same function as an executive summary) on the first page after the title page. Put the Full title of your project at the top of the page; it should be centered, 12 pt, bold. On the next line, type Abstract (centered, not bold). These two lines of text should be double spaced, with 12 pt above, 0 pt below. The text of your abstract should be a regular paragraph that starts on the next line.

Each Paragraph

Each paragraph should be double-spaced (just like this). The offset is 12 pt above each paragraph 0 pt below each paragraph. The font for text is 12-point Times New Roman.

That way when you hit return, it will add that space between this (above) and the preceding paragraph. Use “Keep with next” to keep the heading or subheading with the section or subsection that it heads (I did that for the above heading).

You may or may not have figured out that you can save and rename this document and it is formatted properly (use it!). I did not use Word’s styles feature, but you certainly can do so.

Bullet Points

Your essay may have some bullet points; format them like this:

· Bullets: Solid squares for bullets.

· Spacing: Double spaced, 0 pt above and 0 pt above each bullet.

If you have a list of items in text that make a list, serialize them using either bullets or lower case letters (e.g., (a), (b)) as in the previous paragraph.

Headings, Header, and Footer

Headings should appear like the heading above; capitalize major words. Double space, 12 pt above, 0 pt below. Flush left 16 point Times New Roman.

Subheadings

Subheadings should appear like the subheading above. Capitalize the first word. Double space, 12 pt above, 0 pt below. Flush left 12 point Times New Roman.

Header and footer

Your header should include the following:

· Title (or short title) in header flush left

· Page number in header flush right (same line as Title (or short title)

The header above is formatted correctly.

The footer should be left blank; the footer in this document is formatted correctly.

Documenting Sources: APA Style

We use all kinds of writing conventions every day, such as ending a sentence with a period.

Use APA style for documenting your sources in all graded written work in this course. APA style is nothing more than a set of conventions. The basic are really pretty simple:

· If you provide no citation for an idea, you are claiming it as your own when you write the paper and put your name on it.

· If you use anyone’s (other than your own) exact words, the quotation goes in quotation marks. In the text, you indicate that with the author(s)’s name(s) and the year of publication, e.g.: Weidner (2017: 3) wrote that, “We use all kinds of writing conventions every day.” Or “We use all kinds of writing conventions every day” (Weidner, 2017: 3).

· If you summarize or paraphrase someone else’s ideas, you need to cite their work and give them credit for it. In the text, you indicate that with the author(s)’s name(s) and the year of publication, e.g.: (Weidner, 2017).

· The in-text citations above for quotes (e.g., (Weidner, 2017)) or paraphrases (e.g., (Weidner, 2017: 3)) are markers – a trail of bread crumbs, really – that point the reader to the entry in your References list, which goes at the end of your paper.

· Do not use footnotes.

· Use a page break to start your References list.

The citation in the reference list contains all of the information needed for the reader to retrieve the referenced material.

· If you are using the library’s databases, you can most often download the citation information – in APA format.

· If you are formatting the references yourself, use apastyle.org, go the library (APA Publication Style Guide will be at the reference desk at almost any library in North America or purchase an APA guide (4/e or high is fine for our purposes here)

I recommend you check out My APA Primer (on the course website).

Multimedia

If you put any kinds of images, or multimedia in your project, insert it like this (centered) and give it a flush left title (note formatting):

Figure 1. Aussie with Admissions Plans (adapted from Weidner, 2917: 5)

If you’re viewing this document with formatting visible, you’ll see I used “keep with next” to keep the Multimedia heading, the paragraph, the Figure title, and the photo on the same page. If I hadn’t done that, the caption for the picture would have been separated from the picture by the page break (and looked awful, i.e., harder to read). I didn’t force this with a manual page break before the Multimedia heading, because if I shortened the text before Multimedia I might end up with a mostly blank page, when what I really want is for the text to stay with the picture.