Organization and Leader Analysis

Title of the Paper

Students in the College of Business often want to know how to set up their academic papers to make them look professional and to provide ease of reading. This is an electronic sample for academic papers written at WGU that contain references and citations that align with the “Big 4” (Author, date of publication, title of resource, and source or retrieval location). The sample paper also includes an optional cover page and table of contents. The purpose of the sample paper is two-fold: (1) to help students set recommended margins and spacing and (2) to provide examples of reference list entries and corresponding in-text citations for paraphrased, summarized, and directly quoted information from those sources.

For ease of readability and professional appearance, this paragraph provides several recommendations for formatting. The margins of academic papers are generally set at 1 inch, and each new paragraph usually begins with a half-inch indent. The lines are usually double-spaced throughout the paper, even on the reference page. The font size and style choices are also selected based on ease of readability. For instance, the font used in this sample paper is Times New Roman, and the font size is 12. Consistency throughout the paper is important, so make sure to use the same margins, line spacing, and font type and size for the entire paper.

To ensure that source information for all quoted, paraphrased, and summarized content is accurately and completely acknowledged, a variety of examples are given both on the reference page and within the narrative of this sample paper that include the author, date, title, and location of the referenced material. Here is an example of how to cite information from a WGU-required resource. The CliftonStrengths assessment provides a report of individual signature themes or traits. Intellection is one theme identified by the assessment (Gallup, Inc., n.d.). On the reference list for the Gallup source, the words “Student Name” should be replaced by the actual name of the student writer, as that is included in the title of the student’s signature themes report. The student should also provide a direct link (URL) to his or her actual signature themes document following the words “Available from” for the Gallup source. The following sentence provides an example of an in-text citation for information summarized from a general webpage that has no specific date of publication. Salesforce (n.d.) describes how its company helps a business manage its client interactions and relationships. Of course, there are many customer relationship management (CRM) software options.

Academic papers also often use headings to separate the topics for ease of reading and organization. The heading should be a short descriptor of the section. The task rubric aspects may be conveniently used as headings for the different sections of the paper. For instance, a heading style like the one above may be useful for dividing a paper into sections based on content requirements. In this sample paper, the words “Heading” and “Subheading” are used, but more specific words are recommended if headings are included. Note that not all written tasks will have headings or subheadings in them. For instance, some performance assessments are business communication tasks, like emails, blog posts, and business letters. Those would follow the conventions for their individual type of writing.

To be sure that an in-text citation corresponds to the reference list entry for that source, the writer will name the author and date within the text of the paper. Source information is accurately and completely acknowledged, as required by the task rubric, when the writer lets readers know the author and the date of publication for any outside information. Notice how the next sentence introduces the author and date of publication at the beginning of the sentence to let the reader know that the information that follows has been summarized or paraphrased from the source by that author. Aalateeg (2017) summarized the differences between leaders and managers. Readers can find the corresponding entry on the reference list; both author and date should match. The author continued later in the article to discuss several leadership theories. In the following sentence, the quoted material is acknowledged at the end of the sentence. Transformational leadership “does not place major emphasis on exchanges or rewards within the system” (Aalateeg, 2017, p. 41). When using the exact wording (quoting directly), the borrowed language is enclosed in quotation marks, and in addition to author and date, the specific page number or the paragraph number is included in the citation, if the source does not have page numbers (para. 4). Every source on the reference list must be cited within the text of the paper, as this sample paper demonstrates.

The subheading above might be used if there are two or more sections within the topic labeled in a heading. This heading style may be useful if the task rubric has multiple sections under one aspect.

Here is an example of another sub-section of a paper that contains an example of how to acknowledge a source when the writer paraphrases information from a WGU learning resource ebook. Guffey and Loewy (2015) acknowledged that effectively communicating means delivering positive information differently from delivering negative information.

Included below is a sample reference page that provides specific spacing and formatting, geared to show readers where source material originated. The examples on the following page include examples taken directly from various WGU courses of study (journal article, assessment results, and course learning resource) and general webpages.

Aalateeg, S. (2017). Literature review on leadership theories. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 19(11), 35–43. Retrieved from http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/Vol19-issue11/Version-3/E1911033543.pdf

Gallup, Inc. (n.d.). Student Name: Your signature themes. Available from URL