Writing Resources
This section discusses APA, introduces academic writing and provides links to rubrics, templates and guides designed to improve student effectiveness.
Contents |
Use of APA
- APA Style Guide. The Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies uses the format of the American Psychological Association (APA) as included in the Publication Manual, Fifth Edition. The APA Home Page provides additional information. A Sixth Edition is scheduled for release July 1, 2009.
- DPLS Style Variations. The Program has adopted several changes in APA that are documented in The Guide to Style and Mechanics, also referred to as the Red Book. A spiral-bound hard copy can be purchased by contacting the program coordinator at 509-313-3485.
- DPLS Checklist for Academic Papers. The Checklist for Academic Paper, Candidacy Paper, Dissertation Proposal, and Dissertation identifies some of the most common mistakes make by Doctoral students. Students are strongly encourage to use the checklist to review all papers before they are submitted.
Academic Writing
Doctoral students are expected to demonstrate excellence in academic writing. Gocsik and Becker provide practical guidelines.
- What is a Scholarly Paper? Based on the work of Karen Gocsik, Darmouth and adopted for the Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies.
- Becker, H. (1986) Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press (available GU Bookstore or BookFinder.com)
Rubrics
Papers are evaluated using three standard rubrics. Students must understand and master the competencies described in the rubrics to excel at scholarly writing.
Templates
Templates are MS Word files with about 25 predefined styles for headers, lists, references, block quotes, etc. Use of styles for headers makes it possible to automatically generate a Table of Contents.
- Template for Academic Course Papers.
- Template for Academic Course Papers and the Candidacy Paper With Table of Contents and Abstract. last updated on 2-12-07
- The Dissertation Template DPLSdiss62.doc
- DPLSdiss62.doc replaces DPLSdiss61.dot and includes corrections on the Title page to make Faculty lower case, adds space after block quotes, and the addition of new styles for the last item in block quote lists: "Block 1.5 List, Last in List" and "Block List, Last in List."
- These new styles add space after the last item in a block quote list.
- The instructions that had been on the first page of the template are now part of the White Book.
- Both the dissertation and the paper template use the same formatting styles.
- The White Book provides DRAFT instructions for use of templates, based on MS Word 2003.
- The Paper Format is a guide to the format of an academic paper and is an example of what an Academic Paper or Candidacy Paper should look like.
- But I've Never Written A Dissertation Before: A User-friendly Guide for the Preparation of the Dissertation Proposal and Dissertation (November, 2008). Referred to as the The Blue Book.
- MS Word Version of The Blue Book
- PDF Version of The Blue Book
- Spiral-bound hard copy can be purchased by contacting the program coordinator at 509-313-3485.
- University of Iowa, Introduction to MS Word 2007 Help for moving from MS Word 2003 to MS Word 2007
Updated 22 Sept 09 jb
