Running head: MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE

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MGT 6351 Guide to Writing the Research Paper UHV School of Business Administration and UHV Academic Center! University of Houston- Victoria

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE Table of Contents Introduction ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... Relationship between the MBA and the Academic Center............................. The Academic Center's Role in Writing Assistance.............................. Academic Center's Three-Submission Process for MGT 6351 Academic Integrity ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Plagiarism Defined ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Importance of Avoiding Plagiarism in Western Scholarship......... Tips to Avoid Plagiarism................................................ ... Section 1: Getting Started ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Developing a Topic Seeking Topic Approval from Your Instructor ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... Writing Proposals Common Problems with Topics Researching Your Topic ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ....... Introducing the VC/UHV Library ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... Developing a Search Strategy ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... Considering Your Audience and Joining the Scholarly Conversation Formulating a Thesis Statement Section 2: Writing Your First Draft Developing an Introduction ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... U sing Your Outline to Develop Topic Sentences and Your Paper. .. ... ... ... ... ... ... U sing and Incorporating Research ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... Understanding the Difference: Scholarly versus Non-scholarly Sources Using Source Material In-text Citing Using APA Format ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... Relationship Between In-text Citations and Reference Pages. .. ... ... ... ... Checking for Discrepancies. .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Developing a Conclusion ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... Submitting Your First Draft to the Academic Center. .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Section 3: Revising Your First Draft and Submitting Your Second Global Revising Checking the Relevance of Topic Sentences ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Checking the Concluding or Transitioning Sentences Checking the Overall Meaning of the Paper ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... Using Feedback from Others Submitting Your 2nd and Other Drafts to the Academic Center Section 4: Revising Your 2nd and Other Drafts ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... Checking for Readability and Style Grammar ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... Inclusive Language ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... 4 4 5 6 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 19 21 23 23 25 26 26 27 28 29 30 30 30 31 31 32 33 33 34 34 35

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MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE Point of View ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... Punctuation ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Spelling............................................................................. Voice ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... Checking the Layout......................................................................... Font Style/Size..................................................................... Margins and Line Spacing Pagination Justification and Indentation Section 5: Preparing and Sending the Final Draft............................................... Preliminary Pages ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... Title Page ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Ab stract ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... Body of the Document ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... Documentation Style ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... Headings ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... Figures/illustrations/diagrams Tables Footnotes/ endnotes ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... Afterparts ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... References List Appendices (if applicable) Submitting the Final Draft to the Academic Center 35 35 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 37 37 37 37 37 37 38 38 38 39 39 39 40 40

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References ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 41 Footnotes............................................................................................. Appendix A: Sample MGT 6351 Forms Related to the Three-Submission Process Appendix B: Sample Title Page Appendix C: Sample Abstract Appendix D: Sample Reference Page 42 43 45 47 .49

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE MGT 6351 Guide to Writing the Research Paper

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Welcome to a student's guide to writing the MGT 6351 research paper. This guide walks you through the process of writing the paper and serves as a supplement to assignments and other information from your MGT 6351 instructor. Its purpose is not to be comprehensive in nature, but rather to introduce you to some important issues that you'll need to consider as you write your paper and to provide some information about the Academic Center and its unique relationship to MGT 6351. If you've written many research papers, some of this information may not be "new" to you, but we encourage you to read through the entire guide as a way to refresh your memory. In this introductory section of the guide, we'd like to provide some additional information about the relationship between the MBA program and the Academic Center, the Academic Center's role in writing assistance, the three-submission process for MGT 6351, and finally some information about academic integrity, the cornerstone of research. After the introductory section, you'll find six main sections of the guide that walk you through the writing process from getting started (Section 1) to preparing and submitting the final draft (Section 6). Relationship Between the MBA Program and the Academic Center In 2002-2003 when the School of Business was in the process of developing the expansion of the MBA program, the school asked the Academic Center to become an embedded component within two important courses: MGT 6351 and MGT 6359. Since the Academic Center's goal is to aid in the professional development ofURV students and because it had built very similar relationships with other programs in the university, it welcomed the opportunity.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE In MGT 6351, this embedded component takes two very different forms: writing assistance and a final assessment, during which Academic Center personnel assess research papers in MGT 6351 for certain, very specific errors in grammar and AP A format.

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The two things the Academic Center was asked to do (writing assistance and assessment) are essentially very different processes. Writing assistance, commonly referred to as tutoring at UHV, is a collaborative and developmental process in that it takes place during the composition process. By developmental process, we don't mean remedial, however. Writing assistance, or tutoring, is intended to encourage all writers to analyze and improve their own writing process and strategies-during the process itself. The assessment, on the other hand, is not collaborative,

nor is it developmental in the same sense. Its purpose is to measure the success of some aspect of the final product, which in this case is how the paper performs in two very specific and contained areas: certain rule-bound grammar issues and AP A format. The next two sections discuss the Academic Center's participation in this embedded writing component for MGT 6351 on the practical level. The Academic Center's Role in Writing Assistance Since its inception in 1982, writing assistance has been an important part of the Academic Center's mission, taking the form of peer writing tutors who help writers identify areas in the writer's own writing that work to further the writers' purposes and alternatively to point out from a reader's perspective areas that can be developed further or to provide options for consideration. Academic Center peer writing tutors help writers at all levels, and their primary task is to provide you with an objective reader who will help you look at your own writing more critically and carefully. Tutors will not "fix" your paper or write any part of your paper for you.

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Tutoring is not editing. It is never intended to catch all the errors for the writer, much less to make the corrections. Writers don't improve their own skills when editors correct errors for them. Doing that would run counter to the ultimate goal of tutoring: to form a fluid and collaborative alliance with writers to help them become both independent critics of their own papers and self-reliant problem-solvers. For that reason, the responsibility for the final choices made in the writing of the paper must remain exclusively the writer's. Instead, tutors give you feedback as readers, letting you know if your meaning is getting across. They may also help you identify and correct grammar and style problems or issues. Additionally, they will guide you to relevant resources or materials that can be useful to you as you write and revise. Tutoring is not intended to ensure that you will receive a specific grade on your assignment but instead to encourage you to think about your writing in a more analytical and critical way. You are ultimately responsible for the quality of your final paper-from content to its documentation style. Academic Center's Three-Submission Process for MGT 6351 its

Students in MGT 6351 are required to submit their research papers to the Academic Center at least three times. Your instructor, working with the Academic Center, sets the three submission dates. For the first two of the three submissions, a peer writing tutor will provide feedback to you about the research paper in progress (described as writing assistance in the previous section). For these two submissions, a peer writing tutor will return feedback to you within ten business days of your submitting your document, date specified by your instructor.

if you

submit your document on the

If you submit the document after that date, your document

will be returned within 15 days from the date that you submitted the document (in other words, if you submit your document late, you may run up against another class's deadline and your paper

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE may be way down in the queue, and you run the risk of a longer turn around time. To put this another way, we will not tutor your document before students who did submit their documents on time-you will receive your document back later).

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The final submission will be the final version of your paper (the same version that you submit to your instructor for your instructor to grade and described as assessment in the section above). We do not return feedback on this submission, so you will not hear back from us. Specific directions about where to send each submission are provided in Sections 2 (Writing Your First Draft), 3 (Revising Your First Draft and Submitting Your Second), and 5 (Preparing and Sending the Final Draft). Each of the three required sessions will have a different focus, so we've compiled some general information about each submission here. On your first submission, which will likely be very early in the writing process when you are most engaged in getting your meaning across, you will receive constructive feedback from a tutor primarily about whether your content is meaningful and your organization is useful to your reader. During this submission, tutors will typically focus on the organization of the paperwhether you've clearly stated your thesis, whether new paragraphs or sections include clear topic sentences, and whether you have transitioned well between paragraphs or sections, though they may also comment on other issues. The focus will be on overall meaning. This kind of focus is most useful at this stage of the writing process. On your second submission, you will receive constructive feedback from a tutor about how to improve your paper at the sentence level. During this submission, tutors will focus on sentence-level issues (sentence sense and grammar, punctuation and mechanics) and AP A style. The tutors will complete a Grammar Error Analysis sheet on four pages of your document to

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE help you identify some of the grammar errors that occur within the research paper. Tutors will

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read and comment within the entire paper but will limit their discussion of grammar concerns to those four pages. The purpose of the Grammar Error Analysis Sheet (and tutoring) isn't to identify every error that occurs in your paper, but to identify the kinds and patterns of errors that you probably consistently make. The errors you make within that 4-page random sample of your paper are likely to be the same kind of errors made throughout the paper. On your final submission, Academic Center staff will complete an assessment of your paper. The Academic Center assessment is a static measurement of a product' s (the final paper's) correctness in just two areas: grammar issues that are rule bound (those that any knowledgeable reader would recognize as correct or incorrect-for instance, subjects and verbs must agree in

number, names of people and places must be capitalized, sentences have to have an ending punctuation mark, and so on) and AP A formatting (including the integration between the in-text citation and the reference list, the appropriate, and sometimes peculiar, use of punctuation and capitalization in AP A style, the appropriate heading style for the level of heading, among many other APA formatting rules). The Academic Center marks the grammar and AP A errors where they occur in the paper, records them on the assessment sheet, and sends both to the MBA Program Director. At that point the Academic Center no longer has access to your final assessment, so it cannot answer questions about it. The Academic Center does not score your paper in any way; it merely marks the number of errors that occur in certain grammar and AP A categories, and the course instructor converts that number into a meaningful score that becomes part of your grade. As a matter of policy, the Academic Center will not comment on either an instructor's grading process or a student's grade.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE Academic Integrity

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Your research paper for MGT 6351 is a scholarly document and requires that you adhere to the highest levels of academic originality and honesty. All scholars should be scrupulous in their handling of both their own and others' research. Academic integrity is the responsibility of every researcher and involves several considerations: managing primary research in an ethical way, acknowledging the work of others, and complying with copyright laws, among other things. Researchers who draw upon the works of others are expected to maintain high standards of ethical scholarship. Such principles as taking responsibility for the quality of one's own work and crediting others for their work are fundamental. This section defines plagiarism and indicates its

consequences, offers a brief discussion of the importance of avoiding plagiarism to Western scholarship, and discusses a few techniques to avoid it. Plagiarism defined. Plagiarism is the use of information (words, sentences, and/or ideas and even the structure of sentences and/or ideas) from another source that is not properly credited. Plagiarism may be unintentional and may occur even if a source is credited but is done so improperly. The UHV Student Handbook (2004-2005) indicates, " ... no one should claim credit for the work of others, misrepresent or misappropriate the work of others, or try to gain unfair advantage over others" (p. 39-40). The UHV Student Handbook is available at

All plagiarism, even if unintentional, can result in serious consequences. Essentially, plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty with disciplinary actions ranging from a reduced grade for the assignment or for the course to expulsion. Remember, it is your responsibility to be conscientious about avoiding plagiarism.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE Importance of avoiding plagiarism in Western scholarship. Avoiding plagiarism is not just an obligation, though. In the English-speaking world, proper citation methods serve to validate your place as a participant in the discipline or the profession. As a professional you become a member of a community whose interests, methods and values have a certain commonality, and one of those values is the recognition of the work of other members of the community who have gone before you. When you conduct research and cite the sources you use by the methods your

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professional community values, you are indicating not only that you respect the work of others in the community but also that you are familiar with and understand the knowledge core in your field. In addition, you indicate that you can manipulate that knowledge core, synthesize it, and generate new knowledge with it. In other words good research opens a place for you in the community dialogue and gives you the right and authority to speak. You create your place as a colleague in the profession partly by the strength and integrity of your scholarship. Tips to avoid plagiarism. The Academic Center suggests the following techniques to help writers avoid plagiarism. 1. Take careful notes when you research, and clearly document whether you've directly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized the material in your notes. Avoid copying and pasting from electronic sources. 2. Keep photocopies of each source for easy reference. 3. Borrow from the source correctly. Be fair to the source's ideas and position. 4. Credit the source of any ideas, whether directly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized in your paper. Paraphrase and summary require a different kind of citation than quotation does.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE 5. Make sure all cited information has an entry in your reference page(s). 6. Give an adequate signal to your reader to show you are using someone else's words or ideas and to provide a boundary between sources of material. 7. Review your paper and consider your use of documentation carefully. 8. When in doubt, cite.

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More information about academic dishonesty is available in the UHV Student Handbook, and information about avoiding plagiarism is available from the Academic Center. Writers are expected to make appropriate attributions to others for their work. Plagiarism is not only an affront to good scholarship, it is also unethical and illegal. Section 1: Getting Started Section 1 aims to get you started in the writing and researching process, so it begins by suggesting some ways you might develop a topic for your research paper. You'll also find information about the need to seek approval from your instructor for your topic and some introductory information about the VC/UHV Library. The last subsections within section one deal with considering your audience and joining the scholarly conversation of your field and formulating a working thesis statement. Developing a Topic Some writers find developing a good topic to be the most difficult part of the writing process, while others have trouble narrowing down the topics they want to write about to one that is manageable within a given space or length. One very effective way to come up with a topic is to read in your field. You can gain inspiration even from your textbooks (although textbooks aren't appropriate sources for your research paper, they can be useful in generating ideas). At some point very early in the process, though, you'll want to spend some time looking

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE for and reading scholarly sources of information. Reading these articles can help you come up with a topic, but they are especially useful in developing topics to the right extent. You want a

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topic appropriate for the page requirement your instructor has given you: narrow enough so that you can explore the topic in enough depth to be useful and convincing to a professional in your field. You can also brainstorm, free write, talk with others (instructors, librarians, etc.), create lists, outline, or start a research journal (or consult an ongoing one if you already have one started). You'll also need to follow any guidelines your instructor gives you concerning your topic. Most likely, you will be expected to develop a narrow topic within the management field. Seeking Topic Approval from Your Instructor Your instructor will likely want to approve your topic before you begin extensive researching and writing (obviously, it's likely that you'll have to complete some preliminary research as you develop a topic so that you ensure that the topic has been explored in the literature ). Your instructor may require you to submit a formal proposal or may only require an email message. You'll want to check with your instructor for his or her written guidelines for topic approval. Writing Proposals If you are required to write a proposal, it is your formal request to complete research. Essentially, the proposal is a statement of intention about what you are trying to achieve in your research on a chosen topic. The rationale for the proposal is to make sure that you are on the right track (in other words, that your statement of the problem is narrow enough to meet the deadlines, that you have reviewed the availability of scholarly literature in your topic, and that

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE you are aware of the delimitations in that topic). When you complete the proposal, you should have completed the introductory part of your paper, have a plan for completing the rest of your paper, and have a preliminarily list of scholarly sources. Dr. Sardessai indicates that proposals usually
1.

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Make a statement of the problem and describe the problem or issue that you are researching (may be one or two paragraphs). This step enables you to narrow the topic

and know exactly what it is you are trying to achieve. Given the semester deadlines and time frames, having an appropriately narrow topic is extraordinarily important. It will save you time, and you will be more effective. It is in this step that you should be able to come up with a succinct title of the paper.
2.

Discuss the topic's importance within the context of the discipline. Discuss what the experts, researchers, and thinkers in the area you have chosen have to say about it. Bring out the salient features of your topic and show its relevance in terms of current literature, environment and practices (one paragraph). You may also discuss trends in your topic. This step will prepare you to develop the body of your paper, as it will expose you to the critical scholarly literature in the area of your topic.

3.

State the importance of the problem or issue you are researching (one paragraph). This step together with step #2 will enable you to undertake the literature search and prepare you in developing the findings and/or making conclusions and recommendations.

4.

Include a short list of references that you have used to develop your problem statement. This list of references also shows that you have explored (or at least begun to) the availability of scholarly literature.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE The entire research proposal should not be more than 2 pages. An effectively developed

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proposal should significantly narrow the research topic, build in focus, effectively complete your introduction to the paper and significantly enhance the quality of your research paper. Common Problems with Topics According to Dr. Chun-Sheng Yu, the following are common problems with paper topics (and by association, proposals): 1. The topic is not MGT/OB focused. You are expected to focus on a small topic in the MGT and the OB areas at the micro level (individual or group level). Although marketing or cost management, for example, is management related, they are not management focused. 2. The topic is too broad. You are not supposed to discuss everything from A to Z or write a comprehensive manual. You need to try your best to narrow your topic down to a manageable scope in order to achieve depth in your paper. "Teams," for example, is a topic for a book. "Virtual teams" is still too broad as a topic of a term paper. "Trust in

virtual teams" is better because it is more specific, more focused, though it can still be narrowed down further (like "Trust in virtual teams in multinational firms"). Notice, though, that these are still topics and still need to develop into a thesis statement. 3. Content is not academic. You are not supposed to write a professional/practical paper,

which presents mostly "how to do." You are writing a research paper. You are expected to do a thorough literature review on a focused topic. Your task is to summarize and present different studies, different results, different arguments and different opinions from all the influential research work done on this topic.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE 4. References are inferior in quality. Quality of the references cited is an important factor determining the quality of your paper. Citations from professional or trade journals or online papers usually do not provide as solid support as those from research articles in

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quality, peer-reviewed academic journals. The more academic the journal, the higher the quality of the articles in it, and the more authoritative it is for supporting the arguments in your paper. Therefore, try to find references from articles published in the refereed quality management journals. Researching Your Topic We've already mentioned how important we think researching is-it should be part of

developing your topic. In this sub-section, we'd like to introduce you to an important resource, the VC/UHV Library, and talk about developing a search strategy. Introducing the VCfUHV Library. The VC/UHV Library serves students at UHV and Victoria College. The VC/UHV Library has a nicely organized website with many features at When you visit the VC/UHV Library's website, notice you can choose "Business" on the home page in the "Start Research Here" section. If you choose "Business" from that list, you will have a list of library resources available in that subj ect, including the Business Source Complete database. If you're not in Victoria, you have additional options for accessing library services, including "virtual libraries" at Sugar Land and Cinco Ranch. These virtual libraries allow you to access material from the VC/UHV library without driving to Victoria. For more information, please visit (Sugar Land) or (Cinco Ranch).

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE Finally, we encourage you to visit the VC/UHV Library's page about services for distance education students at

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Developing a search strategy. Now that you know where you can search, you'll want to develop a search strategy. You may want to start by jotting down some answers to the following questions. • What unique words are associated with your topic? (Include here abbreviations or acronyms.) • • What have other scholars said about your topic (both those you agree and disagree with)? Who (individuals, organizations, societies) or what Gournals, magazines, databases) can you think of that might have information about your topic? • What words are likely to be found in the documents you are searching for? Or what key words will you need to use in your searches? (Another way of thinking about this question is what "buzzwords" or phrases are common in your topic area. Include here as many synonyms for these words as you can think of.) You now have a preliminary list of ideas with which to begin searching. You may not be able to answer all of these questions. That's okay. The list has helped you identify what you do know and what you need to learn. Do you need to learn about your topic or does your topic need to be narrowed? If so, you may want to look through encyclopedias, magazine articles, bibliographies, handbooks, and both generalized and specialized reference works. Generally, these sources won't be appropriate to base your argument on or to cite in your paper, but they will help you have a fuller understanding of your topic, which is important for you to narrow it.

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Do you need to deepen your understanding of your topic and develop specific questions that you can research further? During general research, you'll look through books, general interest journals and magazines, and Websites. These sources may provide you with an understanding of the scope of the subject and provide ideas about specific aspects of the subject you might want to pursue. For instance, you might start by researching the topic of business ethics. Upon reading in general sources you might decide to narrow to ethics in hiring practices as they relate to some segment of the population-CEOs, women, people with disabilities, etc. These sources mayor

may not be appropriate for including in your paper; you'll have to decide on the appropriateness of including the source for your subject, audience, and purpose. Section 2 in this guide also provides some information about scholarly versus non-scholarly sources. Are you ready to begin assembling a set of appropriate sources for your research paper? During specialized research, you'll examine scholarly articles from appropriate peer-reviewed journals, databases, government documents or special collections, and online indexes. Considering Your Audience and Joining the Scholarly Conversation In any communication situation, the expectations, values and needs of the audience will, in large part, determine all aspects of your message: you can only accomplish your communication purposes by meeting the requirements of your audience. As a writer of an academic research paper, your audience is relatively stable and relatively homogeneous. Your

readers belong to the same professional community and the same discourse community (a group of speakers who have developed a set of conventions and channels for deciding who can speak and by what methods and means a communication can be transmitted). Your audience is roughly

identical to the audience being addressed in the scholarly journals you have been researching for your paper.

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As you research, notice that the scholars in your field are joined in a conversation, albeit a formal, printed one. The authors of articles cite other articles about the same or related topics-they argue, agree, extend the discussion, build on and so on with the authors of articles the

that have come before their own. Sometimes they deal entirely in theory-presenting

literature about a given subject or analyzing some specific aspect of it. This conversation, like any conversation, has rules, though. We've talked about one of these rules already-academic integrity. When you write for that audience, you're attempting to join that conversation, so you must follow the expectations, conventions and rules (from academic integrity to documentation style) of the conversation if you want to join it. Most of these rules you learn as you read, research and write. Indirectly, though, this guide does deal with some of these key features, including the next section-formulating Formulating a Thesis Statement The thesis statement is one of the most important tools for creating a cohesive paper. The final goal of the thesis statement is to clearly inform your reader about the purpose and direction of the paper. Additionally, the thesis can be incredibly useful to you by keeping you on track, or by helping you make conscious decisions about changing the direction of your paper. A thesis statement is the controlling idea for your paper and is that sentence or two in your introduction that contains the focus of your research paper and tells your reader what the paper is going to be about or what it plans to accomplish. It includes the main idea you wish to communicate, your attitude toward or stance on the idea, and your purpose. Generally, your thesis cannot be a statement offact (i.e. some managers adopt authoritative roles), but rather your thesis statement has to be an assertion about that fact in a very specific statement. a thesis statement.

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Let's look now at how a thesis statement can develop from a general subject to contain all of the characteristics above. 1. Hiring and maintaining executives. (general subject) 2. Effectiveness of stock options as a managerial compensation tool 3. The boards of directors at large, publicly-traded firms should consider methods beyond stock options to attract and retain high-level executives. (specific thesis statement) This thesis statement could be developed even further by naming the additional methods that should be considered. Though the thesis statement does not have a set place in the paper, generally the thesis statement will appear toward the end of your introduction but before an organizational statement. Like your paper itself, your thesis statement may undergo many drafts. The thesis statement plays an essential role in the paper, and it also guides the development of the paper. Let's turn now to writing your first draft. Section 2: Writing Your First Draft In section two, you'll learn about writing your first draft, including developing your introduction, using and incorporating research, developing a conclusion, and submitting your first draft to the Academic Center. Developing an Introduction Developing an introduction is one of the most important parts of writing your research paper because the introductory paragraph is the first thing that your audience will read. Often, introductions for research papers will have three main functions: 1) to express why your topic merits attention 2) to establish your thesis and 3) to explain the paper's organizational pattern. Expressing to your audience why your topic merits attention is important because it is the logical lead in to your thesis statement. This first function of the introduction is actually three

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE parts. First, you should discuss the negative impact that this topic might have or has had on organizations. Next, you might discuss the topic's increasing importance due to demographic changes. Lastly, be sure to explain how this topic is related to cultural values. After discussing these three main points that justify why research on the topic is important, you are ready to present a thesis statement. The thesis statement is the part of the introductory section where the three previously-

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discussed parts culminate. We've already talked about writing a thesis statement, but we should talk about how the thesis statement functions within your paper: 1) identifies your topic and 2) explains what aspect of the topic your paper will attempt to explore. The boards of directors at large, publicly-traded firms should consider methods beyond stock options to attract and retain high-level executives. Note that the example thesis statement above performs two primary duties. It identifies the topic of the paper-attracting and retaining executives, and it also explains the aspect of this topic that methods beyond stock options. It also indicates the writer's boards of directors should consider methods beyond stock

the paper will explore-different

evaluation or stance on the issue-that options.

After your thesis statement, the introductory section of your paper will feature an organizing statement that clearly identifies each main section that will be included in the paper. The organizing statement should be fairly easy to write if you have a specific outline. Just look at the major sections that are represented in the outline and briefly discuss them in the same order that they appear. This information will form your organizing statement. After including an explanation of why your topic merits study, a thesis statement and an organizational statement, your introductory section should be complete.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE Using an Outline to Develop Topic Sentences and Body In American academic and business writing, writers are encouraged to discuss only one

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topic per paragraph. Writers usually identify the topic for the reader in topic sentences. The topic sentence serves the same function in the paragraph that the thesis statement does for the paper. Therefore, after writing the outline, it is best to assume that each point on the outline will require a topic sentence and a least a paragraph to develop the point. However, topic sentences are used not only to introduce paragraphs; they are also used at the beginning of each new section to introduce the section and its main idea. Therefore, there will probably be several topic sentences within any given section; one will represent the main section; others may introduce sub-sections; and still others will represent paragraphs. Topic sentences should not only state a topic but also your point of view about that topic as well. Let's consider a vague topic sentence versus a specific topic sentence: Vague Topic Sentence: Companies should expense stock options on financial statements. Specific Topic Sentence: Since the use of stock options by corporations has come under intense scrutiny by investors and the general media, there has been a large amount of positive feedback for companies that elect to expense stock options on financial statements rather than use accounting methods to conceal their existence. With the specific topic sentence example, the writer expresses a specific point that the paragraph or section will discuss. This topic sentence shows a relationship to information that has come before (previous scrutiny by investors and media) and indicates what information this paragraph

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE will discuss (the positive feedback). In the vague topic sentence example, the writer has not given the reader a clear idea of what the paragraph or section is about. For each main point represented in the outline, a topic sentence should be written. Each of these topic sentences will represent a paragraph or section that will be written later on.

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Therefore, you should write one topic sentence for each main point that you initially represented in the outline. Keep in mind, however, that the topic sentence cannot function alone. It must function in the context of an actual paragraph or section; therefore, you may need to make revisions to these topic sentences as you develop the full paragraphs of the paper later on. As you write the paper's full paragraphs, the topic sentences' role in directing the paragraphs will become more visible. Let's take a look at an example of a paragraph with an effective topic sentence: Managers have a definite interest in reporting, exaggerating, or falsifying good news that has a positive impact on stock price. The motivation of management to report favorable results is not only tied to gains in the stock options that they own (if any), but is also tied into their future with the company, and quite possibly their professional careers. Bernstein (2004) states that when there is a significant unfavorable range between the levels of earnings in prior years and the current year, upper-level managers are in significant danger oflosing their jobs. Bernstein (2004) refers to a study by Graham, Harvey and Rojgopal that states "because of the severe market reaction to missing an earnings target...firms are willing to sacrifice economic value in order to meet a short-run earnings target" (p. 1). The study noted that out of the 401 high-level executives that were surveyed, a full 78% would perform an action to meet a short-term projected earnings goal that would be detrimental to the company in the long run. The immediacy

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE of short term results provides an attractive bait for management to disregard the overall view of a company's profitability.

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The paragraph above features an effective topic sentence that reveals the paragraph's main topic (managers have an interest in improving stock prices) and the writer's point of view about that topic (that interest can lead to reporting, exaggerating, or falsifying good news that has a positive impact on stock price). The idea that managers have a definite interest in improving stock prices and will report, exaggerate, or falsify good news to do so is this paragraph's controlling idea, so all other sentences in the paragraph will relate to that controlling idea. In this case, the other sentences provide documented sources to support the topic sentence, so the sentences do relate to the topic sentence. The most important thing to keep in mind is that the topic sentences should reveal the main points of each section, sub-section and/or paragraph to the readers. Furthermore, all of the sentences within a given paragraph should support that paragraph's topic sentence. Using and Incorporating Appropriate Research Understanding the difference: Scholarly vs. non-scholarly sources. Although nearly everyone knows that only scholarly sources should be used in academic papers, there are many types of sources out there, and it can become difficult to distinguish between scholarly and nonscholarly sources. Scholarly sources are academically reputable and feature quality information that is written by professionals in a specific field. In contrast, non-scholarly sources are popular with the general public and feature information that is usually written by someone who is not a professional in the field. Generally speaking, most academic disciplines require the use of scholarly sources when conducting research and writing papers. The table below briefly

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE summarizes information distinguishing a scholarly source from a non-scholarly source (Note: generally tables in AP A style papers are includes in appendices):
Table 1: Distinguishing Scholarly versus Non-scholarly Publications

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Scholarly Publications Publisher is a university, scholarly press or research organization. Authors are scholars, researchers and professors. Audience is an academic audience or an institution. Design is sober and serious; there are few (if any) glossy photos and advertisements. Articles are lengthy and usually feature headings. Articles use language that is specific to an academic field (technical terms). Feature a long list of references from scholarly and peer reviewed journals

Non-Scholarly Publications Publisher is a commercial publisher, interest group or trade association. Authors are freelance writers, journalists, staff members or anonymous individuals. Audience is the general public. Design is attractive and features glossy photos and advertisements. Articles are short and may include anecdotes. Articles use language that is meant for a general audience. Feature few references.

Two types of scholarly sources that you might encounter in your research are academic journals and professional journals. While both types of sources serve their purpose and can be used for your research, academic journals are generally considered more scholarly and are preferred. Let's take a look at how to distinguish between professional and academic journals.
Table 2: Distinguishing Academic Journals from Professional Journals

Academic Journals Depend on solid research through surveys, interviews, or experiments with statistical analysis. Readers are from academic or research institutes. Publish articles that focus on "why" or a relationship among variables.

Professional Journals Rely heavily on author's own observation or opinion without presenting statistics. Readers are professionals in the field. Publish articles telling "how to do" or "what to do."

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE Professional journals are often less formal than academic journals, but this does not mean that they cannot be scholarly sources for your paper. The sources mentioned below are divided into two categories, academic journals and professional journals.
Table 3: Acceptable Journals

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Academic Management Journals Academy of Management Journal Academy of Management Review Administrative Sciences Quarterly Journal of International Business Studies Advances in International Comparative Management Journal of Management Journal of Organizational Behavior Organizational Studies Organizational Science Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes International Labor Review Journal of International Business

Professional Management Journals Academy of Management Executive California Management Review Harvard Business Review Organizational Dynamics Sloan Management Review

The journals above are recommended by your instructors as high-quality sources to use for research in the field of business. Additionally, Appendix D provides a sample reference page with sample references-all scholarly.

Using source material in-text. In order for the paper to present your argument effectively, it must feature support for your thesis statement within the body of the paper (in text). This support for the thesis comes in the form of your own commentary, discussion, or analysis and source material. Note that commentary does not mean your personal opinion. By commentary, we mean analysis and discussion of source material. So, how do you find the right balance of source material and commentary? Included below are a few general rules to follow when writing your paper. Keep in mind that these rules are negotiable and may not be followed in all circumstances.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE • It is generally best to avoid using source material in your introductory and your conclusion paragraphs. • Each paragraph's topic sentence and conclusion sentence should consist of your own commentary rather than source material. • Most often, within each paragraph, commentary and source material should alternate. Unless the material is very complex, there should not, for example, be a chunk of five or six sentences that is exclusively source material or commentary. More often, one or two sentences of source material may appear and then a sentence or two of your own commentary will follow. Or, it may be reversed: a sentence or two of your personal assertions will appear, and then a sentence or two of source material will follow these assertions to support them. • When you use source material in the paper make sure that you use a variety of paraphrased information, summarized information and directly quoted material. Citing using APA format. American Psychological Association (AP A) style is the

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citation style that many major areas of academic study, including business and marketing, most often use to cite sources within their research papers. APA has some specific requirements which should be followed when citing sources. Specific examples of these requirements can be found on the Academic Center's website at and in the Pocket Guide to

AP A Style by Robert Perrin.
Relationship between in-text citations and reference pages. One of the most important things about using AP A style to cite sources is that it allows you to keep your sources

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in an organized list that is easy for the reader to view and access. This list will appear at the end of your paper and it is called a references page. A references page will list every single source that was cited within the text of your paper, including within any notes and appendices. It will not list sources that are not cited in text. After citing each source in the text of the paper, make sure that it has a corresponding entry on the references page. Therefore, while you may have several in-text citations for the same source, you will have only one entry for each source on the references page. This entry will feature information such as the author's last name, the publication date, and the source's title. For examples of correct APA-style reference page entries, be sure to check out the example references page in our AP A Quick Reference Guide online at You also should make sure you don't have sources listed on your references page that you haven't cited in text. Checking for discrepancies. After writing your paper and creating your references page, check and make sure that each source is cited. The easiest way to do this step is to read through the body of the paper itself with the references page held separate. When you run across the intext citation for a source, mark it off on the references page. If you note any in-text citations that are not used on the references page, list them on the bottom of the references page. When you are finished reading the paper, you will easily be able to see if you have any discrepancies. Sources that are written on the bottom of the references page need to be added to the references list, and sources that are not marked off on the references page need to be removed from the list because they were not actually used in the paper. This system works quite well as a final check for discrepancies when using AP A style.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE Developing a Conclusion or Final Section

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The final section of your paper consists of three parts: 1) conclusion, 2) future studies and 3) limitations. The conclusion part of this section does three things: 1) signals to the reader that you will be concluding the paper, 2) reaffirms the thesis and 3) summarizes the main points of your argument. Among the first decisions you'll have to make in writing your conclusion is how to signal to your reader clearly that you are, in fact, concluding your paper. The most common way for you to signal to your reader that you are ending your paper is to use transitional words or phrases, such as the ones included below. After all, as has been said, as matters stand, at any rate, even so, finally, for these reasons, in a word, in brief, in conclusion, in drawing to a close, indeed, in general, in other words, in retrospect, in short, in summary, on the whole, or briefly, such being the case, to conclude, to recapitulate, to repeat, to summarize, to sum up, we now see After signaling to the reader that you are concluding the paper, you will first reaffirm, or restate, your thesis. Then, you will remind your readers about how you have supported this thesis by briefly summing up the paper's main points. This part of the paper should consist of "fresh" wording. This means that information from previous sections of the paper cannot simply be cut and pasted into this section. Otherwise, the reader will quickly lose interest. After writing the conclusion, you should briefly mention any limitations that affected your research. For example, if there was little statistical data available on the topic you would mention it at the end of the paper. Next, discuss areas of future study on the topic. For example, if any questions arose in your research that were not answered in the research but could be answered by future research,

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE they should briefly be addressed here. Many times limitations will lead to future research

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questions, so these two areas may be interwoven into one solid paragraph. These questions help establish your credibility as a researcher and carve out a space for your paper in the ongoing research. Submitting Your First Draft to the Academic Center Although we've discussed everything from introductions to conclusions in this section of the guide, you aren't required to submit a full draft to us. The more you do submit, however, the more we will be able to help. Usually, you will need to submit a draft of at least 10 pages (or roughly half your paper) and a descriptive outline of your entire paper, but your instructor may indicate a different paper length for your first submission. The process of submitting your first draft to the Center is very easy. To send a paper for online tutoring, you must first register in WCOnline, our appointment system. You will register only one time during the semester, although you'll return to WCOnline each time you want to send a document for tutoring. Registration is easy. Just go to choose "Click here" to register. Once you've registered, you'll be able to log into the system using your email address and password. To submit a paper for online tutoring, choose a "Writing Tutoring" schedule (any location). Then, select Click here! where prompted. A form will appear in a pop up. Complete the fields in the form and attach your document at the end. It's especially important that you choose your instructor from the drop down menu and indicate which submission you're sending under the "What are you working on?" drop down menu. (Microsoft Word 95 or above is the preferred program for tutoring; however, you also may submit your documents in Microsoft Works.) Finally, click "Send eand

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Tutoring Request." You will receive a confirmation notice when we receive your email. Please note that you cannot send a document to us from within WebCT. You will need to allow approximately 10 business days for the document to be returned to you. During this submission, tutors will typically focus on the organization of the paperwhether you've clearly stated your thesis, whether new paragraphs or sections include clear topic sentences, and whether you have transitioned well between paragraphs or sections though they may also comment on other issues. The focus will be on overall meaning. Section 3: Revising Your First Draft and Submitting Your Second In section three, we'd like to talk about revising your first draft. This section offers some advice on global revising and on using feedback from others (like the peer writing tutors). Although this section talks in terms of what to do with your first draft, you may wish to return to this section at various points in your writing process, including after you submit your second draft. Finally, this section concludes in a description of how to submit your second draft. Global Revising Revising a research paper globally involves looking at the "bigger picture." It requires the writer to take a step back and look at the paper as a whole rather than look at the paper at the sentence level. When making global revisions, the writer should make sure that the paper includes a thesis statement. He or she must also check for cohesion among the paper's different sections. There are some helpful strategies the writer can use when he or she is at this stage of the paper-writing process. Checking the relevance of topic sentences. One strategy a writer can use when he or she is making global revisions is to ensure that the topic sentence of each paragraph in the paper relates directly back to the paper's thesis statement. In most cases, the first or second sentence in

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE a paragraph will be that paragraph's topic sentence, and this sentence should consist of the writer's own words and not those from a borrowed source. The writer should look at the information contained in each topic sentence and ask himself or herself, "Is this information

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related to my thesis statement in any way? If so, how is it related? Will the reader be able to tell that this topic sentence and paragraph are applicable to my subject as a whole?" Basically, the reader should be able to delve into each paragraph and understand, by means of the topic sentence, how it fits in with the rest of the paper. Checking the concluding or transitioning sentences. Writers can also review the last sentence or two of each paragraph to make sure that the paragraphs end or transition into another topic effectively. Like the topic sentence, the concluding or transitioning sentence(s) of a paragraph should contain the writer's own thoughts and words instead of citations so that the paper retains its author's personal style. When using this tactic during global revising, the writer should ask himself or herself, "Does this concluding sentence summarize the main idea of this paragraph? If this paragraph ends by segueing into another topic, will this transition be clear and smooth for the reader?" The reader should be "eased out" of each paragraph and should not be left wondering what might be next. Checking the overall meaning of the paper. Another global revision strategy writers can use is to take a look at the meaning of the entire paper. The sum of all the paper's portions should be equal to all of the variables included in the thesis statement. In other words, the reader should be able to tell exactly who the paper's audience is and what the paper's purpose and topic are from both the thesis statement itself and from the whole paper. Readers should not finish reading the paper and be left wondering to themselves, "So what?" The paper should have a great deal of meaning, relevance, and value to the writer's academic field.

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By using the techniques explained above, research paper writers should be successful at making global revisions to their work. At this stage, sentence-level issues should not be dwelled upon too much. Of course, if there are some recurring grammar issues that may hinder readers' ability to understand the paper's meaning, then these matters should indeed be addressed as soon as possible. However, the most important thing for writers to remember during global revising is that if the paper makes logical sense from afar, they may be ready to move forward in the revIsIon process. Using Feedback from Others Developing the habit of seeking out and using the feedback from readers during the process of writing is an important step in becoming a better writer in any situation. Professionals simply do not publish (in any form of publication) without asking someone to review the material for them. Even the professional journals you are currently researching have a mandatory peer review requirement, and the reviewers make the same kinds of suggestions and ask the same kinds of questions that the tutors will ask you during tutoring. One way to think about feedback is to consider it as usability testing: you want to find out if your document is usable in the way you want it to be. Reader responses are your most valuable test of usability. Consider the following tips for using feedback to improve your writing: • Get over the feeling the criticism is personal. It is an objective, analytical look at a work that is in process and an attempt to help it work better. • Pay as much attention to positive criticism as to negative criticism. Learn to build on the writing strengths you already have and make them even stronger. • Evaluate the quality and validity of the reader's response in terms of your own knowledge of your purposes and audience requirements.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE •

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Apply the reader's criticism throughout the paper, not just at the specific spot where the reader called something to your attention. It may be a strength or a problem in other places as well.

•

Pay special attention to criticisms that are repeated. They may indicate issues that are especially troublesome.

•

Understand that different readers may respond differently to the same text. They represent a range of possible responses and so may be able to offer you different perspectives and alternative solutions. This potential difference is advantageous to you.

•

Never apply a reader's suggestions without carefully weighing their effectiveness in light of your paper's requirements.

•

Apply what you learned from this experience to future writing assignments.

Overall, use the feedback you get to identify patterns in your writing that are strengths and those that are weaknesses and respond to them accordingly. Becoming a better writer is a lifelong endeavor and using feedback well is an essential component of success. Submitting Second and Other Drafts to the Academic Center You will need to submit a full draft, including your reference page( s), by logging back into WCOnline Remember, you should choose a "Writing

Tutoring" schedule (any location) and then choose Click here! where prompted for online tutoring. You will need to allow approximately 10 business days for the document to be returned to you,

if you

submit on or before the deadline. Section 4: Revising Your Second and Other Drafts

After receiving feedback on your second draft, your revising will focus on paragraph or sentence-level revisions. If you still have global issues to deal with, consider taking care of them

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first and referring back to Section 3 and the information on global revising. In this section, we'll discuss checking for readability and style and checking the layout of your paper. Checking for Readability and Style This section of the handbook makes some suggestions for appropriate style within the paper. It covers items such as grammar, inclusive language, point of view, punctuation, spelling, and voice. Grammar. Properly constructed sentences make your paper easier to read. Indeed, poorly constructed sentences impede communication, rendering the meaning of your sentences and thoughts ambiguous. We've compiled some suggestions for avoiding the most frequent mistakes in sentence construction. • • Prefer the active voice. (Please refer to the section on Voice below.) Make sure your subjects and verbs agree in number. Singular nouns require singular verbs, which often end in "s"; plural nouns require plural verbs. • Eliminate misplaced or dangling modifiers. Dangling modifiers occur when the intended meaning of a sentence is changed or is made unclear by the misplacement of phrases and clauses. Incorrect Ex: Having entered the theater, the music seemed to overwhelm me. [The sentence reads as though the music entered the theater.] Revised Ex: Having entered the theater, I became overwhelmed by the music. • Make sure your verb tenses are consistent and change logically. Tense indicates the time of a specific action or state as expressed by a verb and whether or not the action is ongoing. The three divisions of time-past, present, future-are shown by several tenses in

English. The three primary (or simple) tenses are the present tense, the past tense, and the

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future tense. The other three are secondary (or compound) tenses: the present perfect, the past perfect, and the future perfect. Avoid shifting tenses unnecessarily. • Use parallel constructions. Use parallel structures in writing words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. Sentence elements that serve the same function in the sentence should have the same grammatical form. To create parallel structures, nouns should be "balanced with" nouns, prepositional phrases with prepositional phrases, adjectives with adjectives, etc. Incorrect Ex: That architect's designs lack motivation, ability to have insight, and a desire to create unique structures. Revised Ex: That architect's designs lack motivation, insight, and innovation. Inclusive language. Writing should incorporate inclusive language that does not make an assumption about or misuse an individual's gender, race, age, etc. To illustrate the point, the following example does not use inclusive language because it makes assumptions about the gender of nurses: A nurse will spend most of her career caring for patients. The revised example uses inclusive language because it avoids the issue of gender: A nurse will spend a significant amount of time caring for patients. Point of view. Normally, in academic writing the third person is used. Second person (the use of you) is never appropriate (be careful to avoid using the second person inadvertently, i.e. in commands). Punctuation. Punctuation is very important to sentence rhythm and facilitates clear communication. handbook. For questions concerning punctuation, consult the AP A Manual or a grammar

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Spelling. Consult the Merriam- Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for questions concerning spelling. If the word cannot be found in Webster's Collegiate, check with the more comprehensive Webster's Third New International Dictionary. Voice. APA style encourages the use of the active voice. Active sentences generally make stronger statements than passive structures by placing the agent of the action at the beginning of the sentence. Active verbs force the reader's attention to the action and the person or thing creating the action, rather than make the reader wait until the end of the sentence to find out "who did it." To illustrate the point, the following is an example of a passive sentence: The window was broken by Jack. The active counterpart to this sentence is Jack broke the window. Checking the Layout This section of the guide deals with font style/ size, margins and line spacing, pagination, and justification and indentation. Font style/ size. Any non-specialty type font is acceptable. Times New Roman is recommended. For the text you should use a setting of 12-point font.

Margins and line spacing. Set margins of one inch at the top, bottom, left and right of every page. Double-spacing is the appropriate line-spacing, meaning one full blank line should be between each line of type. Pagination. Pages should be numbered consecutively beginning with the title page: Use Arabic numerals in the upper-right hand corner. Justification and indentation. Margins should be left-justified; the right margin will be uneven. Do not justify lines Gustifying makes all lines the same length). The first line of every paragraph and endnote should be indented five to seven spaces or 1Iz inch. The abstract

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paragraph is not indented. The entire block of text in a block quotation should be indented about
1Iz

inch (the first line of the quote is not indented further). Section 5: Preparing and Sending the Final Draft Chapter 5 provides a final checklist of sorts-it discusses the parts of a final document in

terms of preliminary pages, the body of the document, and appropriate afterparts to the document. Preliminary Pages You must include a title page and an abstract before the first page of text. Title page. Elements of a title page include a running head, title, author's name, and institutional affiliation. A sample title page is provided in Appendix B of this handbook. Abstract. The abstract of your paper is a brief description of your paper; it is not the introduction for your paper. It should be accurate, self-contained, concise, and specific. It should contain a brief description of your methods, findings, and conclusions, and it should contain your thesis. Abstracts are generally between 150 and 250 words. A sample abstract page appears in Appendix C of this handbook. Body of the Document When you check the body of the document before submitting the paper for the final time, you'll want to check your documentation style, your headings, your figures and tables, and any footnotes/endnotes that you include. Documentation style. The style and mechanics of the document should consistently follow the most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, which we've briefly discussed in Section 2 in this guide. The APA Manual can be purchased in the Victoria College Bookstore, with online vendors, and is available for review in

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE the Academic Center. You also may be required to purchase the Pocket Guide to AP A Style by Robert Perrin, which includes the principles of the AP A Manual in a more accessible manner. Headings. All headings at the same level should be grammatically parallel, and if you adopt a number/letter designation for headings, be consistent. How you format headings

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depends on how many levels of headings you need within the paper. All MGT 6351 papers are required to use headings, and most MGT 6351 papers use one or two levels of headings. If you've written an outline, use it to help you decide how many levels of headings you need. The title of your paper is considered external to the text and not considered a heading. If you need one level of heading, the heading should be centered and typed in headline style (upper and lowercase letters), like the heading for Section 5: Preparing and Sending the Final Draft above. The heading should be bolded. If you need two levels of headings, you'll use the heading that we mention above (centered, bolded, and typed in upper and lowercase letters) as the first level of heading. Your second level of heading will be left-justified, bolded, and typed in upper and lowercase letters (like Preliminary Pages and Body of the Document in this section). Figures. Generally, illustrations, diagrams, and figures should be easy to read and easy to understand. They should augment rather than duplicate the text, and you should refer to the illustration, diagram, or figure within the text. Figures, illustrations, and diagrams are formatted in a manner similar to tables. Generally, you'll need to number and provide a meaningful name for these items. They should be located on separate pages at the end of the paper. Tables. Tables can be an effective method of presenting data in a small amount of space. Generally, the table should not duplicate but supplement the text. Refer to the table within the text. All tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals and should be titled with a

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meaningful title. Each table should begin on a new page, and they should be located near the end of the paper. Footnotes/endnotes. Occasionally writers will need to supplement the main text of their

papers with notes. Often this material will explain some aspect of the argument, give a contrasting viewpoint, or provide additional bibliographical information. Every effort should be made to include such information in the text itself, but if doing so will interrupt the flow of the paper, material can be presented in a note. Since endnotes are often required by publishers, writers are encouraged to use endnotes rather than footnotes. Endnotes are numbered consecutively throughout the paper, and the notes are gathered together and presented in numerical order on a separate page at the end of the text. This page is labeled Footnotes and appears after the Reference page(s). Double-space the footnotes, including all bibliographical material. All bibliographical references made on the Footnotes page will be cited in alphabetical order on the References page along with the citations from the text itself. The References page and Footnotes page are numbered in sequence with the rest of the paper. Afterparts Afterparts to the paper include your reference list and may include an appendix or appendices. Continue your pagination on your reference page(s) and appendices. References list. Every source cited in the paper, including those cited in any notes or appendices, must appear in the reference list which follows the body of the paper. By the same token, all entries in the reference list must have been cited in the text, the notes, or in the appendices. References are presented in alphabetical order by author. The reference page

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE should be titled References. A sample APA style reference page is provided in Appendix D of this handbook. Appendices. Appendices may be used to provide detailed information that may be inappropriate to include in the body of the paper. If your document includes an appendix (or appendices), single-spacing or double-spacing may be used, depending on the nature of the material. Submitting the Final Draft to the Academic Center

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You will need to submit the full (including title page, abstract, and so on) and final draft to the Academic Center via WCOnline indicating that you're

sending the MGT 6351 Final Submission in the "What are you working on?" drop down menu. You will send the same version to your instructor at the same time (either electronically through WebCT or email or by turning in your paper). Follow your instructor's guidelines for turning in the paper to him or her. After the center receives your paper, it performs the assessment that we talked about in the introduction of this guide. Again, the guidelines for assessment are very clearly defined by specific grammar rules and the AP A guidelines, and the issues to be measured are things that are clearly right (by the rules) or wrong, so the chances of a wide discrepancy between assessments are minimal. In addition there are other safeguards in place to assure calibration between the assessors, including extensive hands-on training and collaboration between assessors and the manager and coordinator of the Academic Center if the issues are not clearly covered by a rule or if there is some doubt about the identification of the problem. In cases where the problem cannot be clearly defined by a rule or is not covered by the assessment guidelines the issue is always settled in favor of the writer.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE References University of Houston-Victoria. (2001-2002). Student handbook. Office of Student Relations. Retrieved 8/25/05 from http://www.uhv.edu/pdf/StuHandbook2004-05.pdf

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MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE Footnotes

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1

Contributing Writers (Alphabetically): John Davis, Academic Center Peer Writing

Tutor; David Felts, Academic Center Lead Peer Writing Tutor; Sandra Heinold, Academic Center Manager; Summer Leibensperger, Academic Center Coordinator; Candice Chovanec Melzow, Academic Center Lead Peer Writing Tutor; Ron Sardessai, Professor of Business AdministrationlManagement; Kelli Trungale, Academic Center Peer Writing Tutor; Chun-Sheng

Yu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Management.

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Appendix A: Sample MGT 6351 Forms Related to the Three-Submission Process

Grammar Error Analysis Sheet: Tutorial
Student's Name: Date of Tutorial: Tutor's Name: Length of Paper (Number of Pages): Section Number:

Description of Grammar Error Analysis Sheet: The goal of this analysis sheet is to show the most common (not necessarily all) grammar errors that occurred in your research paper by looking at a sampling of the research paper. To complete the analysis sheet, we looked at pages 4-7 of your paper and made extensive comments within the document you submitted, noting when you made a grammar error. Remember the goal of tutoring is not to identify every error that occurred in your entire paper but rather to help you identify areas of concern so that you may look at your writing more carefully. By looking at the four pages that were commented on, as well as reading the related resources, you will be able to correct your grammar errors in pages 4-7 of your paper. More importantly, you will identify grammar errors that you make often and will be able to identify and correct your own grammar errors in the rest of the paper. Remember that this grammar error analysis sheet will be completed once during your second tutorial (this submission) and again as part of the final assessment process.

Error Type
Fragments, Comma Splices, Run-ons Agreement (incl. subject/verb) Pronouns Issues (agreement, clarity) Verbs (tense, aspect) Capitalization Errors Comma Errors Apostrophe Errors Semicolon/Colon Errors Hyphens and Dashes End Punctuation & Quotation Marks Spelling/T ypos Inclusive Language Misuse of Articles/Prepositions Word Form/W ord Choice Faulty Comparison Misplaced PartslDangling Modifiers Parallelism Unnecessary Shifts Passive Voice

Number of Errors

Related AC Links, if available http://www .uhv. edu/ac/ grammar/fragments .aspx;http://www .uhv. edu/ac/ grammar/commas .aspx http://www.uhv.edu/ac/grammar/subiectl.aspx http://www .uhv. edu/ac/ grammar/pronoun.aspx

http://www .uhv. edu/ac/style/inclusive.aspx http://www .uhv. edu/ac/efl/articles .aspx http://www .uhv. edu/ac/efl/prepositions .aspx

http://www .uhv. edu/ac/ grammar/pdf/faulty. comparison. pdf http://www .uhv. edu/ac/ grammar/ dangling.aspx http://www .uhv. edu/ac/ http://www .uhv. edu/ac/ http://www .uhv. edu/ac/ htt ://www.uhv.edu/ac/ grammar/parallelism.aspx grammar/tense.aspx grammar/active.aspx rammar/ df/re etition.redundanc

. df

Finally, we encourage you to calculate your error ratio by dividing the total number of errors by 4 (the number of pages) to get the number of errors per page (e.g., 20 errors -7- 4 pages = 5 errors per page.). To calculate the prospective number of errors for the whole paper, multiply the number of errors per page by the total number of pages (e.g., 5 errors per page x 15 pages = 75 errors per paper).

MGT 6351 Research Paper
Final Assessment Form Student Submitted on _ _

Grammar
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MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE

45

Appendix B: Sample Title Page

Running head: BOARD OF DIRECTORS'

CONSIDERATIONS

FOR STOCK OPTIONS

1

Considerations for Boards of Directors Concerning the Use of Stock Options to Align Management Actions with Shareholder Concerns John Doe University of Houston- Victoria

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE

47

Appendix C: Sample Abstract

BOARD OF DIRECTORS'

CONSIDERATIONS

FOR STOCK OPTIONS

2

Abstract The paper discussed three main aspects that boards of directors must look at in order to assess the effectiveness of stock options as a managerial compensation tool. The paper searches existing literature to consider whether stock options are effective at aligning managerial goals to stock holder concerns, concluding that stock options are not as effective as was previously thought. Further, the paper discusses potential abuses of stock options and then considers a sample of alternative compensation methods in order to maintain and attract qualified people to join a company. Finally, the paper recommends that boards of directors consider other methods to compensate management in a manner consistent with share holder values. Specifically, it suggests that boards of directions should consider nonqualified deferred compensation plans.

MGT 6351 RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE

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Appendix D: Sample Reference Page

Management considerations References Daily, C. M., Certo, S. T., & Dalton, D. R. (2002). Executive stock option repricing: Retention and performance reconsidered. 8-23. Griffith, D. A., & Myers, M.B. (2005). The performance implications of strategic fit of relational norm governance strategies in global supply chain relationships. Journal of International Business Studies, 36(3), 254-269.

19

California Management Review, 44(4),

Reed, R., Donoher, W. 1., & Barnes, S. F. (2004). Predicting misleading disclosures: The effects of control, pressure, and compensation. Journal of Managerial Issues, 16(3),322-336. doi: 10.080/18524563552365521

Wade, 1. B., Parac, 1. F., & Pollock, T.G. (1997). Worth, wards, and the justification of executive pay. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 18, 641-664. Wallace, W. A. (2004) Adding value through accounting signals. California Management Review, 46(4), 120-137. Yermack, D. (1997). Good timing: CEO stock option awards and company news announcements. Journal of Finance, 52(2),449-476.